Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Monday Master Class: The Study Hacks Guide to Beating Student Stress
Study Hacks: "As the fall semester picks up speed, your workload is likely growing into something fierce. The optimism of the first few weeks — when assignments were light, beer always available, and plans ambitious — is starting to give way under the reality of conflicting deadlines and exams. To me, this is a perfect time to review some of our most effective stress reduction strategies. Attack stress now, before things get out of hand, and the rest of the semester can unfold without unnecessary pain."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
i find this article to be very unhelpful. It seems as though it thinks that you can just be less stressed by blocking time etc.... this usually makes me more stressed when i see how much i have to do and in how little time. Also, it suggests taking a break from activities. Well, that is typically impossible, especially in the middle of the semester. One can't drop everything because one is over stressed. More helpful ideas would have been a one minute relaxation guide or soemting of the sort.
This set-up makes so much sense. The best part is time blocking. Here at CMU with classes pretty much happening all the time there is already a frame work in which to stick small "classes" that are your study periods. Also reviewing everything on Sunday means you can actually untangle everything that you are doing and figure out where you are, what's left to do, and what you will do, and when you will do it. I think I will try this and I think it might actually work.
I started time-blocking this semester, and it does help a lot. Rather than just saying, "I have to do X Y and Z today," it's much more productive to pick a definite time for a definite activity each day. I think it also makes your workload seem less daunting; for example, instead of having three things to do in one day, you could have one thing in the afternoon and two at night.
its a shame the second half of that article can't be applied to any of us in the drama school. our course schedules are pretty well defined and it's impossible to vary them without making things worse for yourself down the line.
to the article's merit, it does offer some good tips for establishing routines for getting work done.
The part about time blocking brings up what I have found to be my major flaw as far as time management is concerned. I can never accurately predict ad of course always underestimate, the amount of time it will take me to complete a task. the idea of time blocks, and having a schedule that forces to recognize how long a task will actually take is something that I believe I could really benefit from.
I've found that the more I focus on how stressed I am, and trying to find a way to be less stressed the more stressed I become. Most of these techniques remind me just how much I have to do and how little time I have to do it in as well. I already budget my time, but that didn't help once my run crew calls started since you literally come off run crew either overly energized or dragging like a ship in shallow water. The one I was most surprised to not see on the list (I actually have a list of ones I'd like to see added to said list) was exercise in some way. Not only does that help relieve stress but it can boost energy.
Post a Comment