5 Ways to Beat Stress

 

© Jamie Brelsford

Exercise

Exercise has been shown to reduce stress. From past experience, I’ve found that regular exercise doesn’t just beat stress, but has helped me to reduce stress. Things such as going to the gym, running or playing your favorite sport can get you moving and help relieve the stress.

Cut Back
This means, do less of things such as extra-curricular activities, even just short term. This allows you to focus on your school work and not be overwhelmed by other activities. If you don’t want to cut back completely, try just cutting down to one extra-curricular activity.

Meditation
Although not a method I’ve tried, meditation is often praised for its ability to reduce stress.

Renegotiate Deadlines
Where possible, speak to your tutors/teachers/lecturers and attempt to have deadlines moved. This helps reduce the stresses of one of our major problems as students – all the deadlines for things falling within about one week!

Take a Break
Even during the day, we can get stressed, do not just work through your breaks because you’ve got loads to do, truth is, you will become less effective the longer you work, it’s important to take short and regular breaks to keep your mind working best.

 

Of course, these suggestions are helpful when you are stressed, but the best method, would be to prevent stress altogether and take a long term approach to stress prevention.

I’d love to hear about how you all cope with stress, please leave a comment below.

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This is Carl Hickson’s regular “Tuesday Tips” column, writing on all aspects of student productivity to help you become a more effective and stress free student.