How I manage my stress at university.

So, workload. It can be a daunting thing can’t it? I’m not going to pretend I have gone through my course so far and not had any problems with balancing work, a social life and making sure I’m looking after myself.

This is why I am here to give you bits of knowledge and share my experiences, so that you can be more prepared and make sure you look after yourself in what can be a pretty stressful time if you aren’t properly prepared.

List: list, list & list

I am going to talk a little about how I cope with managing my workload. (It includes lots of lists so be prepared). It’s a simple system I run by, I look at what work I have to do and make a list of the tasks. I’ll write them down in order of deadlines, then I’ll look at the list and see if there are any tasks I can do straight away without doing any research or extra work.

For example, if I have to type-up about an exercise we did in a lesson, then I would do that as it doesn’t require any extra work. After I had done all those ‘simple tasks’ I would look at the rest of the list, I would see if there are any tasks I can break down into more manageable sections. For example, writing this blog, I broke this blog down into three sections; managing workload, outside work, inside work. 

This makes sense in my head as I find it a lot less daunting to focus on and do more small, single aimed tasks instead of one piece of work that focus on different areas. 

Doing this cuts down your list of pieces of work into a more manageable amount and means you can get through those ‘simpler’ piece of work which gives you a clearer mind to do the harder tasks.

Rest your mind

Getting involved in a society of any kind I believe is a huge help for de-stressing and has a lot of other benefits (check out my blog on why to join a society, if you like

Don’t do it alone

Although you might feel like no-one else is struggling with uni work, I guarantee there are others in the same situation you are. 

Finding a good group of people to sit and do the work with is another good way to get it done, even if you're not working on the same piece of work, having people there to run a sentence by or to get someone to check over an idea is really helpful! Just knowing you have people there in case you need them, is better than not having anyone around you who could possibly lend a hand.

Go outside

This one is probably going to split you, but I think working outside is one of the best things to do. Again, it probably depends on what you're doing and how the weather is (don’t go and work outside in the rain!) but for my course whenever I need to be creative or think of fresh ideas I always either go outside or sit somewhere with a nice view.

Just being in the fresh air with nice weather and having that view does something to my brain that springs fresh ideas on me. I was once sat next to the window in my old accommodation and it was raining heavily, an idea for the devising project we were doing just jumped into my head. 

I also had three pieces of work to do during last summer when it was incredibly warm and a group of mates and I sat outside on the benches in the grass, and apparently I am solar-powered because in a few hours I got more work done than I had sat in the library over a few days. It really surprised me how just being in the outdoors helped so much. 

Getting support

Last, but certainly not least, is the amazing work that the Wellbeing and Disability Service does for students. It’s located just around the corner from the library (ask at the iPoint desk if you are unsure) and they are always willing to do all they can to help out. 

As well as this, don’t forget to ask your friends and family, my mum reads over my essays just to make sure they make sense before I hand it in - so always just ask for help whenever you think you need it. 

If you would like to contact the Wellbeing and Disability Service, its email address is disability@hud.ac.uk