By Being a student feels like you have entered into a partnership with stress. It is a major part of students’ lives. Continuous exams, tight academic deadlines, long study hours, family and teachers’ expectations, not effectively managing time, and financial pressures make students overwhelmed and anxious.
However, students don’t take stress seriously, but the bad news is that it significantly affects their personal lives and academic performance. The good news is that some stress management techniques can help you manage stress levels, reduce anxiety, boost productivity, and enjoy a healthier academic journey.
In this blog, let’s discuss the top 10 stress management techniques that you, as a student, must practice.
What Is Stress Management?
Stress management involves utilizing techniques and strategies to manage your stress levels and learn how to tackle stressful things in your life.
It may seem to you that you can do nothing about stress because the assignments are piling up, exams are near, and you are not able to manage time for personal and academic commitments.
However, the reality is a bit different, and that is, you have a lot more control over your stress than you think. Stress management is all about controlling your stress and not letting stress control you.
It deals with taking charge of your thoughts, emotions, environments, and the way you handle problems.
Top Stress Management Techniques For Students:
1. Practice Time Management Like A Pro:
One of the biggest causes of students feeling overwhelmed is their inability to manage time. It is natural to feel stressed out when deadlines are near and the exam date has been announced.
But if you know how to mindfully utilize time, then you can change the game for yourself. Some tips for effective time management include: using planners and apps like Google Calendar, Notion, or Trello. This will help you to create study schedules.
Then, break your lengthy tasks into smaller sections so it is easy for you to manage and complete them on time. Another tip is to prioritize urgent and difficult tasks first; also, do not procrastinate and set realistic goals so you can easily achieve them.
The benefit of following these tips is that you will feel more in control, stay ahead of deadlines, and be more efficient.
2. Use Deep Breathing & Relaxation Techniques:
When stress hits, your body reacts instantly. You are not able to think clearly, your breathing rate and heartbeat increase, and you feel tension in the muscles. In such an intense situation, a fast way to be at ease is deep breathing. It helps your body to calm down in a few minutes.
Try the simple technique of the 4-7-8 breathing method. When you practice it, your nervous system relaxes, and your heart rate slows down. You can do it right before an exam or before your presentation.
3. Practice Progressive Muscle Relaxation:
This is also one of the stress management techniques for students that they can utilize during tests, before bed, or when they feel physically stressed.
It involves tensing and relaxing all muscles until the body is completely relaxed. Practicing this technique can make you learn to release stress from your body in seconds.
4. Guided Imagery:
It is an effective and helpful tool to minimize the stress of students. The visualizations can make your body relaxed by detaching your mind from what’s stressing you out.
To practice this technique, what you have to do is to sit in a quiet place, close your eyes, and think of a peaceful and calm scene.
5. Maintain A Healthy Sleep Routine:
Your body naturally demands sleep. Sleep directly affects how productive you are. Another major cause of stress is staying up late, scrolling through social media until 3 a.m. You may find all of this fun, but it’s not.
A lack of enough sleep affects concentration, leads to mood changes, and weakens memory. This makes the studying process difficult.
Tips to maintain a healthy sleep routine:
- Sleep at the same time every night.
- Aim for 7-9 hours of sleep.
- Avoid heavy meals and caffeine before sleep.
- Do not use any device before sleeping.
- Sleep in a calm, dark, and comfortable space.
When students sleep well, their mood improves, their memory sharpens, and they feel active.
6. Stay Physically Active:
Physical activity increases endorphins in the body. These are the natural stress relievers. And make you feel good.
Even a light walk can reduce stress, improve focus, and increase energy levels.
How to stay active?
- Walk 20 minutes every day.
- Simple yoga or stretching.
- Play sports like badminton, football, and swimming,
- Light dance.
- Cycling.
- Workout at home.
You can utilize the time of exercising as a break from studying. It helps to clear the mind and is one of the best ways to manage stress and burnout.
7. Stay Connected & Do Not Isolate Yourself:
A common habit of students when they feel stressed is that they isolate themselves from friends and family. They feel that they have to deal with everything alone. But let me tell you. To manage stress, you need social support.
With your friends, you must talk about how you feel, share your concerns, and let them support you. It minimizes the emotional burden on you.
Tips to stay connected:
- Spend time with family.
- Study with supportive friends.
- Consider joining student clubs or online groups.
- Seek assistance from teachers or mentors.
- Share your feelings with siblings or friends.
Just know that you don’t have to face everything alone. You must open up to your friends to feel lighter.
8. Develop Healthy Study Habits:
You might have heard the phrase, Don’t study hard, study smart. What does it mean? It means to study efficiently; studying with breaks, using the right techniques, and breaking larger tasks into smaller sections.
Healthy study habits help you to learn faster, stay organized, and retain information for a longer period. Some of the effective study habits include:
- Using the Pomodoro technique.
- Make notes in your own words.
- Revise on a daily basis.
- Utilize active learning methods: flashcards, mindmaps, and quizzes.
- Study in a quiet place.
- Do not multitask; deal with one subject at a time.
- Don’t overburden yourself and keep your mind fresh.
9. Keep A Balanced Diet:
For the functioning of your brain, proper nutrition is needed. You must not skip meals, don’t rely on junk food, and don’t take in too much caffeine, as it increases anxiety and reduces concentration.
As a student, healthy food choices include whole grains. Fruits, vegetables, fish, eggs, meat, nuts, plenty of water, etc.
Don’t eat oily and sugary foods. because if your body feels unhealthy, your mind can’t focus and function calmly.
10. Limit Screen Time & Digital Stress:
In today’s world, most of the time, students are using their devices. Sometimes they are using it for studies, and at other times they are just mindlessly scrolling. You cannot deny the fact that technology is helpful, but too much screen time can increase stress, disrupt sleep, and reduce productivity.
Therefore, you must set time limits for social media, turning off unnecessary notifications, using digital well-being tools, keeping your mobile out of the room when studying, and avoiding screen time in bed.
This is beneficial for mind relaxation and improves overall mental health.
Extra Tips For Students To Handle Stress:
- Practice self-care such as listening to your favorite music, reading something fun, spending time in nature, enjoying a hobby, watching a movie, etc.
- Seek professional help when needed, such as assignment writing help. They can help you with your complex assignments and simplify complex topics for you.
- Celebrate small achievements.
- Know when to say no.
- Avoid comparing your progress with others.
- Don’t look for perfection.
Final Thoughts:
In a nutshell, student life involves many challenges, i.e, assignments, exams, deadlines, and personal commitments etc. Moreover, stress is natural, but don’t let it control your life. You must utilize stress management techniques and learn how to stay calm, confident, and productive throughout your academic journey.
Time management, a healthy sleep schedule, exercising regularly, eating healthy, limiting screen time, and some other relaxation techniques will help you control your stress
Lastly, remember that your mental health matters as much as your academic performance.
