Gabi Pontell's Stress Management

College is very stressful for students because it is difficult to manage tests, projects, papers, and other school related assignments. Especially during mid-terms or final weeks, many assignments are due around the same date and often more than one test will be on the same day. I know that I personally stress about mid-terms and finals because it is an overwhelming amount of information that I need to know, and the test is a large portion of my grade. Frequently, the work is a lot to handle, and definitely causes me to stress. Fortunately, there are stress management strategies that all students can use to help reduce their stress. The strategy I tried first was the stress diagram.

Stress Diagram:

For this strategy, you make a list of five or more sources that are the source of your stress. On your pie chart, make five sections for each of your stresses. The size of each section of the chart is relevant to how much stress it causes you out of your five sources.

My Stress Diagram:

I listed my sources of stress as:

1. Exams/papers/projects due at same time

2. Family

3. Major

4. Classes

5. GPA

6. Not enough sleep

Now, the pie chart enables you to prioritize what is causing you the most stress, and addressing those first.

The second strategy I used was the 10-Minute Vacation.

The 10-Minute Vacation:

For this strategy, you get away from your work and can spend 10 minutes exploring on Google Maps, or on fun game sites, just two of many possibilities to use the time.

For the 10-Minute Vacation, I spent my time either on youtube.com listening to music, or playing a game online. It is definitely a good break from work because it takes my mind off the stress of the assignment and allows me to escape for 10 minutes. I often find that after the 10-Minute Vacation, I return to my work and I am able to focus better and get more work done. This is definitely a strategy I will use more often.