How to Not Let Stress Take Over

When I was younger and thought about my senior year in college, I envisioned parties, hanging out with friends, a light load of school work and time to just relax and go to the gym. My reality is entirely different. A week for me looks like three full days of my internship at Saturday Night Live, practicing for the November LSAT, LSAT tutoring in Brooklyn, getting a club started at my school, a heavy course work including my senior thesis, working on Law School applications, trying to fit in time for all the senior activities and working out? Yeah right. To say stress has become me would be the understatement of the year.

Sometimes it becomes too much. There are simply not enough hours in the day and when you have a list of things to accomplish long term and short term like I do, the weeks go by like minutes and months go by like days. There are two kinds of people in this world: those who thrive under stress and those who crumble under its weight. 60% of the time I am the former of the two, 40% of the time I am the latter. Maybe I am generally more prone to allowing stress to get to me or maybe it really is a lot to handle.

I’m not going to lie, I call my mom crying almost everyday. The stress seems overwhelming, like there’s no way I can do all of this, well, at the same time.  So I’ve concocted a list of ways I think will help you be productive under stress rather be overwhelmed by it.

1.) Make a list and cross things off.

This seems kind of obvious but it really helps. The physical act of crossing something off a list, stimulates the brain into productivity mode, tricking it into thinking you’re “on a roll”. Accomplishing tasks, though small, is an addictive feeling.

2.) Put reasonable tasks on that list.

Make sure what is on the list is actually something attainable within a day (if that’s the time constraint you’re looking to accomplish things by). For example on my long term list I have: 

1. Write my law school admission essay

2. Apply to law schools

My short term list is stuff usually to do by the end of the week like:

1.) Finish my essay X 4
2.) Beg all of my teachers for extra credit    
3.) Wash laundry

3.) Be okay with failure:

Not everything is attainable and assuming you won’t come up short at least once in a while is setting yourself up for some major heartbreak and makes stress 100 times worse. Know that it’s okay to fail, it’s okay to ask for help or an extension and it’s okay if you don’t get something right the first try. But putting impossible deadlines on yourself that are not humanly possible to meet, will never make you feel good.

4.)  Don’t spread yourself too thin.

Clearly I do not practice this tactic but I think it depends on the person. I am someone who needs to be busy so I don’t get bored with one thing. That being said, had I had a little more time in my schedule, I would be able to fully thrive in other aspects of my life. But hey, life’s short and there’s a lot to squeeze in.

Till next time,

Avery