Tag Archives: stress

Time Management

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As finals slowly approach, I have often found myself stressed with school and sports. Balancing school, sports, and extracurriculars has proven to be a struggle in my life and many others. Learning how to manage time has proven to be a beneficial skill in life, but it is challenging to learn. 

Here are two ways you can master time management:

  1. Creating a To-Do List
  • There’s a reason why creating a To-Do list is so popular: using a To-Do list can help you keep track of homework, upcoming projects/tests, and chores around the house. To-Do list lets you plan your study time and mark what you complete. Using a list helps you monitor your assignments. A bonus is that checking off a task is a motivator to finish homework.
  • If you prefer to keep track of your To-Do list online, there are many websites (and apps) to do so. I enjoy Pomofocus; this website has a To-Do list and a Pomodoro timer. This leads me to my second point–use a timing system!
  • Benefits: Checking off tasks creates a sense of accomplishment, limits stress, and lessens procrastination.
  1. Utilizing Timing Techniques
  • A timing system allows for the allotted time of working and breaks. The Pomodoro Strategy arranges 25 minutes of work time and 5-15 minutes of rest time. This enables users to have time for work and breaks. Studies have shown that people with gaps between study sessions are more productive than those without. 
  • The Pomodoro Technique has helped me set realistic goals when studying by creating small steps that gradually build up to my main objective.
  • Benefits: Increases accountability, reduces distractions, and improves productivity.
  • An extra note: Looking ahead in the next week or two is essential when planning your study time. This can help you stay on top of upcoming tests and projects.

Final Notes!

Since I have used these strategies in school, I have never missed an assignment and had time to study for exams. Though these two tips seem like small factors in the large scheme of things, setting a To-Do list and timing techniques significantly improve time management.

Organizing your time is essential to being a successful student, employee, and athlete. Using these methods will help you maximize your productivity in a small amount of time.

Thank you for reading!!

– Gwendy M.

Tips to Stay Focused and Avoid Procrastination

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As a student, musician, athlete, and lazy teenager, I regularly have lots of work to complete. Sometimes in the past, it has piled up due to my astonishing procrastination skills, and I have had to complete it stressfully at the last minute, or not at all. To avoid this, here are some tips to stay focused on your work and to avoid procrastination.

1. Eliminate any distractions. Work in a quiet area and avoid listening to distracting music to maximize your efficiency.

2. Create work plans. To-do lists with deadlines are essential to getting your work done in an organized way, and setting a plan for how you will work at a given time is also important.

3. Take short breaks. To avoid getting burned out by huge workloads, take breaks to refuel your mind and body. However, don’t get carried away! Time your breaks and make sure you get back to work.

4. Reward yourself! To further motivate yourself, give yourself a reward for working hard for a certain amount of time, completing a task, or just being productive in general.

In summary, procrastination is a huge roadblock for productivity and focus. Luckily, we can avoid it with these helpful tips! Hope this helps!

-Lam T.

Coping with Stress and Emotions

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Lately, in my personal life, I’ve been experiencing a lot of stress and emotional mood swings, so I thought I’d share how I’m dealing with it. As a teenager growing physically and emotionally every day, I’ve recently been feeling a lot of confusing and unexplainable emotions. I’ve also been extremely stressed with school and the excessive workloads I’ve had to deal with, especially as the school year begins to come to a close.

With the help of all my loved ones, I’m doing much better now and I’m really enjoying myself amidst all the homework and stress. Without further ado, here are four ways to deal with stress and difficult emotions.

1. Write it down! When you are feeling stressed or confused, try writing it down on paper, whether it’s in a long paragraph of thought, a free verse poem, angry bullet points, or indecipherable scribbles. It feels great to release your thoughts and emotions, and you can really get creative with a pen to paper. Also, you can just throw away or shred up the paper later!

2. Talk to someone about it! One thing I’ve realized is that keeping secrets to yourself will not help. Bottling up emotions just consumes you and makes you feel so much worse, and you will feel disconnected or isolated from your loved ones. Mine have always been there for me, and I’ve found that they definitely have my back, and I can trust them and just have a nice long talk about my life with them. Talking to someone you love is a huge help.

3. Do something/find something you love! One of my favorite ways to spend my free time is listening to music. I love music because it puts me in a good mood and takes my mind off of whatever is going on at the moment. Do something that makes you happy, like reading a book or watching a nostalgic movie!

4. Don’t get distracted from your work! When you’re doing homework or trying to get something done, don’t let yourself be distracted. I’ve found that in the past, having my phone beside me when I’m working is an extremely unproductive arrangement. Every time I get a notification, I pick up my phone and can’t put it down for a long time. Recently I have been putting my phone far away from me when I work, and I’ve been so much more productive. Also, in the cases that I am productive and get a lot of work done, I’m really happy with myself and I allow myself to feel good and have a good day.

I hope this helps! Good luck!

-Lam T.

De-stressing without our phones

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As we continue into the school year, things are becoming more and more stressful, we start looking for new ways to take breaks. However, most often that becomes using our phones and going on social media. While this is okay to use, it is not something that should be our first and only resort. With so many other things to do nowadays, we should start spending less time on our phones to take breaks and more time doing other things such as reading.

I have recently started my senior year and with a free period, I find myself often with nothing to do once I get all my homework done. When I am stuck at school, I think that the only thing I can really use is my phone but that is not the case. I often forget that we have other things we can do such as reading. I know that often we think that reading for school is enough, but it is important to take time to read things that interest us personally rather than just for class.

So as we start to learn again, make sure that we are all taking the time we need to not only get everything done, but do things to destress that isn’t just going on our phone every time we get bored or want to procrastinate. So the next time you need a break, try going for a book rather than a phone. 

-Danielle B.

Movie Review: Bad Genius

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The film Bad Genius is a 2017 Thai movie filmed by Nattawut Poonpiriya and can be found on Netflix. There wasn’t much media coverage over this film simply because it wasn’t produced in the United States and therefore didn’t gain popularity outside of Thailand; nonetheless, it’s a cinematic masterpiece.

This movie is very unique; it’s difficult to find movies where you enjoy the stress and emotional rollercoasters. Although the movie is considered as a mature film, it’s an extremely underrated movie that holds a lot of meaning and can connect to students regardless of nationality. Every student understands the immense pressure of test-taking, especially for tests that can determine your entire future.

With a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, this thriller-type heist movie is based on a student named Lynn, one of the best in her school, who gets accepted into a private university. Her wealthy friend Grace is struggling with school and persuades Lynn to help her cheat on an exam in exchange for money. Realizing the amount of money necessary to financially support her family and attend university, Lynn begins making money off of helping kids cheat during exams, but another top student named Bank gets suspicious, Lynn and her friends get caught, and Lynn loses her scholarship. The other kids who were caught cheating then take revenge on Bank by leaving him injured in a junkyard, forcing him to miss his exam and lose his scholarship as well. With hope for their academic future low, Lynn and Bank work together in creating a well-thought out plan to help students cheat on the STIC (an SAT exam for international countries).

At first, the plot of this movie may serve as a bad example for students, but the movie includes so much more in-depth meaning. Nattawut Poonpiriya, provides direct references to the social class inequalities and corrupt systems found in schools, specifically Thai schools. Both Lynn and Bank are underprivileged and come from poor financial backgrounds; the only reason they choose to help their rich, privileged friends cheat is because they need the money to afford a good university.

The way they filmed this movie is innovative as well, adding onto the stress and tension during specific scenes. During their exams, viewers can see that the only nervous ones are Lynn and Bank, while their friends are simply at ease; in reality, intelligence and top grades can only get you so far without family connections and wealth.

Although the message is quite negative, the impact of the movie reaches its viewers in a different way. Not only is it an external battle, but also a moral dilemma between dreams and reality.

-Natisha P.

Stress to Service

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Stress:

Google says it’s “a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances”

According to psychology, it’s “uncomfortable emotional experience accompanied by predictable biochemical, physiological and behavioral changes”

And students agree stress is “AP exams, finals, CIF games and oh, those two projects I won’t be starting until the night before”

In the wee hours of the night, students strive to obtain the intense desire for success

And the wee hours of the night cook the perfect atmosphere for boiling stress.

A child, a baby: a mere fifteen, sixteen, seventeen year old

Persisting, working, sweating like a mule until their transcript shows all gold.

Who can expect a student to sleep eight hours a night but juggle five hours of work?

The expectations, I’d say, are more than enough to irk.

Every year the college acceptance rates drastically drop

And little boys and girls suddenly forget what it means to take a break

and just stop.

Tell me why students who sacrifice their health and sleep

Are still expected to be a lively teen and not weep.

Convince me that students are making the right decisions

In cheating on tests, just to get the “A” and fulfill their college envisions.

Persuade me that the education system is treating their students right

and brainwashing us to believe that a score of 5 is what makes us bright.

Let’s start to encourage using our passion and our voices

To stand up and help society make the right choices.

To be politicized and involved while we’re youthful, proud, and loud.

Time is running out, we can’t wait around.

Third world countries await our kindness, shelters demand our service, feminists deserve our support.

In all due respect, that is more important and influential than a chemistry lab report.

-Jessica T.