Surviving a Stressful Semester on Campus

By Laura Steinfort

Has the stress of the spring semester gotten to you yet? Now is a good time to do a self-check to make sure you’ve established effective study habits to help you manage your workload. That will help to prevent stress and anxiety as the term progresses. Keep in mind that everyone handles pressure differently, so it is crucial to find what strategies work best for you. Here are some tips and options that can help you manage stress and maintain a healthy balance.

Prevent stress ahead: The best way to reduce stress is to prevent it. Therefore, it makes sense to set study goals and readjust your study plan as soon as possible. Additionally, to prevent common stressors, try to attend all classes, take notes and revise these as often as possible. Take stock of your participation in class discussions, and check the online portals and emails on a regular basis. 

Plan ahead and structure your workload: It makes sense to start with the work that is most urgent or important. One opportunity to confront stress is by making a study plan and organizing the workload to get a good overview. It really helps to break down your assignments and tasks into different subordinate goals, and this is especially helpful for projects that are of larger scales or are stretched over a longer period of time. The Eisenhower Matrix can be a nice tool to help you prioritize and distinguish between your different tasks, as it can guide you into separating work into urgent, not urgent, important and not important categories. But there are also other different tools that help you to organize your workloads like to-do lists, physical planners or some online apps. 

Planning will help to keep a good overview of your tasks, reducing the risk that something will be forgotten. In addition to staying on top of upcoming events and tasks, it also allows you to keep track of the progress you made, which can be rewarding.

Managing stress and staying organized are key to surviving a challenging semester. Find strategies that work for you to keep your balance and thrive on campus. (Credit: Pexels)

Time management: Stressful situations can be a surprising chance to work on your time management, helping you to learn structure, prioritize and be more efficient. Try to set deadlines and goals for yourself. This can either be in one sitting or several stages, also depending on the task you are trying to accomplish. It’s important to work with a high focus, and to be most efficient, you have to distance yourself from all possible distractions.

Avoid distractions: Find a space where you think you can concentrate best. This can be your dorm, one of the campus’ buildings or somewhere else. The campus offers a lot of places for you to learn alone or in collaboration with your peers — just go search for your spot.       

To be most effective you should not check your phone in the breaks or at least not enter social media. It will help you to concentrate better and focus on your task. By using boundaries to avoid overstraining yourself, it can be more rehabilitating. The Center for Academic Support & Enrichment (CASE) in Nexus can also help you to develop a sufficient study plan fitting to your persona. 

Take time for yourself: It is important to make time for your well-being and other activities, both alone and with others. You should use this as a way to separate from your stressful situations, taking a breath of relief. 

If you are searching for fun activities on campus to escape your dorm or learning cave just look at MyAULife or Adelphi’s tickets shop. There are always things happening on and off campus. 

Celebrate your wins: Don't forget to celebrate the small wins and progress you made along the way. Reveling in such gains is crucial to staying motivated, experiencing satisfaction and gaining new strength to keep going. Find something that is rewarding for you, like a sweet treat or an activity you want to do alone or with your friends. 

Seek help when needed: You are not alone. If you are still having trouble and feeling unsure, seek out help. You can turn to your peers or classmates and ask for assistance, or directly address your concerns with a professor in class, after class or during their office hours. They are more than glad to give you support. 

This is another time when you can get help at CASE. You can schedule an appointment to get tutoring, but they also offer a writing assistance program in case you struggle with a paper or other writing assignments. 

“Just remember that peer-support isn't the same as going to a professor's office hours,” said CASE director Matthew Lavery. “Even if the tutor you're working with had the same professor you have in a course, that doesn't mean that they know exactly what went on in class. Instead, tutors have experience with the same academic challenges you're having and are trained how to turn their experiences into useful advice."

For writing tasks, another option to get help is to “ask a librarian.” The Swirbul Library offers support as well in this field, so do not be shy and seek out for help if needed.