The Spark.
Finding Balance.
Welcome to The Spark - a tidbit of wisdom to stimulate ideas and help you transform your student organization. The Spark is a bi-weekly resource provided through the Center for Student Involvement which is sent to all registered officers through PantherSync.
With participation in student organizations, campus events, classes, midterms, and social activities it is easy for students to feel stretched a little thin this time of year. With different areas of your lives pulling you in different directions, it is important to remain prioritized and stress-free. Below are some tips to remain calm, focused, and successful this semester.
Manage Your Time. Feeling stressed out and have too many obligations scheduled in a short period of time? Here are a few tips on how to take control of your time and reduce the anxiety:
- Write a To Do List: Visually seeing a list of everything you have to complete is a good reminder of the all of the necessary tasks you need to accomplish. It will also ensure that you tackle the most important jobs first and don’t waste time of trivial tasks.
- Keep a Planner or Calendar: Find an app on your mobile device or use a paper planner to manage your daily tasks, to do lists and routines. Bring it with you everywhere and make a point to write in it every day. Mapping out competing priorities during a given day, week or month will eliminate the feeling of procrastination and having to complete everything at the last minute. It will help you feel on top of things and allow you to track progress, therefore eliminating stress and feeling overwhelmed.
Evaluate Your Priorities. There are a total of 168 hours in any given week. Within that time, you have fixed commitments like sleeping and going to class. Subtract those fixed commitments from 168 and you are left with flexible time. How you choose to use your flexible time is something you need to consider as you choose priorities during your time in college. Is joining five student organizations a good use of that valuable time? Perhaps only joining one organization and becoming a dedicated officer to that organization is better worth that time. Take a few minutes to calculate your flexible time and evaluate what commitments are best suited (and most valuable to you) during that indispensable amount of time.
Allow Time to Relieve Stress. Feeling stress is an important part of life that you must learn to manage. A little stress can be beneficial for students (for example: acting as a motivational tool), but learning how to handle it is necessary to remain healthy and successful. While time management is probably the most effective way to deal with stress here are some other ideas necessary to keep you centered:
- Keep a positive and “I can do it” attitude. You’ll be surprised how saying it turns into doing it.
- Remember to keep healthy routines – eat regurarly, exercise, and sleep. When we are stressed out, our health practices are usually the first items we start to cut. Don’t. Nutrition, exercise, and sleep all help keep our minds clear and our bodies healthy to continue to do what we need to do.
- Schedule some down time. Hang out with friends, catch an extra hour of sleep, or play a video game. Down time is the best way to avoid getting burned out or overwhelmed with the commitments you are responsible for.
Follow these easy steps and stress shouldn’t be a problem for you!
This Issue of The Spark was written by Lauren Thomas and Danielle Croegaert, two of the newest employees for the Center for Student Involvement. The Center of Student Involvement offers training and workshops to help your organizations function better. Need advice, training, or help? Request our service for your next meeting.
