Eat a Live Frog First Thing in the Morning, or How to Manage End of Semester Stress

It’s the time of the semester when everyone in higher education feels additional stress, but especially graduate students who are also full-time employees, and often parents and partners.  Everything is due, seemingly on the same day, and if any procrastination has crept into your semester, it’s starting to come back to haunt you.  Since stress management is such an important leadership skill, here are some high impact tips to use now and in the future.

 

 

Change your perspective. Mark Twain said, “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.  Unless you enjoy frog sushi, you may not want to take Mr. Twain literally, but he clearly understood the role of perspective. Most people think of stress as being an inevitable reaction to the number of stressors in your life.  That’s not totally true.  Your stress level is largely dependent on you mindset, your perceptions and beliefs about your circumstances, so, for example, if you believe you must always be perfect, you will be constantly stressed because you will almost never hit that mark.  The good news is that you can change that by changing those perceptions.  One tool is reframing, so practice noticing your stress-inducing thoughts and changing them in a positive direction.

 

Exercise.  I know, I know.  You don’t have time to breathe, let alone break a sweat.  The fact is, exercise is such a powerful stress reliever that it should be one of your top priorities on a regular basis.  It should be scheduled in like any other appointment.  So make time to get some exercise and you will feel better and most likely be more productive.

 

Take breaks, preferably to laugh. In addition to exercise, laughter is one of the best stress relievers around.  Also, we know from research that working for too long without breaks reduces our productivity.  So take a few minutes to find something funny and see if you are not refreshed and more productive.  Humor is highly individual, but you can try these sites for a few chuckles:

http://www.funnyordie.com/

http://icanhas.cheezburger.com/

 

Prioritize.  Oprah once said, “You can have it all, just not all at once.”  Given your likely overloaded schedule, you must make choices.  That’s what prioritizing is about.  Take a moment to think about the values and goals that are most important to you, and make sure to limit yourself to three or four. Write them down, post them where you can see them, and use them as a decision filter.  Spend your time on those things that are most important to you and put the other things that don’t directly serve those goals in a “later” file.  So, if you have two papers and a presentation due this week, a full-time job, and other family duties, focus on the things you must do to maintain your health, well-being, and progress…and let go of the others.  You can make homemade cookies for the bake sale next time. 

Take a few moments to manage your stress and you will reap the return on your investment immediately.