Factors of Stress

1. List several major events or expectations that cause stress for you.  Stressors might involve school (difficult classes, too may exams), work (demanding schedule, tight deadlines, financial pressures), or personal circumstances (friends, romance, family).  Be as specific as possible.  Try to identify at least 10 different.

1. Unemployment
2. Lack of sleep
3. Excessive diet plans
4. Public speaking or presentations
5. Deadlines for assignments
6. Marriage
7. Worrying about future
8. Fear of losing our loved ones
9. Illness or injury to family members
10. Exams

2. Using the list developed in item 1 above, evaluate the extent to which poor time-management skills on your part play a role in how each stressor affects you.  For example, do exams cause stress because you delay studying?

1. Unemployment: according to me, unemployment is one of life’s stressful situations. It is normal to feel angry and anxious about what our future holds. If our jobs are the main source of income and if we lose it, there comes a load of financial issues with it. Also, jobs influence us in many ways. It gives us structure, purpose and meaning and a value, that’s why unemployment is so stressful. During this time people get lots of free time and it is very difficult to manage this new found “free” time effectively. If you fail to manage this time you will never cope with the level of stress you undergo during the period of unemployment and may become lazy and a failure in life.

1. Lack of sleep: sleep is often the first and important thing to be sacrificed due to our busy schedule. As a college student, late nights at the library and cramming for finals or a big group project are a necessary evil for us. Coupling with watching movies and my favorite tv series during the week can prevent me from getting a good night’s sleep. There’s always something to distract you, whether it’s homework, Facebook or even people just wanting to hang out. I know for me, half the time I don’t get sleep, it’s because of schoolwork, but the other half, I know, it’s me procrastinating and staying up late when I don’t need to. I need to get better at not doing that.
2. Excessive diet plans: when we diet we deny our body the energy it needed. It can cause feelings of anxiety, anger etc. Lack of energy due to excessive diet plans results in uncompleted tasks and thus we fail to finish it on time or take extra time.
3. Public speaking or presentations: time management in critical during public speaking or presentations. Not finding time for the preparation for the presentation is a major cause for the stress. Being too fast or too slow isn’t appropriate.
4. Deadlines for assignments: keeping everything for the last moment. Majority of us do this very often. Extending our work actually doesn’t help us but increase our stress hormones.
5. Marriage: wedding day is everyone’s dream day and it is very time-consuming process for us Indians. I am going to get married soon and I am already stressed out because of that. It is a two-day function and there are a lot of stuffs to shop. If I don’t manage my time properly my wedding is going to be mess.
6. Moving to a new home: moving is really a stressful period. Every time when I think about packing it is stressing me. So, it is important to plan and manage time for reducing the stress level.
7. Fear of losing our loved ones: my problem is a sudden and acute bout of separation anxiety that I go through every day. I might be having a good time with my parents, but in the middle of it I will suddenly think about their death. The idea of death is extremely hard for me to bear. When I remember prior experiences of close ones dying, I cannot imagine dealing with that again. I used to spend a lot of time thinking and worrying about this.
8. Procrastination: I always do this. Knowing that post ponding things won’t work, I still do that. Feeling as though you have too much to do and not enough time to do it in can create a significant amount of stress. Procrastinating, or wasting time on activities that aren't a priority, can also result in increased stress, especially when these actions have consequences such as a missed deadline.
9. Exams: the main reason for my exam stress is that I never prepare well enough. Even though I get good grades in all my student life, I never start studying until the last moment of the exam day which automatically cause great stress and headaches. Also, as a student and a part time employee at the same time, shift hours on exam days create problems in my study hours.

3. For each stressor related to item 2 above, develop a strategy for using time more efficiently in that situation.

1. Unemployment:

• Prepare a job search schedule that is same to the old job.
• Wake up at the time you used to wake up and make coffee, shower and get dressed and hit the job boards right away.
• Stick to the schedule we made.
• Make a goal list and try to do all the activities in that goal list.
• Socialize more
• Exercise.
• Stay positive.

1. Lack of sleep:

• Understanding time commitments and planning accordingly.

• Avoid mobile devices near we sleep at night.
• Don’t waste too much time at night or the time you get for sleeping by talking to someone or doing unnecessary things.
• Students who have exams and assignments, try to finish off stuffs before time not on time so that we get more sleeping hours.

1. Excessive diet plans:

• Prepare a proper eating chart.
• Note down the times of your food intake.
• Follow the same schedule without fail.

1. Public speaking or presentations:

• Prepare the presentation at least one week before.
• Practice it well.
• Ask for suggestions and correct your mistakes.
• Arrange the timing of your topics and its sub parts so that there won’t be any confusions at the time of presentation.
• Always use a timer during our practice sessions.

1. Deadlines for assignments:

• Never keep it for the last minute.
• Prioritize your assignments according to the time taken and start doing the longer ones first and do the easy ones during your leisure time or travel time.
• Keep a journal for track your dates and times.

1. Marriage:

• Plan a wedding at least 6 months before according to me.
• Make lists of the things to do and assign the time when it should be done.
• Delegate duties and give them deadlines so that we never waste time much.
• Always keep track on time.

1. Moving to a new home:  

• Research about the new place. For this we need time, therefore we should plan our researches before fixing the place.
• Make a new routine which will be helpful to manage our time at the new place.

1. Fear of losing our loved ones:

• Accept that once we will lose everyone and be alone.
• Divert our mind doing interesting things.
• Spend quality time with our loved ones and make memories.

1. Procrastination:

• Get a planner and take it with you always.
• Understand when you are more productive, that is; morning or evening etc. Finish your works at that time so you don’t have to worry about the pending works.
• Prioritize your tasks and set timelines.
• Plan breaks where you can do your favorite things like listening to music etc. Schedule the time for breaks for example 5 or 10 minutes and get back to work after the break. It reduces the chance of getting bored or tired.

1. Exams:

•  develop a plan of action by preparing well and organising your time and workloads.
• Prepare at least a week before.
• Make a schedule every morning on the exam period, prepare the chores you must finish and try to finish everything on time and start studying.
• Get rid your distraction causing factors such as social medias, mobile phones and away from tv.
• Remove clutter from your study area.
• Finish short projects quickly.

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