Life as a teenager can be hard. Trust me, I know, after all of the experience I have had in my one and a half years of being a teenager. One of the hardest part in the teenagers life is their academic stress. As you are reading this, you're probably thinking, “Hopefully this blog will help me with my academic work”, or “Maybe this article will help me ace my midterms.” But you are already in the wrong mindset. The reason teenagers deal with so much academic stress is simply because that is the only thing which is going through their minds. The problem with almost all teenagers is that they worry about their next big exam and try to figure out ways to get around it and when they can’t, they start stressing out. I’m not saying I don’t do this but I have improved a lot from my transition to high school in getting rid of academic stress. Here are a few ways I tried to avoid academic stress. Hopefully this will help you out since this blog is written from someone who is in your shoes, a teenager in training.
Go for it /Stop procrastination
One thing I am guilty for as well is procrastination. We all do it. If you’re denying it then you probably don’t know what it means. All teenagers procrastinate especially before a big test but in my opinion there are two ways of procrastination. The first way is the obvious one, watching youtube, netflix, or playing on your xbox. This way is used when people are trying to completely avoid doing their work. If you do this way of procrastination, chances are you haven’t even started the second way of procrastination. Before I tell you what the second way of procrastination is, let me just say that your number one goal is to get rid of the first way of procrastination. I will tell you how to avoid procrastination on the next crucial part of reducing academic stress. Anyways, the second, or I should say my second take on procrastination is the academic procrastination. Now, I know that sounds weird since it has the academic part in it, but you’ll probably relate to it once I tell you what it is. Thinking about academics but not doing work is another way of procrastination. For example, have you ever wanted to achieve something, and you made a huge plan to achieve it but instead of actually achieving your goal, you just got hung up on your huge plan. I know this sounds kind of confusing, but I bet you have done it multiple times before. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t be organized and plan what you are going to do ahead but the number one reason of teenagers getting academic stress is because they aren’t able to go and just do their work. For this I would recommend to just go for it instead of making a plan of how to study. This would be more effective than thinking of how to study for an hour and only ending up actually studying for 10 minutes. Procrastination is one of the hardest things to avoid and you end up doing no work, which leads to academic stress. Although getting rid of procrastination could be really hard, it is very beneficial to a teenagers life.
Think about your dreams/further goals
You know how when you go to school and your teachers force you to make goals which you know you are never going to actually care about that much. Well, in my perspective those shouldn’t even be considered real goals. Goals should be a vision which you see in your own mind without anyone forcing you to achieve something. One way academic stress can be reduced is by thinking about your actual goals in life which you have set for yourself without anyone forcing you. Many people say that long-term goals aren’t good and that short-term goals will keep you on the right track, but a goal such as, ”I want to buy that car at the age of 18”, or “I want to be a billionaire” are clearly more inspiring than short-term goals such as “I want to get an A+ on my next quiz”. If you think about your long-term goals, you will want to actually get that A+ on your next quiz and end up reducing stress. The best part is that thinking about your life goals is actually another way to stop procrastination. If you want to buy that car or that mansion, you have to work for it and if you think about your long-term goal, you will want to work for it rather than procrastinate. As I said before avoiding procrastination is a big way to avoid academic stress. So if you guys are reading this and you don’t have a crazy goal, make one because setting goals is the first step to making the invisible visible.
Self care
Self care. You probably know what it is. It is something I have improved on a lot since last year and it has helped me avoid academic stress. Taking care of yourself and your body will help you reduce any stress because it increases your self-esteem. This doesn’t just mean physically but also mentally. You want to do things which in your opinion are engaging and fun but end up also exercising your mind. Last year, I used to get some exercise done at school but still felt academically stressed, but towards the end of the year, I signed up for the gym and now I go to the gym regularly. It has been two months since I have been going to the gym and in my perspective I feel much better and stress released than my last year self. Now that I’m finally meeting my physical requirements, I’m also trying to incorporate my mental self care. For me this includes blogging because writing about my life releases stress and it also exercises your mind. For the people who can’t blog, I have also been trying to read just 30 minutes or a little more right before I go to bed. For me it is very hard to read unless I find an intriguing book but I have started to incorporate around 30 minutes of reading every night. Taking care of yourself is a really big factor into reducing academic stress. These are just a few of the many ways you can take care of yourself.
Stop comparing yourself with others and be the best version of be yourself.
This one is big. One of the biggest reason why people get so much stress in general is because they aren’t able to take care of themselves but want to think about others. If you are academically stressed stop thinking about that friend who got an A+. Instead focus on how you can improve as a person. There is a difference between having an inspiration or idol versus someone you are jealous of even if it is your friend. Even if you have an idol you don’t want to try to become them, you want to become the better version of them and the best version of yourself. To focus on your work and be the best version of yourself, you have to stop comparing yourself with others and instead compare yourself with yourself. Doing all the above and topping it off with this is going to get you more focused on your work which will relieve your academic stress.
I know life as a teenager can be difficult because I am living it as well. The reason I share these things with you guys is because I have attempted to use these in the past and am still using them to relieve my academic stress. Since I’m a freshman, I know that this is just the beginning but using these ideas should make my teenage years feel like a breeze.