Stress management: setting priorities

Stress management: setting priorities Stress Management University Life Cafe

The challenge • Students experiences many demands on their time and energy. They can feel pulled in so many directions. • Undergraduate degrees are taking longer than the traditional four years; these often require some six or seven years. • Having an overloaded life is a fast way to feel stressed. • Setting priorities and following through with the proper commitments may address this issue in a more healthy way. Stress Management

Multiple goals People pursue multiple goals simultaneously, but they can not feasibly pursue all their goals at once. Most students have a number of goals in their lives: • Educational • Family • Personal and social goals • Physical and health goals • Career and financial goals • Leisure and hobby goals • Artistic goals • Volunteerism and civic duty goals Stress Management

Multiple goals Stress Management

Setting priorities • Priorities will differ between students. • Top priorities may relate to family and friends. They may be athletics. They may involve academic achievements. They may relate to life goals. They may entail personal relationships. They may involve adventures. • The priorities of students need to co-exist in a healthy and balanced way with academic commitments. The years of college study are critical ones for students, so one of the top few priorities should be academic ones. Stress Management

Defining limits • Some students begin with a calendar as a way to understand their time limits and work from there. • Another way is to assess how they are feeling. Are they regularly fatigued? Do they feel over-stretched? Are they losing out on sleep? Are they missing deadlines? Are important tasks and goals being squeezed out of their schedule? These are all good indicators that a person is stretched beyond his or her limits. Stress Management

Saying no (without guilt, without conflict) • Many students may not feel comfortable declining extracurricular or social activities. Their study lives may become overwhelmed with outside commitments. Students need to be aware of when they’ve taken on too much. • They may list their commitments and cross off those that are less important or compelling. • There are gracious ways to say “no” to other commitments. A simple comment about the busyness of one’s schedule may be sufficient. • Prioritizing means saying no to some things, so students may focus on more important things. Stress Management

Putting some goals off until later • Goals have costs and benefits. Some may be better to pursue at a certain time in life vs. others. • Goals that are removed from the “current” list may be re-introduced later. Having these goals on a back-up list at a later time may be helpful. • Students do not have to achieve everything that they want in the near-future, but some of it may be put off in the mid-term future or even into the far future. • Planning a longer timeline for various goals may be healthy for a balanced life. Stress Management

Consulting with trusted friends, family and professionals • Discussing goal-setting with trusted friends, family and professionals may provide insights on what should be important at a particular point in life. Stress Management

The Effects of prioritizing goals • Having prioritized goals will have different possible effects in a life. Thinking these through may be helpful to ultimate success. Stress Management

Putting the plan into action The next step is to actually follow through on the desired actions. • What needs to be cut back? Who needs to be notified? What are the expected repercussions? • What “no’s” need to be expressed graciously? • What goals should be focused on in more depth? • How will the effectiveness of the prioritized goals be assessed? And when should an assessment take place? Six months? A year? Stress Management

Connection to counseling services • Counseling ServicesKansas State University232 English/Counseling Services BldgManhattan, KS 66506-6503785-532-6927counsel@k-state.edu Stress Management

Stress management: setting priorities