with exam upon us was having a bit of a brainstorm about stress. now i know that stress is often talked about but realistically why is it that we get so stressed in the modern days and what methods do people use to deal with it. So from past psych classes we all should pretty much know that a little bit of stress can be useful if we are doing tasks that we have done before or that we are good at that dont require a great deal of cognitive thought, it also depends on whether we have an audience and whether we enjoy the task. Stress can also be good to actually get us studying before exams so we stop procrastinating, although if we have too much pressure it impacts the quality of what we are encoding in addition to leading us to "burn out."
So how do we procrastinate and why do we do it! sometimes we justify it by lowering the predicted work imput that is needed, sometimes often we know that we are only kidding ourselves but we still prioritise other things. Often it is the most boring or stupidst things we do such as doing a MASSIVE clean of everywhere possible or pairing together all our socks, or else we do things that will calm us down, primarily drinking or watching television.
So why is it that some of us can only work under pressure, i know that i can only do good work when there is not a great deal of time left as long as i have all the resources at my disposal. Others let there stress take over and this is not good particularly in the long run. Stress decreases quality of life in numerous aspects including health, particularly heart, decreases general enjoyment of activities and people that are normallywell liked and increases bad moods and anger in different environments such as when driving.
We also like to blame others for our unsuccesful approaches to tasks so that we dont feel as responsible for our actions. Anyway, will keep this one kind of short (and maybe sweet!) and hope that people are not stressing for their exams and goodluck, not that you need it, remember study can be FUN!!! :)
Anymore thoughts about stress, if you want to procrastinate am interested in what you guys think!
1 comment:
Hey Bre,
Thanks for posting a piece on stress. As I believe I’m guilty of being a complete stress head, I’ve always been interested in the concept of stress. Around this time of semester I truly am a wreck. Still in my third year of university I worry and am nervous about exams. I think it’s because they’re so unpredictable and you generally don’t have any control over the chapters and materials that will feature on the exam. I study as much as I can so I don’t have to cram at the last minute, but no matter how much I study in the proceeding weeks of the exam I am always up late the night before cramming. It’s funny though because not much else really stresses me. My work, boyfriend, friends and family would very rarely stress me out so I think it all comes down to uni work. The good thing is though I can always tell when I’m feeling stressed so I try to stay calm and do relaxing things, such as take a bath, long walk, or listen to music. Another way to prevent this stress of exams and assessment is to actually study and start assignments earlier. I see in your post you’ve written about procrastination. I found the motivation and emotion essay on procrastination really interesting as I too am a procrastinator. I laughed when I read your post about how people often do the most stupid or boring things to avoid actually doing something they have to. Sometimes I will clean my bedroom numerous times and then start doing housework instead of doing what I SHOULD be doing. I agree with you that it’s easier to work consistently under pressure and if you have limited time because you don’t waste time and think “oh I still have a week left to do it”. I wonder if I’ll ever stop procrastinating. Maybe it gets better with age and as for stress before exams, I think it’s just part of who I am.
Best of luck for the exam on Wednesday and for your second blog. And remember ‘don’t stress’ (HA- I should take my own advice).
Jacqui :-)
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