Stress Management

TECH Entry 9

            This week, the strategies I used to help me out with my classes were the “Stress Diagram” and “A Day at a Time” stress management strategies in order to help me out with my homework that I have to do over break.

I used the “Stress Diagram” strategy for all my classes that assigned work over the break—which would be IST 195, REL 205, HST 231, and WRT 105—in a surprisingly successful attempt to manage my stress levels.  It worked so well because for me, I need a controlled environment when doing my work in order to be productive; and without it, I tend to just run in circles and have a hard time even getting work done.

The other strategy I used was the “A Day at a Time” strategy, and I used it in tandem with the “Stress Diagram” strategy with considerable success in that I used it to give myself a list of the stress factors that were persisting and needing to be eliminated.  It also gave me attention to which factors were more problematic because of the fact that I was having trouble getting rid of them.  This strategy worked well for me because I need a constant reminder of things that need to be taken care of in order to even get things accomplished, so having this on-going list of things that are causing stress enabled me to focus on what they were and get rid of them effectively in a faster fashion than if I had not used the strategy.

Motivation

TECH Entry 7

            This week, the strategies I used to help myself out with my classes were the “Exploring Rewards” and “Weighing Consequences” motivation strategies in order to kick myself into gear so I can get my work done for all my classes (IST 195, CLS105, REL 205, HST 231, WRT 105) for these last two weeks before break.

I used the “Exploring Rewards” strategy to give myself a physical list of rewards I intended to give myself if I could get my everyday work done ahead of time before it was even due.  And this worked well for me because given the way I am I tend to forget things pretty easily and end up just getting tunnel-vision on my work and forget to take breaks and just relax.  I did not really like the way it was set up with how it listed the categories for rewards so I changed the wording and filled it in with my rewards.

The other strategy I used, “Weighing Consequences,” was a great tool in my opinion because it lists a very plain and simple approach for work that needs to get done but does not have a lot of appeal for getting accomplished; and for me, that happens to apply to a lot of my work.  I used this strategy to smack myself in the face about how I was planning on completing the major assignment that I have due in each of my five classes the week before break; and it worked really, really well in helping me to organize my time which I am normally not very good at.