Being a student in university will be challenging for many students. Moving away from home, navigating a new city, deciding where to stay, making new friends, and studying at degree-level can be overwhelming right?

There are simply many things to learn and many things to cover that will create stress from time to time. Some will have stress about making friends and some have stress about exams or deadlines.

As always, our community blog is here to help some of you and we are covering 5 tips on 5 different topics to manage your stress in the university. So let's get started.

5 Tips for Managing Stress for University Students

Stress will affect you by reacting mentally and physically to a specific experience in your daily life, such as moving away from home, final exams, or lack of money to pay bills that month. 

At the beginning of your uni journey, it's more often to face these problems because you are in a new environment and you'll feel stressed but after taking action or the stress passes, a normal mood returns.

You may get stressed about many things such as deadlines, new relationships, finance, feeling lonely, or final exams. Although having stress may feel like a huge obstacle between you and successful uni life, there are plenty of ways to manage it.

1- Plan and prepare for your exams/deadlines

Students had difficulties with attention, focus, and organization due to increased screen time from hybrid and remote online learning during the pandemic said Dr. Ryan Patel, an Ohio State University psychiatrist and American College Health Association mental health chair-elect.

If you struggling with your exams or deadlines, the solution is preparing for it before the last day. Successful students generally have a clear study plan and they are successful because they stick with it.

So having a clear study plan and preparing for it will help you to study effectively and as a result, you never have problems with having attention to your lessons and never struggle for the deadlines or exams.

Simply, decide how many hours you need to study for a day and stick with it. It will seem challenging at the beginning but if you only follow your plan for 1 week, then it will become a lot easier.

2- Study with fellow students / Make new friends

Maybe you move to a different city and have no friends around. That's ok, if you are an introverted or shy person, having new friends also will be hard for you.

Before feeling lonely just know that it's not that hard to have new friends. There are hundreds of new students around and most of them have the same path. They need to study for exams right?

Asking people to study together will help you to grow your network in short term. In some cases, you dont need to ask tho, just join group classes, and eventually, you'll find yourself in a study group. See now you have new contacts.

Be active in the group and ask questions. Communicate with others, ask questions and you'll see that it's not that hard to find friends. 

3- Plan your budget and cut unnecessary things

Managing finances for the first time independently can prove tricky; figuring out how to budget, factoring in rent, bills, and other living expenses, can create stress for most students.

Try to remember all minor and big costs and write them down on paper. Then calculate how much money you can save from not spending things on your list. If you are struggling to write a list about past months, start writing for daily costs list and generate the list at the end of that month

4- Eat well, sleep well to feel calm

Eating healthy can make a huge impact on alleviating stress and positive thinking so sticking to a healthy diet is key during university. Many healthy foods increase brain function and decrease stress levels. 

It’s probably no surprise that fruits and vegetables are the main foods you should be eating when you are going through a stressful period. If you have to have a treat, then try dark chocolate rather than sweets or normal milk chocolate.

Also sleep is more important than you realize. Staying up all night to make sure that you study all of your notes won’t help, it will only make you write worse. If you have an exam the day before do not push yourself to study all night.

Getting rest will help you more during the exam than studying all night. So if you are struggling to manage your stress, being healthy is the key solution to that.

5- If you dont find a solution to a problem, ask for help

One of the most important lessons you can learn during uni is to ask for and accept help. Whether from a friend or a professor, being surrounded by a strong support system will help ease the transition.

You are not lonely, you have many people around and they might be open to having a conversation with you and will be receptive if you take the first step to reach out. So, don’t hesitate to seek assistance or advice when you need it.

Ok, we covered 5 tips to manage stress today and we hope you'll find some value in this article. For more student-related content you can check our community blog.

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