So, Exams are looming or you’re right in the midst of them and saying it’s a stressful time is an understatement. We’ve got 8 quick and easy, proven tips to help you beat exam stress.
Go for a 5 minute walk
Walking will not only give you a well-deserved break and help replenish your focus, studies by Harvard have shown walking for just ten minutes can boost your creative thinking! Which could help improve your recall ability by thinking of more illustrative and visceral images – which studies have shown to actually improve recall. If you can, try walk in a park instead of a busy street – see our post on why it’s better for your attention and focus.
Play with your cat or dog
If you have an adorable fuzzy friend, a great way to bust exam stress is playing with a cute puppy or kitten. Studies have shown that just petting animals for 10 minutes helped reduce participants stress levels. And if you don’t have a pet of your own, don’t worry, we all know someone who has a pet we’d love to play with.
Listen to music
Try taking a break but just listening to some of your favourite relaxing music. Studies have shown classical music to be the most effective at reducing anxiety and tension.
Chat to a friend
If it’s just to have a catch up chat or to get something that’s stressing you off your chest – take time out to call a friend or talk to a family member about what’s troubling you. Bottling it up is never really a great idea and by just verbalizing what’s troubling us, it can help reduce the stress inducing effect of these seemingly all-encompassing worries. Make sure to not just talk soley about what’s stressing you – give yourself a break!
Work up a sweat
We know we constantly mention the benefits of exercise for body and mind – and for good reason. Exercise is one of the number one ways for relieving day to day stress as well as handling acute/immediate stress. To reap the benefits of this, find time in the day to fit in at least 20 minutes of exercise. You’ll feel rejuvenated, your head will feel clearer and it will allow you to hit the ground running (forgive the pun) when you return to the books.
Get organized
A great way to kick exam stress and give your mind a break, is to spend maybe 10 to 15 minutes getting organized. It can really do wonders for giving you a sense of clearing your mind as well as a sense of accomplishment. Try cleaning your desk, organizing notes or prioritizing a list of your tasks – remember “what gets measured gets managed”. But make sure not to allow yourself use this as a procrastination tactic and try not spend too much time on this. Which leads us nicely onto our next tip…
Avoid procrastinating
Procrastinating can often times be a great source of stress, as we don’t adequately deal with looming deadlines. Pushing things to the last minute can create a lingering air of angst. Procrastination can be due to a lot of things, but sometimes it simply boils down to us being afraid of failing. A great quote by Samuel Beckett comes to mind when thinking of overcoming the fear of failure – “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better”. We trick ourselves into thinking that if we don’t do whatever is scaring us we don’t fail, when it’s usually quite the opposite.
Use the Pip!
Why not try relax and work on your mental fitness at the same time? The Pip with our specifically designed apps Clarity, Relax & Race and The Loom are a perfect brain break from study, will help you feel more relaxed and help manage study stress.
