Any help for a stressed MacRumorer?

ghall

ghall

macrumors 68040
Hello all. My presence on the MR forums as of late has been quite spotty, and not because I finally have a life. In fact, that is hearly the case. School has been taking away my precious MacRumor time, but as it turns out, I still don't have enough time to do school work. I work hard to get caught up one something, and I fall behind on something else. It makes me want to scream. To make matters worse, my mom's been on my back about school, so I go down to my dads to get some peace and quiet, and my dad starts barking at me about my school work (that's sort of a joke, since he used to have a dog). As revenge, I had a little fun and changed his ringtone to Super Freak. Anyway, I back on topic, I feel like I'm juggling 20 balls at once. I'm super stressed (which doesn't help the anxiety issues that I've talked about here before).

Any advice (short of staying up late to do work) for a MacRumorer in need?
 
Make priority lists so you can see what needs doing and by when. Include any resources you need on there as well so when it comes to it you'll know what you need to have at hand rather than having to think about that .

It'll also help you see what you have actually accomplished as well which is very good to know.

Don't forget to include time for relaxation and don't feel bad about taking some time off either.

(I was kinda of hoping for a usual ghall eventful story full of twists and turns)
 
xUKHCx said:
Make priority lists so you can see what needs doing and by when. Include any resources you need on there as well so when it comes to it you'll know what you need to have at hand rather than having to think about that .

It'll also help you see what you have actually accomplished as well which is very good to know.

Don't forget to include time for relaxation and don't feel bad about taking some time off either.
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I've tried to do that. The only problem is I can't keep track of due dates on my own, and when I ask for a list of due dates, I'm told I should have been paying attention. So not only do I not know when the stuff is due, I don't even know what is due, until the day it's due.

I'm not trying to put down your idea, it's a great one. I just wish I could implement it. :(

xUKHCx said:
(I was kinda of hoping for a usual ghall eventful story full of twists and turns)
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Sorry to dissapoint you. :p
 
When you're doing schoolwork, don't work for long hours. Take breaks often, and eat a healthy snack. Cut out Internet, TV, and video game use.

Do you have a job?
 
ghall said:
I'm not trying to put down your idea, it's a great one. I just wish I could implement it. :(
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I still don't fully use it and it has taken a lot of hammering to get it in my head.

Do you have any friends who take the same classes you could explain to them that you have really hard time keeping track and as them to copy their list too you/remind you.
 
I can relate. I am a graduate student and I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with my workload at the moment. As well, I am a migraineur and my preventative medication has stopped working :mad:

RE: your trouble with due dates, from here on out, the second a teacher gives you a date write it down on whatever paper you have out. Later, you can write it in a planner or put it into iCal or something like that.

For me, I give myself a little time for just ME every day. Usually this is the time I go to the gym. I usually spend half an hour to an hour there, so it's not like it's really taking away from my school work, and it really clears my head. I load my shuffle up with beatles song and hit the gym! Today I biked 10 miles and felt great afterwards! You may not have the option of going to a gym, but you could always go out and run.

I also get a lot of work done on the weekends. I try to get up early on Saturdays and Sundays and start working as soon as I finish breakfast. Usually I am done by noon and have the rest of the day to do whatever.
 
OK, I'm sorry this sounds so obvious, but you have to cut out a big part of your stress, which is not knowing when assignments are due. Half of your problem is the uncertainty about what should be done next, and the distraction of that worry.

I'm making the assumption that the class is told the due date when the assignment is given out, right? So: What do you have to do to capture that information there and then? I would carry a pocket calendar at all times, and IMMEDIATELY write down every due date, appointment, everything time related.

Then, I would transcribe those into iCal the moment I got home, for backup. The rules then become:

No date is ever mentioned without it getting written in.
and
No date is important unless it is written in.
and
No date has to be worried about because it is written in.

That way, you can completely let go of holding 20 deadline worries in your mind.


It is not operational to say "I can't do it, I can't handle keeping track of deadlines". You have to find out a way of doing it. This is one part of your education that closely parallels real-life works skills. This doesn't go away...
 
kainjow said:
When you're doing schoolwork, don't work for long hours. Take breaks often, and eat a healthy snack. Cut out Internet, TV, and video game use.

Do you have a job?
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If I take a break, it's all over. Even without TV, video games or internet. I'll probably read a book for the rest of the day. That's part of my problem. Anything in the entire world will distract me from my work. I could stare for hours at a blank wall when I'm supposed to be doing work.

xUKHCx said:
I still don't fully use it and it has taken a lot of hammering to get it in my head.

Do you have any friends who take the same classes you could explain to them that you have really hard time keeping track and as them to copy their list too you/remind you.
Click to expand...

I'll try but the people I've asked aren't very helpful. Actually, I think there is someone I could ask, and I never thought of asking them before. Bingo!

letsgorangers said:
I can relate. I am a graduate student and I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with my workload at the moment. As well, I am a migraineur and my preventative medication has stopped working :mad:

RE: your trouble with due dates, from here on out, the second a teacher gives you a date write it down on whatever paper you have out. Later, you can write it in a planner or put it into iCal or something like that.

For me, I give myself a little time for just ME every day. Usually this is the time I go to the gym. I usually spend half an hour to an hour there, so it's not like it's really taking away from my school work, and it really clears my head. I load my shuffle up with beatles song and hit the gym! Today I biked 10 miles and felt great afterwards! You may not have the option of going to a gym, but you could always go out and run.

I also get a lot of work done on the weekends. I try to get up early on Saturdays and Sundays and start working as soon as I finish breakfast. Usually I am done by noon and have the rest of the day to do whatever.
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Arrgh, weekends are my worst days. It'd be a miracle if I got a scrap of work done on the weekend.
 
When I was in college, I used to keep a yellow lined note pad on the desk for taking notes. At the end of the class session, the instructor would sound off the work assignments and the due dates for any up coming tests.

Since I already had the note pad in front of me, I would write the assignments down next to my notes and also the test dates. I would always draw a big circle around the assignment instructions along with the test dates to separate them from my notes for that day. I would also keep everything on one page per class session to keep things simple.


That always worked for me. ;)
 
So are you in College or Highschool? College, right?

The biggest hurdle for any fresh college student is time-management. Seeing as how you are at home, you already have a lot of distractions cut out of the picture, but there are plenty you can make yourself as you probably know.

I don't have any more advice than what others have said before me than to stop saying you CAN'T do it and actually try. It's not going to just happen for you, there is no magic about it, you just have to do it. You don't know when stuff is due? Write it down in a planner. Do you have 4 classes a day? After each(or when you get the chance) make your scribbled note of due-dates and projects into something more useful. I have one of those white boards with a calendar and extra space that I write the month in and as soon as a month changes I write all the tests down for the following month. As I get things that are long term (projects, papers, lab writeups) I write down when they are due and it keeps everything very orderly for me.

The biggest thing is to not dismiss an idea because you don't think you can do it. The greatest thing I have learned from some of my classes is not how to solve some particular problem, but seeing that if I put in some effort and sit down and make a real effort I can solve things that looked far beyond my means. Just thinking about it is one thing, doing it is an entirely different matter.

Good luck.
 
I'm in high school right now with 8:30 to 5:00 days, and how I stay organized is either carrying a small note pad around to jot down due dates and such or I've been bringing my mbp and using iCal and taking notes in text edit.
You also said if you take a break you will take off the whole day. Well set an alarm, you really need to have self disapline (I need more to :rolleyes:)
to handle school,fun,and family.
Hope that helps :)
 
You MUST get a quiet place that's distraction free. At a moment when everything is calm, like maybe after dinner, tell your parents that you'd like to have a serious talk with them if they have some time. If they can't do it at that time, don't force it, just ask them when would be a good time for you to have a talk with them.

When you talk to them, tell them that you want to get good grades just as much as they want you to, but all their complaining is just another hurdle you have to deal with that keeps you from focusing on doing well in school. Then tell them that you need some space that's just yours so you can concentrate. This space can be anywhere that you can clear out and make your own - a guest bedroom, a storage room, a basement, an attic, or even a large walk in closet! Tell them that when you're in there they are not to interrupt you at all, not even to gently knock on your door to see if you want cookies. (In reality it'll never be that way, but you have to set the bar further than you want so that when it fails to reach that you'll still have an acceptable level of no intrusions).

In this space you should have nothing but your school stuff, and an old computer, and basically nothing else, no tv, don't bring your cell phone in, etc. The computer should have nothing on it but a word processor, a web browser, a spread sheet app, etc. It MUST NOT have an i.m. app, a torrent app, your downloaded southpark video collection, etc. It should specifically be old and slow enough that it is just capable enough for you to watch any animations that you might need to watch as part of your research, but not fast enough to make watching aqua teen hunger force you tube videos any fun.

Also, get yourself earplugs, they're really helpful.
 
So what is it that is making things so difficult? Is it just that you can't get your work done, even though you have enough time to do so?

I have been there and gotten passed when my grades were starting to threaten my graduation, like a movie star getting really really skinny...

Time management is something I need to take seriously! I wake up at about 3.30 in the afternoon, go to work from 5-10, I get home, do my homework. Then I go to my other job at 2.00 AM and work until 6.00 AM, then I go to school at 7.30 and go until 10.30. I am taking mostly basic classes but I have a few CE classes in there that has a lot of homework. And once I'm out of school, I sleep until 3 or 4. And on my days off, I catch up on things, whether that be with groceries (I live with my grandmother), getting my car worked on, catching up on school work, or just catching up with my good buddies.

So time management is the best thing to have down. But without determination, it will do you nothing. You have two things that are gonna happen, you will realize this is going to kill you in the long run and get that slap in the face. Or, you are going to realize you can't do this and give up and later on in life, you will regret it. Please choose the latter. Just buckle down and get that work done man!!!!!
 
One thing that helped me in school was getting required reading on books on tapes or CD's from the library. Even if you're just staring at the wall, you can listen. When you feel like it, take notes. It's also a good idea to check out the Cliff notes or movies. Don't let lassitude get you down. You're a smart person. We all have slumps:eek:
 
If you're having trouble staying organized, consider buying (or asking for one for xmas) a cheap palm pilot. I could never keep a day planner notebook up to date, but my palm pilot appeals to my inherent geek-ness and just the fact that I enjoy playing with it causes me to put everything into it.
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/3A109a Safari/419.3)

adk said:
If you're having trouble staying organized, consider buying (or asking for one for xmas) a cheap palm pilot. I could never keep a day planner notebook up to date, but my palm pilot appeals to my inherent geek-ness and just the fact that I enjoy playing with it causes me to put everything into it.
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Hence my iPhone. LOL

Anyway I want to thank everybody for the feedback and I'll see how I can use it. Thanks again for the help.
 
Learn time management skills. As someone who juggles dozens of things on a daily basis, where forgetting any one of them can cost money, I can tell you that this does not get any easier as you get older.

One task is to become familiar with how long things take. Try to budget your time for tasks, then as you complete them note how long it actually took versus how long you thought it would take. Build those observations into your next schedule, lather rinse and repeat. This iterative process will help you become better at forecasting how long things take YOU to do.

Another task is to write lists, use sticky notes, iCal, whatever. Just use something. It's possible to get everything done without them, but you will always be stressed that you have forgotten something. With a list of tasks in hand, you are much better protected against forgetfulness.
 
A healthy diet is key ......So start the day with a vodka & red bull.
lunch = some pro plus and a coffee or two
For tea a vodka & redbull can be very refreshing, if you are extra hungry throw in some ice, you deserve it :)
For supper i'd recommend a jack daniels and coke or two. Perhaps followed by a few vodka redbulls. As part of a healthy diet it's probably wise to throw a slice of lemon in the jd+c.

For your protein & carb fix throw some pork scratchings & peanuts down your neck. They are most excellent snack foods.
 
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