All to often people involved in helping young people prepare for applying to college can become a little narrow in their perspective, it’s important for young people and those helping them, whether they are counselors, teachers, or perhaps even parents, to forget that college applications don’t happen in a vacuum, all students aiming for college are having to juggle so many, often competing, deadlines. If you are one of those students, this article is for you.
Stress is normal; it’s how you deal with it that matters!
Every student gets stressed at some point and it’s good that they do. Many studies and articles talk about the benefits of stress. According to experts, stress is a burst of energy that advises you on what to do. In small doses, stress has many advantages. For instance, stress can help you meet daily challenges and motivates you to reach your goals. Stress can help you accomplish tasks more efficiently. It can even boost memory. The problem arises when that stress increases or continues for a prolonged period when it can manifest itself physically, emotionally, and/or mentally. This means that stress can affect many things, including physical health, thoughts, feelings, behavior, and academic burnout for an increasing number of students.
Recognizing Academic Burnout
The World Health Organization describes burnout as having three dimensions. It’s important to note that exhibiting these signs doesn’t automatically mean you’re burned out, but they are indicators to watch for:
1. Feelings of Energy Depletion or Exhaustion
- Constant tiredness despite adequate sleep and diet.
- Sleep issues such as insomnia or oversleeping.
- Unexplained feelings of worthlessness or sadness.
- Physical symptoms like headaches, stomach aches, or nausea.
2. Increased Mental Distance from School
- Loss of motivation and satisfaction in schoolwork.
- Lack of care for activities once considered important.
- Negative thoughts and resentment towards school.
- Preference for non-academic activities over academic ones.
3. Reduced Efficacy in Studies
- Underperformance in familiar areas of strength.
- Difficulty focusing and longer completion times for tasks.
- Increased forgetfulness or “spacing out.”
Other signs may include nervousness, irritability, and loss of appetite.
Preventing Academic Burnout
Preventing burnout involves managing stress to maintain its positive effects without becoming overwhelmed. Here are several approaches to help:
Set Attainable Goals
Set realistic and achievable goals. Feeling perpetually behind can lead to frustration and a sense of failure, even if you’ve accomplished a lot. Be kind to yourself and celebrate small victories.
Prioritize Basics: Sleep, Diet, and Free Time
Ensure you get enough sleep, maintain a healthy diet, and allocate time for relaxation. Establish a bedtime routine to improve sleep quality. Treat food as fuel to keep your body and mind in top condition. Free time is essential—engage in activities you enjoy without pressure to perform.
Spend Time on Activities That Make You Happy
Align school “musts” with your interests. For instance, if you’re passionate about social justice, join a related club and choose essay topics that reflect this passion. Focus on a few key activities rather than spreading yourself too thin.
Keep Fit and Feel Good
Exercise produces endorphins, which alleviate stress and enhance happiness. Incorporate exercise into your weekly routine, even if it’s just a small amount.
Stop Measuring Yourself Against Others
Comparing yourself to peers can lead to negative feelings and self-doubt. Instead, recognize your progress and be proud of your achievements, no matter how small.
Challenge Negative Thought Patterns
Be mindful of overly harsh self-criticism. Recognize and challenge negative beliefs that contradict objective facts. Positive self-talk can help maintain a healthy mindset.
Reach Out for Support
Don’t hesitate to seek help from those who care about you. When stressed, withdrawing from others can be tempting, but reaching out can provide relief and perspective.
As we say, these ‘mindless activities are an important element in preventing burnout but should not become a way of avoiding or putting off the work that you need to do, that will just lead to increased stress! I always recommend using the alarm function on your phone and set it to go off when your period of free time comes to an end.
Spend time doing things that will make you happy and drop activities that don’t align with your goals.
Much of high school may feel like a “must” or a requirement, but this does not mean that you cannot customize some of your experiences. Aligning the “musts” of school with things that you care about is one way to help keep you motivated and energized.
For example, do you care deeply about social justice? Find a club that focuses on those issues and make that one of your core activities and learn as much as you can in your history courses. For example, if you are able to choose an essay topic, use that opportunity to write about a cause you care about.
Sometimes students can get the impression that the number of activities they participate in is the most important thing for getting into college. Stories of people trying to learn how to play an instrument, while raising money for a good cause and at the same time setting up an NGO to educate disadvantaged children in order to stand out in a college application round abound. This is not the case. Colleges would prefer to admit a student who has done one or two things in depth.
Avoid having too much on your plate by focusing your time and energy on those activities that help you demonstrate your interest and passions rather than spend your time going from one activity to another.
Keeping fit, feeling good!
There are lots of scientific studies identifying the benefits of exercise. In short, exercise causes your body to produce endorphins. Endorphins are chemicals that alleviate stress and pain, and they can increase feelings of happiness. If possible, work occasional exercise into your weekly schedule. It does not have to be a big thing, perhaps make doing some exercise one of your free time activities.
Stop measuring yourself against others, recognize your successes
It is often tempting to look at what friends and peers are doing and comparing that to what you are doing. Sometimes you may think that what you are doing is better for their work, which can make you feel negative about them, it may also give you a false sense of security and lead to you slacking off in your activities. In our experience more often it results in feeling less accomplished and questioning your abilities.
Instead of looking at others, try to think about the progress you have made. If you have improved, grown, or accomplished something, recognize it, and be proud of it – no matter how “small” you think that progress is. Everyone’s successes will be different because each person has different goals and ambitions. Focus on yours!
Don’t accept negative thought patterns
We all tend to be our own worst critics, sometimes this can be helpful, enabling us to evaluate and improve, but all too often, our internal critic is overly harsh and simply untrue. Think about how you react to successes and failures. Do you tend to downplay successes? Do you tend to keep replaying a ‘failure’ or make it bigger than it is? Do you sometimes hold beliefs that contradict objective facts? For example, a student may tell themselves, “I am no good at maths,” even though they received A in their end-of-year boards.
This (false) belief could stem from many sources – such as comparison, as discussed earlier. whatever the source, this belief is not true, but their mind may jump to this conclusion whenever someone earns a better grade than them. Introspection and identifying your internal critic’s patterns are important. This way, you can stop them and keep going forward.
Don’t forget those that care about you.
Finally, don’t forget the option to reach out for help! When people feel stressed, they may withdraw and alienate themselves from others. Reaching out and depending on another person may help alleviate stress.
Some final thoughts
In this article, we have seen how academic burnout is a result of natural stress getting out of control. It is something that many, many students experience at one time or another, you are not alone.
In the current time of COVID-19, everybody is having to cope with massive changes to the way they live their lives. For many students, this means adjusting to lessons online and not being able to relax and unwind with friends.
This article will hopefully enable you to identify academic burnout in yourself and others, together with giving some suggestions as to how you can reduce the stress to a more appropriate level. For some people, our suggestions may not be enough, or they may find it difficult to implement them in their lives. For them, it is important to seek additional professional help. Burnout can become a serious problem if not dealt with. It’s good to push yourself, but also invest in your mental health in order to boost your productivity and results.
This will help you in school and in life.
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