Hey Owlets,
If you’ve been a long time follower of my blog, you’ll know that I went from happy to miserable to happy again in the time that I’ve been documenting my life online. One of the biggest things I’ve learnt is how to look after my mental health. When I was younger I had a tendency to run myself into the ground when I had a lot of things on my to do list and I’d end up a stressed out mess that got nothing done. Since deadline season is coming up, I wanted to share some tips with you on how to stay mentally healthy when you’ve got a lot to do.
Get Organised
My first tip is to get organised. When you’ve got a lot to do it’s easy to get “spinning plate syndrome” when you feel like you’re drowning under the amount of work you need to get done, and you start to feel like you’re losing control which makes you feel even more stressed. When I’ve got a lot of work to do I make lists of everything I need to do and from there I create a plan of how to achieve each thing. Breaking down the bigger task into lots of smaller tasks makes it feel much easier to tackle so it’s less daunting, reducing how stressed you feel. Making lists also makes me feel like I’ve started working towards what I need to do, even though I haven’t done anything yet. It tricks your mind into thinking you’ve made a start, and starting is the hardest part so everything after that is more doable.
Take a Break
It’s counter intuitive isn’t it? Whenever I have a lot of work to do I tend to stop looking after myself and the first thing I do is to think I can’t stop until I’ve finished, but I start to lose focus and my work deteriorates. When you start to feel like you’re fading, take a break and do something completely unrelated to your work - it gives your mind chance to reset so you’re fresh when you go back to it - but whatever you do, don’t go on social media; they’re designed to make you scroll endlessly in order to keep you on the app, so you’ll end up feeling guilty for procrastinating. My best tip is to take a walk - it takes your mind off of your work and the fresh air and exercise refreshes you ready to work again.
Look After Yourself
When you’ve got a deadline looming, it’s easy to forget to look after the basics, but your body is an engine and you can’t keep going when you’re running on empty. If you need to spend the day working, then make sure you eat a proper breakfast before you start work, as this will set you up for the next few hours. When you feel like you need to take a break, get up and move about, even if it’s just walking around your room for a little bit, but outside is best. At lunch make sure you eat something healthy to keep yourself going. I know it’s easy to order junk food while you carry on typing furiously, but it’ll make you feel sluggish and won’t give you the energy you need to finish your work. When you’ve finished working for the day, make sure you get outside and get some air again, then do whatever normally helps you relax - maybe watch a film. Giving yourself a positive routine will help you stay focused in the long run, even if it feels like you’re wasting time to start with.
Acknowledge Your Success
When the task seems huge, it’s easy to get bogged down with “How haven’t I finished this yet?” which adds to the stress. As you go through make sure that you acknowledge accomplishing the small tasks along the way. I always tick of the little tasks that help towards completing the larger project, because it feels like you’ve achieved more and It gives you the mental boost to keep going.
Hopefully these tips help if you’re working towards your dissertation or have a big project deadline looming - I wish I’d known these when I was in uni! What’s your best stress-busting tip? Let me know on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram or in the comments below.
Love and Feathers,
The Owlet 💜
You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & Pinterest
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