Overcoming Frustration

When you’re studying hard for a long period of time, you might start to feel burnt out and frustrated, and your workload might feel completely insurmountable.

Sometimes we may lament that “There is so much to do that I’ll never get it all done – I may as well do nothing”. This is understandable, but unhelpful in the long term. Instead, follow some of these tips so that you can find the drive to go on and overcome the frustration of feeling like you’re stuck in a rut.

• Set achievable goals. If you’re writing a list or thinking about what you want to achieve in a day, don’t expect too much from yourself. This isn’t an excuse to do one small task and call it a day, but you do need to set goals that you can reasonably achieve. Achieving every task you set yourself to do in a day gives you a great feeling of accomplishment. Setting achievable goals on a consistent basis will also prevent you from getting burnt out.

• Break work down into small chunks. If you know that you’re super behind in chemistry, try not to think about the enormous amount of work you need to do to catch up. Instead, you can break it into smaller sections and focus on completing one section at a time.

• Study in short blocks. Know the amount of time you can reasonably concentrate without a break – this might be one hour, for example. There’s no way you can concentrate for five hours straight. Schedule breaks throughout a study session, and don’t make your breaks longer than the scheduled time.

• Save your easiest tasks for the end of the day. When you’re tired after an hour or two of really good study, it can be tempting to completely switch off. But at the end of the day you could also quickly do a small task that isn’t too much of a mental strain. This could be some kind of repetitive task like revising vocabulary for your LOTE subject. The flipside to this is making sure you do your trickiest work at the beginning, when your mind is fresh.

• Make your study space a study sanctuary. I find that when I’m particularly unmotivated, it helps to make my study space as nice as possible. This makes it feel like somewhere I want to spend time. Light a scented candle. Put some flowers in a vase or move a houseplant into your space. Play some instrumental background music, if this isn’t too distracting for you. Make a special flavour of tea in your best cup.

• Look after yourself. Try to make your breaks positive. For a short break, make a fun, healthy snack, like a fruit and veggie smoothie. For a longer break, go for a walk, run or swim. If you’re studying in front of a screen, try not to take breaks in front of a screen as well.

• Remember that things will be better tomorrow. If you’re feeling frustrated or sad about your studies, remember that things will be better after a good night’s sleep. If you’re really not getting anything done, try to go to bed early.

How many do you do?

Author: Chris Ebbs

Year 12 is a pretty big year with many life-changing events all occurring at the same time.

One thing you can guarantee in year 12 is that you’ll probably receive more than your fair share of 18th birthday party invitations, and maybe host your own. Everyone seems to decide that this year they are going to have a big party and invite everyone they know.

Sometimes it feels like there’s one every weekend, or two if you’re really popular. 18th birthdays are really important to the person whose birthday it is – it’s the most fun they’re going to have all year! And though it is important to make time for your friends and have the chance to unwind, realistically it’s nearly impossible to attend every party and still achieve your study goals in year 12.

Let’s face it, there’s always pressure to attend every single party. You might feel FOMO if you didn’t go to one party and it turned out to be the most awesome party of the year. But if you want to succeed at school this year, you’re going to need to do two very important things you won’t do at any party: study and sleep.

Someone I know made a pact with their mum that they would go to one 18th a month. If you don’t have as much self-control as you’d like, perhaps ask your family to help remind you. If your friends won’t take too much study as an excuse, you can also enlist your parents for this: “I’m so sorry, but my mum won’t let me go.”

You most likely have all your SAC and exam dates for the rest of the year. It’s important to plan your year sensibly. It may help if you remind your close friends a few months out of the important times of the school year as well. This way if they are as conscientious as you are then they will consider this when setting the big date.

Taking care of yourself during year 12 means you should definitely attend some parties, but you probably can’t attend all of them. Finding the balance between different parts of your life is tricky, so try to remember that good friends are important, but study is important too.