End of the Year Syndrome

As we are getting closer to the end of the year there is a great many
demands being placed on us. For a lot of people, while outwardly jovial
and looking forward to the holidays, there is a terrible amount of
stress in daily activities.

It is important to understand and actively manage stress in your
daily life and this article aims to show some of the sources and
strategies for dealing with stress.

You may be worrying about exams, your career, parents, family, costs
of holidays and presents, travelling, the state of the world or a
million of other things. At the same time all your spare minutes are
being gobbled up between family, studies, work and the pressure of
getting everything ready for year-end.

So how can anyone handle all of this stress? Research show that there
is not one method that can be used to deal with all of these but that a
few simple keys can you get on the way:

1. Practice a positive mental attitude towards the problems facing
   you. A positive mental attitude is shown to physiologically give you
   coping power and opens you up to potential solutions. By brooding and
   being negative about the end of the year – you tend to re-enforce your
   negative feelings.

2. Write down everything that you need to achieve. The people that
   write down goals tend to achieve a large number of them. You do not
   always need to structure your todo list – but just by starting to get it
   on paper – we take it to another level.

3. Having an action orientation puts you into a task mode and lets
   you solve the problems. By starting to do one thing at a time, you start
   to move ahead. Sometimes the pile seems insurmountable until you start
   chunking down from the top and before you know it – you are at
   done.

Studying

People studying for exams can gain from these tips and insights. Put
your material in front of you and just don’t stop until you know it.
After a while you start experiencing a flow and the knowledge that you
gained in one section starts linking to other learning and the whole
picture emerges. The key to studying is to remain curios and to be open
to learning. By being negative about learning or a specific subject or
area you are only telling your mind that it is right for letting you
struggle to study.

Understanding stress

To understand stress it is instructive to look at what causes
stress.

The theory goes that in your environment there are stressors. Things
that stress you out and that the combination of stress factors in front
of you – may be more that you ability to cope.

To deal with stress is thus to understand the different stressors and
to start eliminating unnecessary stressors so as to enable you to deal
with the really important things. It may be worthwhile to get rid of the
clutter to be able to read your books or to pay the bills so that you do
not worry about if there is enough money. By eliminating or reducing a
stress factor it frees up your energy and allows you to focus on more
important factors.

The primary stressors that face most of us include:

• Perception of too much work

• Time pressures and deadlines

• Apparent or real lack of support

• Unclear expectations

• Responsibility

• Disruptions

To cope with these requires working through it.

Perception of too much work

If there is a too much work – ask what is driving this. Is it you
taking on too much or is it really too much. Negotiate the work. Maybe
there are things that do not have to happen now, and maybe by engaging
with the area you can realize that your perception of the quantity of
work is right or wrong. Move things that can be delayed and focus on
what is really important and will bring you closer to your desired
end-state. It may be too much work if you are chasing a bonus – but if
you are willing to accept that you will not make your bonus this year –
it may be more manageable.

Time pressures and deadlines

Time pressures and deadlines tend to mount as we procrastinate. We
spend more time wondering about deadlines than managing them. Enlist the
help of others, teams and start working on delivering little bits until
it adds up. Starting is a large part of the battle.

Apparent or real lack of support

You have a lot more support than you think. If you really struggle
start reaching out to people early and build relationships to enable you
to cope. Other students are also studying and sharing is a great way to
rationalize large parts of work. Other people may also have children
that they are struggling to look after while having to do long hours and
maybe there is a way to manage load between different people.

If you really do not have support – speak to someone that can help.
There are many services in society that can give you reference to
someone that can help. Coaching is a great way to work through some of
these issues.

Unclear expectations

We are often unclear of what is expected. When we start looking at it
holistically it may be more or less than we expected. Also if we break
it down into smaller steps it may be much easier to achieve. The
important aspect is to have a clear grasp on the required task. Am I
expected to read each chapter and to be able to quote each writer or am
I expected to understand the concept. Expectations and our lack of
understanding of them is a great stressor.

Responsibility

Often people have an exaggerated sense of responsibility and this
blinds their focus. While it is important to focus on every aspect of
life, when we are under stress it tends to highlight every little
problem and we believe that we need to solve every situation. This is
counter-productive and focus and determination overcomes most of these
scenarios.

Disruptions

Disruptions are a great stressor. If you can, remove the source of
disruptions or minimize it. Also realize that an hour of focused work
without disruption is much, much productive that 4 hours of disrupted
stop/start work. It may thus be worthwhile to go and have a picnic, have
fun and then come back and finish your work in a two hour power session
(just remember that drinking and eating makes you sluggish). This makes
you better manage your leisure and makes you more productive in your
work.

As we get closer to the end of the year – it may be more difficult to
implement some of the coping strategies so here is some emergency coping
tips.

Don’t let it get to you

One of the key realization that the less you stress – the easier it
is to deal with everything around you.

• Have a positive attitude.

• Do not try to accomplish too many tasks in one day.

• Breathe. Remembering to breathe is very important.

• Prioritize and plan to achieve some things every day.

• Relax through stretching and exercise. Exercise releases
  endorphins that help give you a feeling of peacefulness. Further, it
  gives you time to clear your mind of all worries. You will be doing
  something for yourself, and no one else.

• Get enough rest. Don’t try to sleep your problems away, but rest
  certainly makes a difference.

• Be present in every situation. When you are studying, then study.
  If you get interrupted judge if you will be able to return to studies
  immediately. If not then deal with the issues and then come back to
  studying. Focus is very important. When you are socializing – enjoy
  that. Don’t create stress by polluting different environments with the
  thoughts and emotions from other environments.

• Eliminate things that cause stress. Stressors limit your ability
  to focus on other things. Spend a little bit of time making your
  environment conducive to having a positive experience.

• Find things to laugh at. Laughter helps get through a
  lot.

• Give yourself positive messages.