Time Management
For me, time management is one of the most significant stressors that affect me almost every day. Unfortunately, even though I love studying and enjoy preparing for nearly every task I get, I still have severe problems with planning my activities and calculating how long it should take me to complete assignments. What is more, sometimes, I cannot bring myself to put my phone away, so I continue to be distracted and lose valuable hours. Since it consumes much time, I finally find myself in a rush and stressed out because I am afraid to become late and fail. However, what annoys me most of all is that I often panic because I am wasting my time, but I still do not do anything about this problem and continue wasting it, which makes me stressed even more! Good time management helps to be successful with one’s tasks even if time is tight and pressures are high. The fact that I am not able to organize and plan my activities stresses me out as I understand it will also affect my work.
Finances
Of course, most people find budget planning and financial allocation severely stressful. As for me, I am trying my best to be financially independent of my family because I see this as an element of becoming an adult. However, I am still not able to plan income and expenses correctly, which often leads to a temporary lack of money. Then I have a choice: either to ask my parents for financial support or to wait in principle for the next income. It is this choice that brings me a lot of stress. I want to fully support myself financially and be able at any time to make the necessary large purchase or present an expensive gift to my parents. However, my financial illiteracy does not allow me to save money and appears to be a significant stress source. My fear of debt or running out of finances makes me feel paranoid, anxious, and not controlling the situation. Finally, for most of the day, I unconsciously return to thoughts of money.
Relationships
Finally, the third major source of stress that sometimes prevents me from enjoying my life is the relationship with my friends and parents. The problem is that when I am upset, scared, tired, or angry, instead of dealing with the actual source of trouble, I may almost purposefully hurt people who are close to me. After I realize what I have done, I feel even more stressed out and start blaming myself for not controlling my emotions, which in turn leads to an increased level of stress. Therefore, I fall into a kind of vicious circle, from which it is incredibly challenging for me to get out. Since I love and value my parents and best friends, the least I want to do is hurt them with my offensive words. However, my defensive reaction to external aggressors often forces me to do just that. This raises my stress level to near maximum.