dealing with stress
mod
theres close to a week left on my final uni deadline and the pressure is getting pretty intense with plenty of allnighters and coffee, I imagine this is something like what crunch feels like.
I would like to know if anyone has any good tips or advice for dealing with stress and just concentrating on what needs to be done, sometimes I find it easy to lose track of things and get a bit confused really.
something that seems to help a bit is soothing classical music to calm down.
thanks,
rich
I would like to know if anyone has any good tips or advice for dealing with stress and just concentrating on what needs to be done, sometimes I find it easy to lose track of things and get a bit confused really.
something that seems to help a bit is soothing classical music to calm down.
thanks,
rich
Replies
Cutting loose, unexpectedly, works wonders. Especially at uni. Imagine a bunch of stressed and wired students, sat around in a cafe at about 7pm, frantically necking coffee and worrying about their workload. Suddenly, one of them slams his cup into the table and announces "fuck it, i'm going for a pint". A collective weight lifts like a leg-up from god himself. For four glorious hours there's a complete lack of stress, just relaxed fun ... and followed by the best night's sleep you'll ever have.
Just do it responsibly, that's all ...
justin: thats a pretty good idea, I tend to lose track of time working and before I know it Ive blown 4 hours tweaking some fiddly little details. A timer would come in handy for splitting up my time.
danr: thanks, I keep denying myself nights out because I feel Id miss the work I could have got done, but maybe not taking any breaks results in slower work anyway? hmm
Mishra: I tried that, but sometime after the 10th hobo I just had to admit it wasn't working
toast: lol I'll keep those in mind
Gulping down a cup of water between each those sodas and coffees is a good idea too.
Another good ritual is to go down to the pub after work every day..=)
For the last month I've been working between 4 and 12 hours a day to finish a short film for my animation class. Whenever I started feeling stressed I'd just go for a walk. Luckily though, I was rarely feeling stressed or freakin out. I think that was in large part due to how I scheduled my time. If you make and follow a schedule, at least you'll know that you'll finish on time.
Anyways, just thank god you dont have to paint the hundreds upon hundreds of cells that I had to paint for my animation (unless you are, then I pity you)
I keep a bottle of tequila under my desk. Every time the stress gets to be too much, I whack a co-worker over the head with it.
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Haven't lol'd while reading PC in awhile. Thanks AZ
When it comes to stress, I just imagine what it's gonna be like as soon as it's over... you can just kick back, relax, do what the hell you want with no worries. With a target like that, it keeps me going! Then again, it's not often I get all that stressed. Until the last 2 days of a deadline, anyway...
My stress levels get high at work dealing with all the idiocy so Im getting into a routine where I sneak off to the work gym at about 5 every afternoon and spend an hour punching a bag or whatever.
while not new to me, happened off and on over the years, since way back around 7 years old or so, just never knew what it was and it never lasted but about 30 minutes to an hour so i brushed it aside. this time it last for 4 days.
when i get them it's like my eyes have two focal points/depth perceptions and a bit of vertigo(only way i know how to describe the feeling) and the feeling is UBER INTENSE when i close my eyes. anyway after four days of insomnia, i took a trip with mom to the ER. there they were as baffeled as i was and thought maybe it was stress. gave me a shot of muscule relaxer and i felt like a new man, didnt know how stressed i was until i felt my shoulders melt away. after that i got a prescription for some pills to help insomnia. took one that night slept like a dead man for over 8hrs.
if there's a moral here it's RELAX. stress can do horrible things to your body. take some time and let your body relax, be a ragdoll laying in your chair. slow deep breaths, find someone to rub your shoulders (return the favour if they are stressed too), scream into a pillow and do the other things people have listed.
good luck with the project
Cholden: man I think I can only do about 5 'real' pushups (arms fully bent to fully extended), I guess I get around 30 if I only go halfway
AstroZombie: haha I lol'd too
aesir: thanking God now :] don't know how you traditional anim guys do it, my flatmate is an animator too and man it seems incredibly tough!
palm: aah pub sounds good if only I wasn't such a sucker for beer, if I go out for a couple it's guaranteed to turn into a night out, then the next day is fubard with hangover.
Mop: aye I don't get stressed normally either, but this is the hardest I've ever worked for uni, and the closest I've come to a deadline without stuff finished in advance.. And before, I could say 'I'll try harder next assignment'. Not this time though
shotgun: good call
daz: sounds cool, I'd like to end up somewhere with/near a gym
snemmy: shit that sounds rough, I will definately try to follow those suggestions!
alcohol helps a bit, but its not really that great cuz there are after effects and shit.
Rooster sex doesn't count tho
I tend to do my best work when pressurised.
There are degress however. there is a stress and feeeling you can't cope , but I suggest that you try and unwind by chasing pigeons around in the shopping centre or counting large breasted women
as for me and stress, trance helps me. sit in a chair and daydream for 10 minutes or so. forget about your body for a seccond and just alow thoughts to come into your head as they will, without judging them. i'm a strange case tho man. people here will tell you i'm crazy.
Stress: the overiding desire to choke the living he!! out of someone who deserves it.
Solution for me: Long walks fresh air, reduce caffeine intake, more sleep, fantasy or SF books. Visualizing your problems mounted onto a big deer on the road and you drive a semi-truck right over the Buck. Stuff like that..........
edit: The key is "new" music. WinAmp internet radio is great for this. I geuss constantly hearing new things keeps things fresh, even when you're working on the same thing for days (or weeks / months) on end.
Nakur: yeah shoutcast is a godsend sometimes :]
i have almost 0 stress, because i just don't sweat anything, but then again my mind is different than most peoples in that sense.
but when i do get stressed, i usually go punch a metal mailbox or destroy some old computer parts. its very fulfilling, and i highly recommend it.
As for stress? to be honest, my soap operaesque life is causing me more stress (friends getting married, family dramas etc), though that may change come thursday...
luckily though our final dissertation was due in March, so all the stressing for that was over a while ago. I've also already had my final exhibition due to complications with gallery booking availabilty (I'm on an Illustration Degree), So maybe i've just filled myself to full stress capacity and just haven't noticed... :-)
As for dealing with it though, I recommend a subtle mix of regular breaks, inspiring and energy lifting music, keeping some sort of social time for visitors or visiting, racking off like a demon, and most importantly if you have friends who are willing to listen, bitch and rage to them whenever they're willing. when this is all over you could also try visting a physical therapist or masseur to give your aching bones a tune-up- god knows i could do with that right now, I am a hugely lazy mofo when it comes to excercise. I really should try that exercise every hour thing, rather than making a cup of tea which turns my tongue yellow.
and hey, if you usually don't have problems with your deadlines, be dead proud of yourself and realise how much you have acheived versus how much you've let yourself down. something tells me 'acheivement' will win hands down. ;o)
oh yeah, going out and getting hammered can help, but on such a short timescale you may as well wait until you're celebrating being finished, right?
Anyways, best of luck with the big final push, and hope the real world isn't as daunting for you as it seems to be for me right now.
Hmm my brain cannot compute.subtlety overload!!
reminds me I mentioned to a friend about my art tutor who never seemed to get stressed. I said how come he doesn't smoke drink or get stoned , yet he always looks cheerful. My mate said it was 'because' he didn't get stoned, drink or smoke that he looks happy.
Common sense really
Vermilion, I still recall yrs ago I was a Sup over like 3 to 4 women directly and 20 indirectly, by 5 at night I was alone and cranking up Doo1 and set on easy settings so I could mow down Marines right and left.........
Beer.
Golf.
Games.
Soccer.
Sex.
Poker.
I go to get the dissertation bound using the uni print services, the heat bound version goes without a hitch, but when I go to get the second version spiral bound the f-ing machine needs some maintainance or something and I need to come back in an hour. So thats head back home to try get work done, stop in the middle of it, head back into uni, get diss bound, get back to work. aagh.
Then, half an hour from the deadline while im stitching together the beginning, middle and end parts of the animation f-ing premiere cant read the f-ing avis that it f-ing rendered. All that shows up is a blank area the size of the animation. SO, my animation was handed in as 3 seperate pieces, and I wasted so much time trying to fix it that I had to sprint across town and hand everything in with 3 minutes to go.
As some small consolation ive got a presentation to do for thursday, and if I can finish up the sound and editing for then I can at least show the tutors what it should look like.
I know you're probably thinking my time management is crap and I should have had it all done in time (well maybe), but Ive been working solidly for the past month pretty much.
I'm going to the pub.
that'll teach you to encode in lovelly codecs wunnit
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well, yes. but maybe I'm wrong, I assume that a program that encodes in divx can *read div x.