Handling college stress by exercise?

Psych101

Actually, lurking or posting on Physics Forum is FAR more productive than lurking or posting a forum like Encyclopedia Dramatica Forum or 4chan.com/b/

The content on this site is at least educational, and more importantly it is at least possibly to have an educational and intellectual conservation on this forum (Physics Forum) unlike a HUGE majority of forums on the Internet. If possible, you could try to have discussions pertaining to the study material by remaining yourself that you're on this forum for studying help. Suppress any urges to engage in distracting posting behavior on this forum, but don't do this constantly since your suppressed urge will eventually overpower your will-power.

Or better yet, hide your computer while you are studying, so that the computer (or more importantly the Internet) doesn't serve as a distraction to you. Sometimes out of site= out of mind. I personally find the Internet to be one of, if not the most, distracting distractions on not only my studying but other IRL (in real life) activities ever. This has probably been the case since 2005 for me (so about 7 years of this nefarious distraction known as the Internet).

You should develop a habit of using the Internet PRIMARILY for homework, studying, using your Syllabus (which helps your studying and homework), and checking your email. Entertainment such as watching Youtube videos or posting on this forum should be your reward (positive reinforcer) for your studying.

Also remember that you must take baby-steps in order to eventually reduce and rid yourself of this distracting OCD-like, post-on-Physics Forum habit. Don't try to think that you can completely rid yourself of this bad habit (or any bad habit) because if you do, you will loose self-esteem and end up reverting back to or even reinforcing and strengthening your bad habits .

Perhaps you may never rid yourself from this compulsive, non-study material-related forum posting habit or Internet distractions in general, but as long as you can eventually keep such distractions at a reasonably low-level, you should be proud of yourself.

Here's a protip: The more stress you experience, the more likely you will engage in obsessive-compulsive behaviors as a stress-reducing behavior. Unfortunately, the stress relieved from obsessive-compulsive behaviors is only temporary, and you will end up engaging in more OCD behavior once you become stress-out from your OCD behavior (which in this case for you and ESPECIALLY me is compulsively and procrastinating web-surfing).

I noticed that some people become obsessive about posting on forums to the point where they post as much as possible. I was unfortunately one of those people. At one point, on this forum called the LoungeForum in the span of half a year I posted about 5000 posts {{which is roughly 27.4 posts per day}}. Needless to say this had a HUGE negative impact on my academics for my first year of college, and I regret to this day that I didn't seek for professional help (or any help at all) for dealing with that ANNOYING and DETRIMENTAL PROBLEM.

Oh well, at least I learn from my mistakes and now I know when I have a particular problem and the help I can seek from other people (as well as what I can do to help myself).

I just hope more kids learn about how to cope with their OCD-behaviors so that they don't end up destroying their lives. More importantly, I hope you guys found this post helpful!

hivesaeed4

Wow. It seems my orignial post has developed into a post on "smart studying" so why not continue it. Why does'nt everyone join in so we can have this discussion on good study practices and help each other out. I'll start by listing what I do which helps me in getting good grades:


1) Enroll in courses which actually are interesting. I've always found that in interesting courses, work is'nt work, it's actually FUN. Yeah I mean it. An example: I took a course Introduction to programming which involved programming in Matlab. It was tough but I could code for 8 hours at a stretch without getting bored.

2) Make notes: Honestly, its very important. I make tons of notes. Anything which you write down will make a lot of sense later on. I've seen students not make notes because everything is in the book only to struggle afterwards.

3) Meet your TA's: Anything which I don't understand, I look up in the lecture notes or the book. If I don't get what I'm looking for, the next day I meet my TA. I prefer meeting my TA rather than emailing them since that way I understand better.


By the way any thoughts on study groups? I've never used them so I'm interested in what people have to say about them.

RabbitWho

Hee hee so jelly of you!

1. We don't have a choice about which subjects we pick until 4th year
2. Cool! Yes I like taking notes, even though there are a lot of free ones by other people on the net.
3. We don't have TAs.

I watched a really good lecture on youtube from Samford (not Stanford) about effective studying that mentioned how to go about forming a study group and making sure it wasn't a waste of time.


You have to have a topic (i.e. a chapter or a part of a chapter) for each meeting and everybody has to come with 4 questions (either questions they really need to know the answer to or want to discuss, or quiz questions)


Oh there's a great add on for firefox called leechblock which allows you to make a list of all the websites with which you waste your time (youtube etc.) and block them out during certain hours of the day. It even allows you to lock out its own options and about:config ... which I didn't think I would need.. but I did.

hivesaeed4

About study groups.

I've found (from observations) that they actually are more detrimental than beneficial. At the start of the study group 'session' everyone's serious but eventually the conversation turns to movies, jokes and the usual stuff.

Nice app leechblock.

RabbitWho

Yeah he warned about that in the video. Maybe the trick is to form study groups with people who you don't like!

Choppy

Something about studying smarter is that there is no "one size fits all" solution. Part of being a good student is learning how you learn best.

Coming back to the orignal post in question, I have a suggestion. Why not try it for a semester? Find an exercise mode that fits for you. Join a sports club. Take up a martial art. Get up at 6:00 am every morning and run. Work your way through the P90X DVDs. Remember the best exercise is the exercise that actually do.

Try it and see if your academic performance goes up or down.

Of course, even if there is no noticable academic performance improvement short term, there are also long-term and perhaps unseen benefits. For example, statistically speaking, you will get sick less and you'll fight off infections faster. You'll sleep better and be more alert. You'll live longer. Daily chores won't be as much of a struggle.

Let us know what happens.