How to work under pressure by Mashal Hussain

How to work under pressure

By: Mashal Hussain

As University students we all are acquainted with how hard it can be to make best use of our schedule… Finding sufficient time to balance our personal life along with achieving excellent grades and of course,  getting enough sleep while we’re at it is a challenge!  As we are approaching the start of the newly semester, it seems like everything is piling up. Assignments and their deadlines, projects and their changes as well as test preparations are only a few of the stressful issues that can occur in the Student’s life. We face this state of affairs often and can experience an immense deal of pressure to get them done.
 Working under pressure is a daily incident. While few students like me are officially procrastinators so such incidents are even harder for us to deal with. Never mind, being aware of the steps to acquire when faced with a problem can reduce the stress of work pressure.
It’s a saying;  “Pressure – The stress or urgency of matters demanding attention, the burden of physical or mental distress, the constraint of circumstances.”
Working under pressure involves managing situations that can be inhibited by time, resources, difficultly of the assignment and more. It involves the stress that comes from managing with a subject that must be taken care of on the right time. This pressure can also show the way to physical or mental distress. So the first step for practicing how to work under pressure is to maintain control. For some of us, pressure brings up emotions can be tough for us while deciding anything. If we are not able to set our emotions aside all we can do is to take those emotions and transform them into the energy required to deal with the situation.
Number two, Share the pressure; surround ourselves with friends or family. Sharing pressure with them, setting goals and accomplishing them together – if possible, even hand over some of the work to them. Either it reduces the stress, or enhances it.
Number three, No – small word, big prospective. This one is hard to learn. Over the centuries, especially when we are students full of passion and enthusiasm enrolled in extracurricular activities such as students’ associations, sports teams, volunteering causes, etc. we might catch ourselves with too many responsibilities and commitments. Saying no is the first step to coping with the lack of time. At the end of the journey of 4 years, our main responsibility as a student is to finish our degree.
Number four, To-do lists; Bullet point tasks illustrative exactly what we have to do. Then prioritize: what is important and what is not? Get it off your to-do list and go for that task; it doesn’t belong there in the list. Now, what is urgent? For example, if we have a test tomorrow: it’s important to study today, however, we all know that we could have done it well one or two weeks ago.

Last, Procrastination – friend and foe. Let me procrastinate about procrastination. It is mandatory; Sometimes our mind just needs to slow down or even shut down for an hour. When we’re in pressure and stressful situation, it's likely to speed up our thinking. Don't do it!  Moving too fast often leads us to act before we’re ready.

Relax, breathe and prepare a plan. Or listen to some good music, we’ll be able to think more flexibly, creatively, and conscientiously, and our task will be all the better for it. Good Luck!

Mashal Hussain

  Practical work conducted under supervision of Sir Sohail Sangi 

Department of Media &Communication Studies, University of Sindh