[Quiet Man Cometh]

Definately don't cut yourself off from the things you like to do. I used to do that because I felt if I did anything it should be school work and I often ended up sitting and doing nothing because I would burn out on school but feel bad about doing anything else. I took to taking walks or sitting and painting for a while to refresh my mind.

I found I was the most stressed when I wasn't being productive, those moments when I would just sit and stare at the textbook and not get anywhere. I had to remindn myself that if I wasn't getting anywhere with school work, then I may as well do something else until I can focus on it again. It was better than sitting and fretting.

One thing i did do that helped was to take a wall calender and mark off all my assignment due dates with coloured tabs for each course so I could see which assinments were coming up week by week. I found a wall calender better than a dayplanner for that because I could see farther into the future with a glance. One thing that also helped to keep in mind is to ignore the stuff that hasn't formally been assigned yet. I don't know about you but I always got a sheet with all my assignment due dates on it at the beginning of the year and they used to stress me out a lot until I remembered that some of them havne't even been mentoined in class yet adn I made myself ignore them which helped with my perception of the work load.

Do you have an idea of how fast you read or write? I found budgeting time helped for reading or large papers. Writng a paper nearly always took me one hour per page, writing and proofreading included, so I would make sure I had that amount of time to write something out. Studying was the same: it nearly always took me one hour to cover 10 pages of material, including notes and re-reads and such. With that I was able to get a good schedule for myself and time manage a little better.

Any of that help much? I finished my degree and have a fair idea of how much stress you are probably feeling right now. If possible, work out a study schedule so that you don't even have to look at a book for one day a week. My counsellor told me that and I would take one day a week and often one night as well from studying and it really helped manage stress. I did that since first year all the way through to fourth. Best advice I ever got. :)