An article in Psychology Today, a popular blog run by psychologists and psychiatrists, notes that overworking can lead to burnout. This is when a person can no longer handle the stress they operate under and cave in from physical and mental overload. This often induces a period of fatigue and depression (which aren’t rare among teenagers anyway), and this can be difficult to overcome. I’ve experienced burnout once, and I see friends go through it all the time. While burning out right before summer break is fine, as the holidays can be the perfect time to recover, burning out before an important exam or interview can be disastrous. The ensuing panic can elevate stress further, hindering recovery; burnout can make or break you, and it is vital to find regular outlets for built-up stress.

There are definitely days where intense work is needed, such as before important exams and immediate deadlines. But there are many ways to recover from work-heavy periods. Here are some suggested methods to easily reduce stress, and give your brain a rest from rigorous studying.

Exercise
By far, the most common method is exercise. I allocate an hour to exercise every day (except during exam season); exercise, apart from keeping you healthy, also releases chemicals in your brain that elevate your mood, relieving pain and stress. Another way to wind down is allocating some time every day to do something you enjoy, whether it be video games, reading or eating your favorite food. Your body and brain will recover faster if you inject regular fun into your schedule.

Eat healthy snacks
When you think of snacks, you probably think of a big packet of crisps, or a chocolate bar. Granted, eating junk food makes us happy – research has proven that their specific tastes and smells inhibit stress levels and enhance our mood. There is a catch; junk food makes us feel good temporarily. In the long term, however, junk food triggers the secretion of stress-inducing hormones in the brain; since we associate junk food with feeling happy, we turn back to junk food as an escape from stress, which in turn increases stress levels. Moreover, junk food usually leads to weight gain, which stimulates negative self-conscious thoughts, and elevates anxiety. On the other hand, healthy food promotes the secretion of mood-elevating chemicals – without going into too much detail, it slows down the absorption of sugar into your bloodstream. Junk food adds to your long-term stress; healthy food decreases it.

Spend some time in nature
Like healthy food, spending time outside is vital for preventing and controlling anxiety. Nature, including trees, plants and even natural sounds (like birds chirping and water flowing), causes our brain to release “feel good” chemicals that help us relax. Try it yourself. When you’re feeling really stressed, go for a walk in the park. I guarantee you’ll feel better in just a while. Research done on children in Barcelona has revealed that the more time they spend in nature, the less likely they are to have behavioral issues in the future. So when you feel stressed, get outside your house and enjoy nature. If you live in an industrial area, try growing plants at home. Who knows, gardening may become your new favorite hobby!

Listen to music
Music should be a mandatory part of your day. Invest in good sound equipment, and watch how your stress levels drop. It doesn’t matter what type of music you listen to – as long as you enjoy it, you will find it a good method to relieve any built-up stress. Remember to be aware of your surroundings though. If you decide you’re going to alleviate your stress by blasting rap music on the Beijing Subway, then don’t blame us when you get arrested for public nuisance.

Do some housework
When you’re feeling too stressed, it’s always a good idea to stop what you’re doing, and do something else. Teenagers may sleep more, and adults may have a night out with their friends. However, it can be beneficial to do something more useful with your time. Many of us have daily household chores. Instead of allocating a fixed time to this everyday, try completing your chores bit by bit throughout the day. After working for fifty minutes, take a ten-minute break to clean your room, or take out the trash. Although many of us have ayis, everyone can use some help. You’ll also feel better when you have finished all your work early and have some time to yourself.

Volunteer
There are always people in need of help, either in your neighborhood or on the opposite side of the world. Whether you’re a teenager or an adult, it is our responsibility, as mindful global citizens, to offer help. There are countless volunteering organizations that you could be involved in. Many high schools offer opportunities to volunteer, and most students have volunteered at least once, whether for local or international projects. Additionally, there are organizations that arrange volunteering trips over summer, and schools often encourage students to raise funds for self-organized volunteering trips. If you’re not able to finance an overseas volunteering trip, then volunteer in your community. Volunteering locally can be just as valuable as working overseas.

Regardless of whether you’re a parent or a child, remember to spend some time with your family. As students stress about final exams and scramble to submit college applications, and parents worry about interviews or meetings, family can be easy to neglect. But while it’s important to set goals and achieve them, it’s just as important to take some time off for yourself, family and friends. They’re more important than your work any day. Finally, remember to do something you enjoy every day.

And if you can’t do what you love, then love what you do.

Photo: Adobe Creative Cloud
A complete version of this article appeared on p53-56 of the beijingkids September 2018 Teen Takeover issue.

Over the years, in the five countries I’ve lived in, there have always been parents who pushed their children to work harder, often comparing them to neighbors’ children who study longer hours and get better grades. This is a phenomenon prominent in Asian families, who discipline their children to work hard, but not play hard. This brings about a major issue.

Childhood should be viewed as a precious phase of life. Children are meant to play with their friends, not with their calculators. This applies to adults too. Yes, stress and overworking are inevitably more common in adults than young people, but that doesn’t grant adults permission to prioritize work over family. Some of my friends see their working parent(s) only once a day, and some less frequently.

There is an optimal level of hard work that yields the greatest success, whether it be at school or the workplace. Overworking your body is seldom a good idea, as it could lead to a catastrophic range of physical and psychological conditions, none of which remotely contribute to the betterment of people, often even going as far as to reduce your focus, hence minimizing success.

As the world becomes increasingly materialistic, and as more people dream bigger, competition is inevitable, causing many students and adults to collapse under the pressures of everyday life. It doesn’t have to be this way. Recognize your priorities, and make time for them now. That doesn’t mean that you should cut down on work drastically. You can’t go from working 90 hours a week to working 40 hours a week without risking losing your job. The same goes for students; if you don’t spend enough time working, you lower your chances of success (unless you’re a genius). However, it isn’t healthy for young people to be working too long or too hard.

To make my point, I asked a friend of mine at school, who is known for his exceptional academic performance, if he gets enough sleep on school days.

He told me: “I go to sleep at 1 AM and wake up at 6.30. People tell me I’m supposed to sleep for like 8 hours, but I can’t study this much and have sufficient sleep. I get good grades even with this sleep schedule, but it’s difficult to concentrate in school sometimes. I know I could think more clearly if I got more sleep. Additionally, while my friends hang out over the weekend, I can’t afford to do anything but sleep. This also reduces the time I spend with my parents, which will ultimately decrease even more when I go to college.”

He is not the only person who experiences the detrimental effects of working too much. Many students spend entire weekends in their room, only coming out for meals, and barely see their parents on weekdays. Students come home late from the multiple extra-curricular activities they participate in, and working parents devote too much time to work; both parties unintentionally distance themselves from each other and wonder why they spend so little time together. Blame your overloaded schedules. Come out of your room, your office, your hiding shell, and spend some time with your family. Overworking does not set you up for success in the long term.

Photo: Courtesy of BSB, Shunyi
A complete version of this article appeared on p53-56 of the beijingkids September 2018 Teen Takeover issue.

How many hours do you think a high school student sleeps? Whatever number you have, halve it. That’s just about how much sleep we get.

I’m only slightly kidding.

A survey on the sleep patterns of Year 12 (junior year) students at The British School of Beijing, Shunyi reflects an average of 7 hours per day. During exam season, this number drops to a horrifying 4.5 hours – it’s not uncommon for students to even study into the next day! However, studies show that teenagers need 9 to 10 hours of sleep. This adds up to about 700 hours of sleep lost per year. Of course, some students sleep early and maintain stellar grades; most of us, though, aren’t that lucky.

“Hard work leads to success.” It’s about the most clichéd expression you’ll see, whether on posters around school or in the workplace. There’s a reason why it’s so popular: it’s true. Ask your parents. Could they have gotten to where they are now without working hard? Absolutely not (in most cases). As young people, it’s important for us to realize that while there is no cheat code (like in a video game) or substitute for hard work, there should be a limit to how hard you work.

A few months ago, I was your typical overworked teenager. I stayed up until two in the morning, working on various deadlines simultaneously and hoping for the best, but I knew I could do better had I planned my time more wisely. This may remind you of another celebrated quote used by many high schools: “work smart, not hard.” Like most people, I skimmed past this idea when I was introduced to it, interpreting it more as a feel-good quote than an effective one. So of course, I continued my 8-hour cram sessions before exams, forced myself to stay awake in school, and watched my mental and physical health suffer. I thought it would pay off. It therefore always came as a surprise to me when students who studied less got the same grade as I did. I was left, sometimes quite literally, scratching my head, wondering what I was doing wrong, and what they were doing right.

That’s when I read an article about neuroplasticity. It’s when your brain adapts to new information that you learn, constantly changing the way it’s wired. It’s what allows you to become better at remembering things that you constantly need to know. For example, looking at a specific mathematical formula every day for a week will embed it into your memory for longer than looking at it minutes before an exam. This is why teachers and parents emphasize the importance of starting early. Students who regularly review what they learn to get much higher grades than students who stay up till dawn cramming for an upcoming test.

For neuroplasticity to work, your brain needs time to heal. I say ‘heal,’ because you can think of learning new things as cutting holes in your brain and filling them up with information. It takes time for the brain to grow itself back around the new information. If you keep cutting more holes and overload your brain with information, it will need to spend more time growing back, which means it will function at a prolonged lower rate, leading to lower usage of long-term memory. It’s not surprising when students who crammed for a test forget a lot of the information covered after a week.

If this doesn’t convince you, here’s another situation you may be more familiar with. If you want to build muscle, would you exercise intensively every day, or would you allow the targeted muscles a recovery period? Most, if not all, bodybuilders and gym enthusiasts will do the latter, as it is what has been proven to be a better method. The brain, though technically not a muscle, behaves like one, and it too needs time to recover from the stress you have placed it under.

Photo: Courtesy of BSB, Shunyi
A complete version of this article appeared on p53-56 of the beijingkids September 2018 Teen Takeover issue