Stressors

First, we would suggest taking a few moments to jot down some of the things at school which you have found stressful recently. It very well could be that you have begun to document this already in your journal. If you haven't, please do so now. The more specific the stressor, the better.

For Example
In general, it will be potentially more instructive for you to note something like, "Every time I get ready to go into the room for my second period class, I feel all stressed out" rather than something like "It's stressful at work."

Second, it may be of equal value for you to open up the process to include notes to yourself not only about stressors at work but also in the rest of your life. It's still your life, and we have never met a person who is such a good compartmentalizer that there is no spillover whatsoever of personal stress into the workplace, or vice versa.

In fact, a major study published in early 1998 by James Bond (really!) and his associates at the Families and Work Institute verified this very issue, which doubtless makes intuitive sense to you already. Called "The 1997 National Study of the Changing Workforce" (Bond, Galinsky, & Swanberg, 1998), one of the major findings was what the researchers called "the spillover effect" -- pressures at work come home to impact family life, and family demands affect performance at work.

You and your mentor need to decide whether it will be more helpful for you to gather data over a particular period of time, or instead to begin with whatever comes right off the top of your head at this moment, then to reflect on what's going on and how, if at all, it is impacting your work.
If you need some journaling reminders about how best to help yourself keep track of the important issues, click here to make a quick visit to the journaling material. Otherwise, we invite you to click on the icon below to access some important reflection / discussion issues about your stressors.

	First, we would suggest taking a few moments to jot down some of the things at school which you have found stressful recently. It very well could be that you have begun to document this already in your journal. If you haven't, please do so now. The more specific the stressor, the better.
For Example In general, it will be potentially more instructive for you to note something like, "Every time I get ready to go into the room for my second period class, I feel all stressed out" rather than something like "It's stressful at work."