Dealing with Overwhelm in High School

By Lily Bozenski

As we move into the fourth quarter of the 2025-2026 school year, work begins to get harder and more frequent, and it can very quickly start to pile up. One sick day can mean an extra week’s worth of work depending on your classes. Balancing all of that on top of extracurriculars, family, friends, and other parts of life can make it feel like the world is closing in. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with how much is happening all at once. In hopes of offering some advice, I’d like to share some strategies I use to get my thoughts to slow down when the overwhelm starts to take over. 

Make a To-Do List, and Include Simple Things

I love a good to-do list. It helps me to remember everything by writing it all down. The feeling of getting to check something off is so satisfying and helps me feel like I’m getting things done. So, I add things onto the to-do list that I know I’m going to do anyway, like take a shower or get dressed. Then I get to feel like I’m getting a lot done, and when I do start working on schoolwork, I’m already in the mindset of being productive. 

Estimate How Long Each Assignment will Take

Sometimes when we get overwhelmed, we automatically convince ourselves we don’t have enough time to finish everything. It can be really helpful to quickly estimate how long it will take to finish each assignment, then add up all the time to find the total. Often, it’s less than you thought. Then schedule when you will have the time to do some assignments. Say you find it will take you two hours to complete an assignment. As long as you can find some point in your day where you have two hours free, you’ve got time to finish it. And most of the time, you’ll realize your estimate was longer than it really takes. 

Give Yourself Breaks

If you’re really starting to feel overwhelmed and can’t get anything done because of how panicked you feel, it can help to just step away for a moment. Give yourself some time to do something you enjoy, then come back to the work once your mind is clear. Sometimes all it takes is getting the worry and panic to calm down before you realize the work isn’t as much as it feels. 

Remember to Breathe, Hydrate, Eat, and Sleep 

I find that when I get stressed and caught up in my own thoughts, I forget to do things my body needs like breathing enough, drinking enough water, and eating well. If you’re not doing well physically, it’ll be harder to do well mentally. Take some deep breaths, get a glass of water, and eat a snack. Make sure to go to sleep at a good time so you can get a full eight hours too. Just spending some time to care about your body can help get your mind to calm down. Once your thoughts are quieter, you can approach your work with a better mental state to be productive, rather than stare at your Google Doc spiraling.

Reward Yourself

When you’re overwhelmed with assignments, sometimes all you need is some positive reinforcement. Pick some sort of reward you can give yourself; going out to eat somewhere you love, buying a fancy drink you wouldn’t normally, splurging on that clothing item you’ve had your eye on, or just about anything you’ve been wanting. Then, tell yourself you can get it once you’ve finished your work. It can also help to have a smaller reward, like eating a handful of chocolate chips after every assignment you complete, or watching one episode of a show you like in between paragraphs of an essay. Regardless of what kind of reward you choose to give yourself, it can help provide some incentive and make your efforts feel really worth it.

Regardless of if you choose to use any of these strategies or not, try to remember that the overwhelm of high school won’t last forever. In just a month you’ll have moved on from this stress. So keep pushing, you can handle this!