Eyes wide and heart entangled while speaking to her club, junior Kaitlyn Edly explains the comfort of hour-long warm showers as her reward for completing her work while joking that of course, she always showers even if she doesn’t complete the tasks, but it helps keep her motivated. She discusses potential rewards for the system she uses to combat procrastination on a day-to-day basis even when she feels burnt out. 

Edly started the Anti-Stress club at the beginning of the 2019-2020 school year originally to help lower stress simply by coloring. As time went on, she dug deeper into research and studies on stress and implements them into her meetings—most recently about procrastination during the Jan.16 meeting. 

 “Whenever I research the tips, I find out new things that help me personally and the club,” Edly said. “It makes [me] feel happy and it makes me know that all of [the preparation] was worth it.” 

Not only does procrastination add to the rise of stress among teens, but a leading factor according to local therapist Elizabeth Williams, is time management. Williams is a teenage counselor at TRANSFORMations Inc. in Deltona, Florida and has been aiding kids and teens for seven years. She finds they are burnt out or overloaded with stress and advises on how to help teen burnout. 

“The Eisenhower Square helps you identify how to determine what to deal with and at what order,” Williams said. “It was developed in the military [and] it shows you how you place importance on things. It especially helped me when I was a high school, [because it showed] the importance I was placing on things that were not going to be important.” 

Agreeing with psychology professional, guidance counselor, Kelly Hickox, gives insight as to what can cause teenage burnout and the effect time management has on mental health.  

“I would say [students who feel stressed] need to prioritize their commitments because I think sometimes, we get involved in too many things,” Hickox said. “Not that that’s a bad thing because some people can handle that, but it depends on the personality of the student—some can’t handle too much.” 

Social interaction becomes harder when people are burnt out or are overwhelmed with stress. Edly faces times where her parents ask to have family movie nights but is overloaded with classwork that it makes it hard to make time.  

“It’s okay to say no to some things,” Edly said. “It’s okay even if you may hurt their feelings. As long as you’re prioritizing yourself, it’s okay.” 

Time management usually is only factored in for all of the tasks students must complete and finish such as schoolwork, clubs, sports, or work. Williams elaborates on the problem of that idea and the misconception of what is classified as self-care. 

“I tell everyone, you can at least take 20 minutes a day for yourself, even if it’s you’re just jamming in your car singing to yourself,” Williams said. “It’s like prioritizing, but you have to be really well versed in time management and not a lot of people are taught time management.” 

Selfcare has become a common topic among teenagers but many preach and don’t follow through with routine care. Not only that, but students tend to feel pressure from social media in their free time, which Hickox explains her concern. 

“Be mindful of the present,” Hickox said. “Take a break from social media to engage in more social interaction because I think sometimes, getting so glued to social media, you then lose sight of how to interact. I think taking a break from it can definitely help the situation because I just think there’s too much out there.”