Let’s face it, being a home tutor is stressful. More so during this pandemic where there are less available tuition jobs than usual.
All this undue stress can affect one’s performance and how they treat their students.
If you are a Singaporean tutor and want to deal with your stress, here are our 10 stress management strategies that will help you out.
Identify your stress situations
Each person can get stressed for different reasons and if you want to get rid of your stress, you need to know what is giving you stress. Take a look at your daily life and see which parts of it are giving you stress. It could be your students, your family or others.
Once you identify what is causing you stress, see if you can find ways like eating healthy to reduce these reasons from being stressful to you. Always use positive means to get these stressful situations out of your mind because if you don’t, you may just end up giving yourself more stress.
Be realistic about your goals
Tutors have different schedules every day and will have to deal with the different needs of their students such as special needs like ADHD on top of the other things you need to do every day.
Before you start the day, have a clear list of things you need to do for the day which has to be done immediately. If you have tasks that you can do for another day, put that on another list. Always remember that you can’t force yourself to do everything in one day because you may end up burning yourself out in the process.
Do something to relax you in between tasks and press onwards.
Don’t react to imagined insults
Some people tend to become stressed because they overthink things like what people are telling them. If you are like this, you are just wasting your time in trying to figure out why they are saying these ‘insults’ and what you need to do to get rid of these insults.
If you think people are insulting you, give them the benefit of the doubt and look through the situation with someone you trust. They may be able to provide you with some insights that you can’t see regarding why these people are ‘insulting’ you. You may also want to equip yourself with advice on how to handle rejection from your clients.
Focus on what is in your control
As tutors, we like to have control over how we plan our lesson schedules to make every session we take perfect. However, there will be instances that those plans will have to be thrown away because they are out of your control.
Don’t get stressed when this happens. See what things you can still do and focus on them rather than be stressed about the things you can’t control at all.
Offload in a safe way
Sometimes, it is bad to just keep everything to yourself, especially if the stress gets too much. See a trusted family member, friend or colleague and speak to them about what is bothering you. A good family support can help you get new insights about what is going on with your life and find ways to get rid of the stress.
Just remember that you should pick someone who won’t just give you advice after you rant. Pick someone who knows what you need from them as they listen to your problems.
Move on from past mistakes
Tutors also feel guilty and make mistakes every once in a while like other people. If you linger on these mistakes and regrets even at the present time, you will definitely find your energy zapped away from you.
It is important that you do something different for a change and move on from these regrets. Some mistakes or regrets can be prevented in the future if you know what to do next tie.
You should also learn how to forgive yourself for making these mistakes because if you don’t, you will definitely feel guilty no matter what you do. Here are some books to help you move past your mistakes and become a better tutor.
Set aside time each day for recreation and exercise
Tutors also deserve to have a break, especially after dealing with all sorts of personalities and their various tutoring requirements.
Do something that will relax you after your tutoring sessions to help yourself relax. It could be meditation, exercise or simply doing some breathing exercises. These will definitely recharge you up, increase your learning capacity and help you face the day easily.
Don’t bottle up anger & frustrations
If your students or their parents are giving you a hard time and causing your stress, make it a point to try fixing the issue with them directly. Find out why they are giving you a hard time and find solutions like these recommendations to go around it.
Don’t bottle up your grudges against them because it will only affect your working relationship with them.
Learn to say no
Tutors are very giving and they will do their best to give everything they can to help students succeed while under their watch. However, there is a limit on how much you can give as a tutor and you need to learn how to say no in the process.
If a parent wants you to extend their child’s tutoring sessions but you can’t do so because of your schedule, politely turn it down.
Think positively
Finally, tutors should learn how to think positive even if the day isn’t their best day ever. Smile as much as you can and try to always find the positive side of things even if there is none that you can see.
Being a tutor is not an easy job and there will be times when your stress levels will rise up to the point you may ask yourself if this is still a good job for you. However, if teaching is your vocation, you can definitely benefit from one of the 10 stress management strategies we listed above. Remember, you also have to consider your health and well-being so don’t hesitate to take some time for yourself when you need it.
For self-learning as a tutor, you need to check out these resources:
How To Be Financially Successful As A Private Tutor
10 Podcasts that will Help You Improve as a Tutor
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