In today’s competitive academic environment, student stress has become a pressing and prevalent issue. As reported by the Transforming Education Organisation, 94% of American students feel continuously challenged by their studies. This either results in poor grades, increased stress levels or the ever-continued procrastination of university students.
Getting admission into UMD is quite competitive. As per U.S. News & World Report, the University of Maryland has an acceptance rate of 45%. Along with that, students also find it difficult to comply with the university’s academic regulations, particularly when writing a dissertation. They feel stressed quite often and also experience severe academic burnout due to continuous anxiety.
In this article, we shall explore some tips provided by top academics on how students at the University of Maryland can reduce their stress when working on dissertations in 2025.
Let’s dive deeper into the details.
How to Manage Stress for UMD Dissertations? Top 11 Tips
Dissertations at UMD are quite challenging as they require critical thinking, original research and the ability to present results in a structured manner. Students must be able to curate unique research topics and express their ideas coherently. They are also bound to follow specific guidelines for images, illustrations and other content.
All of this can drain the energy of students and exhaust them mentally. Reduced creativity and increased stress levels are often considered the hallmark of UMD students who are working on their dissertations. A legit dissertation writing service can assist them with fulfilling all the requirements of their papers.
Let’s now discuss the tips by senior scholars that students can follow to manage academic stress in 2025 when working on the UMD dissertations.
- Practice Self-Care
When writing a UMD dissertation, students often neglect their self-care, which results in negative consequences. Self-care activities improve students’ physical, mental and emotional well-being. According to the NHS, students should eat well, get enough sleep, avoid drinking, and take their time to relax and study.
Are you keen to know how prioritising self-care can reduce the stress levels of students working on UMD dissertations? The tips mentioned below can make the entire concept clear for you:
- Eating healthy meals and staying hydrated helps students stay healthy and productive for work.
- Finding social support and having people to talk about also reduces stress levels significantly.
- If students focus on positivity, they can get ahead of many other researchers.
- Regularly reflecting on the progress they make and assessing their self-care routine can also make them productive for research.
- It’s important to make time for all the activities that bring joy to the learners.
Short periods of stress are completely normal and can be resolved by completing a task that you have been ignoring for a while. In the case of a UMD student, it can relate to the completion of a task like finishing a literature review or finalising the dissertation research methodology. The first and foremost thing that is important to take care of is the health of students.
- Face The Workload
When you face the objects causing stress and prioritise your research work, you can get a clear-cut idea of what needs to be done and what you can do to achieve desired results and manage your stress. Make a list of all the tasks that you need to finish, and then put each task into the relevant category. Keep in mind that you have to work through the most important category first.
Some questions to ask when prioritising the research work for a UMD dissertation are the following:
- See what the most urgent task is and what is considered the most important.
- Check what’s important but not too urgent.
- See what needs to be done urgently but not have an immediate importance.
- Can I leave anything right now which won’t trouble me later?
- Should I prioritise working on the tasks that are not important but need to be done quickly?
- Leave all those tasks for the end, which are neither important nor urgent.
Getting the answers to these six questions can help you assess the importance of each task and categorise the most urgent activities. This can further reduce stress because everything gets sorted and organised in the best way. The ideal thing to do after the categories have been finalised is to work on the tasks that are urgent and important & need to be dealt with faster.
- Don’t Compare Your Progress with Others
When it comes to writing dissertations, each student has their strengths and weaknesses. You do not have to compare your progress with others in order to feel good or bad. Instead, you should make a conscious effort to celebrate your achievements, no matter how small they may seem.
If you need some guidelines to follow to keep yourself from comparing your academic progress to other students, we are here to help. Here are the most effective instructions:
- Keep yourself busy so that you do not have excessive time to make unnecessary comparisons.
- Talk to the friends who can push your motivation level upwards.
- Have some fun resetting your emotional equilibrium.
- Stay away from the negative company and bad influence.
- Practice some mindfulness techniques and keep it in your head that you are not in competition with anyone.
Instead of constantly comparing yourself and your progress with others, you can focus on your personal growth. Remember that everyone works at their own pace, and the path to success is not the same for everyone. You should stay determined, focused and true to yourself and one day, you will achieve all your goals.
- Follow a Strict Routine
Having a disciplined routine and a strict timetable is the key to success for students. Creating such a schedule should be on the top list of UDM students if they want to stay organised. Time management is one of the healthy coping strategies for academic stress. As per Clockify, 38% of university students need help to plan their academic schedules.
The seasoned academics of UDM also suggest the following tips to make a strict routine when working on the dissertations:
- Following a strict routine keeps students disciplined and bound to accomplish their research work on time.
- It also provides a sense of stability to the students.
- A routine makes a learner feel in control of their academic progress.
- Students can also successfully create a pattern and accomplish more projects and tasks with ease.
- This saves them from getting distracted and helps them stay focused on academic activities.
- A disciplined routine keeps the energy levels of students high, hence making them able to accomplish great tasks while keeping the stress levels down.
Students must allocate a fixed number of hours to study each day if they want to become productive and write their dissertations without stress in limited time. Some cannot dedicate enough hours to their studies due to professional commitments. You should prioritise your academic tasks based on their importance and urgency. Also, keep taking breaks to maintain a healthy balance in your routine.
- Take Breaks
Keep in mind that it is important to give yourself breaks when working on a UMD dissertation for rest and recharge. According to Daily Mail, taking a small 5-minute mental break can increase the productivity of students by over 50% for upcoming projects and activities. Acknowledge all your efforts and remember that it is completely okay to make mistakes.
Taking regular breaks can help dissertation writing students in a number of ways, including the following:
- It makes students feel more relaxed and less worried.
- They enable students to feel more motivated, productive and energised.
- Students can feel more connected to others and find themselves an active part of the community.
- They get enough time to focus on some fun activities.
- Merely relaxing in one’s room can also bring down the stress levels of students.
Apart from all of this, you should avoid pushing yourself too hard to study and keep taking breaks. Since learning is a continuous process, it is natural to face different challenges when moving along the way. Taking regular breaks will help you achieve your goals quicker and can make you stay productive most of the time.
- Study in Groups
Making a study group can help University of Maryland students maintain a steady track record of their academic progress. According to Forbes, the collaborative efforts of students boost their productivity by 20%. Students who participate in group study sessions end up getting 10-15% higher grades than those who do not participate in the group sessions.
Here is how a group study session can significantly lower the levels of stress in your head:
- Cooperative learning promotes increased academic engagement among students, hence lowering anxiety levels.
- Talking the research over with your fellows can make the group work even more enjoyable.
- Students can retain the research information better when doing group study.
- You can get people to boost your morale when you feel down.
- Students can get new perspectives to view their research work from different angles.
In a group, students can share their learning experiences. Also, they can reach out to professors or other instructors as a group to get additional support. Hence, if you have like-minded students around, you should form dedicated study groups with them. Not only does it keep you disciplined, but it also helps students maintain steady academic progress.
- Follow Effective Study Habits
The overwhelming stress experienced by students when working on the UMD dissertations can impede the rate of their academic stress. To effectively implement healthy management tips for academic stress, students should adopt impactful and effective study habits. Researching and reviewing articles in a peaceful environment can improve the productivity of students.
Here are some tips to adopt healthy study habits that can increase your focus greatly and help you achieve all your goals quite faster.
- Prepare a focused study plan.
- Take detailed notes for your papers.
- Whenever you feel tired, take a break.
- Stick to a timetable.
- Change your environment to feel more productive about your work.
Apart from this, students can experiment with different learning methods, such as making flashcards, summarising information and teaching the same concepts to their fellow researchers. You can also find a comfortable environment and a quiet place to study where all the distractions are absent. Make sure that there are no such things to distract you while you are focused on the academic assignments and other projects.
- Balanced Lifestyle
While writing a well-researched dissertation is important, it is also essential to have a maintained and well-balanced life. Students should engage in different hobbies and spend time with friends and family. This balance can alleviate stress from their life and enhance their overall sense of well-being.
The tips to maintain a healthy lifestyle for reducing the UMD dissertation stress are mentioned below:
- It helps students reframe their problems and look at their situation from a positive angle.
- It helps them maintain a healthy balance between their studies and other life activities.
- They do not get consumed by the negativity all around.
- They avoid comparing their progress with other students.
- A balanced lifestyle increases the chances of success of college and university-going students.
Hence, you can practice maintaining a healthy lifestyle as one of the effective and healthy management techniques for stress management in dissertation writing. Also, pursue all the activities that bring you fulfilment and joy.
- Getting Help from Digital Technology
UMD students can keep track of different deadlines and organise their dissertations by using several online digital gadgets. Different citation management software and other online resources can help students get enough helpful data for the literature review chapters and even let them finalise the methodology chapter.
You can use various tech-based applications and gadgets to streamline the dissertation writing process and reduce stress levels. For example, students can get help from applications for the management of their academic burden:
- Digital calendars
- Task management apps
- Research data-gathering tools
- Different data analysis tools
However, UMD students must also check the department guidelines to see what is allowed for them to use and what tools they cannot use when working on their papers. It’s important to do so; otherwise, they can get accused of utilising some tools that they were not allowed to use.
- Follow Stress Management Exercises
One of the healthy strategies for managing academic stress linked to UMD dissertations is the techniques students can use to release all their stress. Different exercises such as meditation, yoga, and deep breathing exercises can help your anxious nerves rest.
Students can also engage in different hobbies, such as spending time in nature or listening to music. It can reduce their anxiety levels greatly. Some other stress-managing tips and techniques are here:
- Regular stress-relieving exercises
- Trying progressive muscle relaxation
- Spending time outside
- Getting enough sleep
- Eating healthy
- Practising mindfulness
- Playing badminton or other sports
- Talking to friends or family
According to The Wellbeing Thesis, stress is a natural emotion that stays for a short term to help people manage challenging solutions. Hence, students do not have to be afraid of this emotion if they learn how to manage it effectively. The exercises have been shown to be extremely effective at helping students reduce stress in the short and long term.
- Set Realistic Goals
The pressure to finish your UMD thesis can be quite high when you are crafting a dissertation. It is beyond important to set realistic expectations and goals for yourself. The unrealistic expectations can negatively impact your mental health. When you break down your work into manageable steps and set realistic goals, you will be able to reduce stress and improve your chances of success.
A survey conducted by the Dominican University reported that students who set realistic aims for themselves are 43% more likely to achieve them in the long run. Here is how setting some realistic goals can help you with managing the stress of your dissertations:
- Such goals can provide a clear sense of purpose and direction to students.
- Students can easily focus on what is important to them and decide what needs to be ignored.
- Realistic goals also boost the productivity of students.
- It develops healthy coping skills in the learners.
- They can set SMART goals to get what they really want.
Keep in mind that merely one result cannot define the outcome of your research work. Taking care of your mental health should be a top priority for yourself. Hence, set realistic goals that you can achieve while keeping yourself healthy and productive for work.
What Are Some of the Examples of Stressful Situations for Students?
The life of a Master’s and PhD student can be quite stressful. Too much stress can be harmful to the overall well-being of students, as 70% of them report going through feelings of anxiety and depression. According to Oxford Learning, some of the reasons which may give birth to stressful situations for students are the following:
- Too many research projects
- Upcoming term papers and tests
- Periodical academic workload
- Sudden change in the routine
- Uncertainty about future
- Lack of organisation
- Too little time for rest
- Poor sleeping schedule
- Lack of academic assistance
- Concerns about university life
- Social pressures
- Fear of failure
- The fear of not landing an appropriate job
- Personal and professional triggers
- More than one job to manage along with the studies
Students can solve all of these issues and problems if they apply the tips mentioned above to handle the academic stress of UMD dissertations online. If the burnout and academic anxiety are severe, they can consider reaching out to a professional mental health specialist.
Conclusion
This was all about the top 11 best stress management tips for UMD dissertations shared by the top academics in 2025. Apart from these, there must be some other guidelines from your department that you need to adhere to when working on your dissertations. Sometimes, the general guidelines are not enough, and students need personalised help, which they can get from custom dissertation writing companies online. The seasoned writers are adept at writing tailored papers per the students’ guidelines, and they can help them complete their dissertations.
The bottom line is that you should keep yourself as stress-free as you can when working on your dissertations. It not only keeps you in a fresh mental state but also improves your productivity by a great deal. You should always give it a try when feeling stressed about your papers.
Author Bio
Harrison Rowe has garnered massive accolades in the field of academic counselling and providing consultation services. With a keen eye to hunt for solutions for most students’ problems, Rowe helps learners manage their stress and anxiety-related academic issues. Having 10 years of experience as a dissertation writer, he can support the learning process of students by providing them with helpful tips and resources to use during their studies.
When not busy with work, you can see him immersed in reading tech magazines, going on international educational tours or arranging seminars for students. Cooking and baking are his favourite hobby in his free time.