DR. WALLACE: I'm a high school senior and I have so much going on these days! I've always been a busy person, but I felt more happy-go-lucky than anything else over the past few years.

But for some reason, starting with this school year I have been feeling more and more stressed with each passing day. I'm applying to several colleges and universities, I'm taking aptitude tests and I also just broke up with my boyfriend!

On top of all of that, I'm a two-sport athlete at my high school and I'm very busy with my sports activities, practices and league games.

For the first time in my life, I feel like things are on the brink of becoming out of control. Do you have any suggestions on how I can attempt to slow things down in my daily life? — Starting to Become Stressed Out, via email

STARTING TO BECOME STRESSED OUT: Life has a way of turning up the stress on every single one of us from time to time. You've hit a point in your life where you have a cluster of activities demanding attention from you all at once.

My advice would be to attempt to divide and conquer, meaning, take out a notebook paper or a journal and write down each of the important topics that are ongoing in your life right now. Keep a checklist of notes, activities and accomplishments, and do your best to prioritize what needs to be done in the correct order. Setting up a successful sequence is very important because not only will you save time but the synergy of doing things in the correct order usually provides a much better outcome overall.

Organization is the key! Get in the habit of writing a daily to-do list that is culled from your notebook or journal showing all of your projects and in which order you want to accomplish them collectively and individually.

You'll probably feel awkward for the first week or so trying this method out, but if you stick with it, within a few weeks it'll become a nice routine. And in a month or two, you'll feel much more in control of your time, your life and the progress toward the goals you wish to accomplish.

MY MOM TAKES ME FOR GRANTED

DR. WALLACE: I'm a 16-year-old girl who's still in high school, and I live with my mother and little sister in a comfortable condominium in our city. I'll be 17 in four months, so I have nearly two years left of high school in front of me.

My older siblings have both moved on to attend colleges out of state, and they're each doing quite well from what I understand.

My current problem is that my mother spends a lot of evenings outside of our home doing volunteer work, socializing and even occasionally dating. This leaves me to watch my 4-year-old sister literally five or six nights a week.

I don't feel this is fair to me, since my social life is dramatically reduced and even my study time in the evening at home often is interrupted by my little sister. I love her so much and completely understand she just wants adult attention and gets lonesome in her room by herself.

How can I get my mother to understand this situation? I feel two to three nights a week should be the limit of what I am expected to do in terms of looking after my little sister each week. — Feel Like an In-house Babysitter, via email

FEEL LIKE AN IN-HOUSE BABYSITTER: I agree completely with you. Your mother indeed should enjoy some time dating and socializing if she would like, but additionally, taking time to do volunteer work when she has a small child below school age at home is indeed not fair to you.

Try to enlist any other adults that you know who may be able to help explain the situation directly to your mother. If you have any aunts or uncles or close family friends, see if you can explain the situation to them by yourself at first, and ask them to see if they will approach her mother to discuss this matter.

And of course, since your letter is being printed here, feel free to use it yourself and present it to any of the adults on your candidate list to help explain your current situation. I feel that since you have nearly two years of high school to go, some new arrangement is in order to help you balance out your life and time schedule toward a healthier mix.

Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. Email him at rwallace@thegreatestgift.com. To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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