How To Ease Into The School Year

As the school year begins to get underway, it can feel like you're abruptly getting thrown into a whole new set of obstacles and challenges. Instead of having a calm entry period, school just happens, and it can catch you off guard. But, you don't have to be unprepared, and there are a few things you can do to calmly ease back into school.

Shift your bedtime

One of the biggest problems with the start of the school year is how hard it can be to fall asleep. So, instead of forcing yourself to go to sleep hours earlier than you normally do for the single night before school, turn it into a week-long event. Once you're a week away from school, go to sleep 15-30 minutes earlier every night than the night before. Create your own "countdown clock" and let it go until you've reached your ideal bedtime. That way, it doesn't feel so sudden when it's time to go to sleep before your first day.

Practice your routines

Just like with the bedtime schedule, get into the groove of your morning and evening routines before school actually starts. Run through what your mornings will look like from the moment you get out of bed to when you leave the house, and make sure your evenings won't keep you up until midnight every night.

Prepare your space

While cleaning is probably not how you want to spend the end of your summer, it's essential to have a space ready for when the work starts rolling in. Set up a quiet and clean area to do homework, attend Google Meets, or just be productive in general. Try to mitigate distractions, and don't let it get too messy throughout the year. Remember, the goal is to be 'locked in.'

Set up an organizational tool

Let this year be the year that you're aware of exactly what's going on. It can be hard to keep everything you need to know and remember in your brain, but putting it onto something like a planner can ease your memory load. And, no, we're not just saying that because that's our whole brand (although, if you want to check out our planners, we wouldn't mind). We're saying it because planners are proven to help, and they don't take all that long to set up.

Control your schedule

The older you get, the more control you have over what you are doing and when you can do it––now you just have to take advantage of that. For example, don't overload your schedule with extracurriculars right away. Instead, slowly start working on projects for those activities at your own leisure. Or, if you really have to add onto your regular school day right away, at the very least add club meetings and events to your calendar (oh look, another use for a planner!). That way, you're not overwhelmed with extra commitments popping up out of the blue.

Make this school year yours, and don't wing it! Let yourself have a few days to get ready so that you're not just thrown into it on your first day. And, if you liked this, check out our other posts below or in the Blog page.