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prettieinpink · 1 year ago

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im the south american anon, thanks for your kind words, i love your account so much ♡. just wondering if you have a guide on how to prepare for a new school year or for 2024, have a wonderful morning/night 💗

GO BACK TO SCHOOL AS HER

ACADEMICS

Try to recreate your ideal study routine before. Study any subject you want using that specific study routine that you can when school opens. This gives you enough time before school starts to make any adjustments needed.

Get a head start. If you do have access to your curriculum or syllabus, read or actively study content on those topics. If you don’t, you can usually search up your class and your state which shows what you’ll be learning.

Experiment with study methods + note-taking. For study methods, search up different ways to effectively study, and pick at least three that appeal to you. Then pick any topic you want, and use those methods to study that topic. See which one worked the best for you and which wasn’t.

For note-taking, search for some ways to take notes, and choose at least 3 that appeal to you. Then watch a video/lecture on any topic, and use those methods to take notes on it. See which ones that worked the best for you.

Create a planner or diary. Use it to keep track of your assessments, assignments due dates, events at school or any after-school activities. This planner would be just purely for school-related things.

I think a digital planner would work best with most students, but some traditional ones are equally as good. It’s up to you to choose how you want to plan your school life, but you need to have at least one planner.

Find a good study website/app. There are so many academic websites/apps out there that can aid you while studying, which are just at your fingertips.

I recommend Duolingo, Quizlet and Khan Academy. Of course, there are so many more out there so I encourage you to explore your options. Some websites are just dedicated to one subject.

Set SMART goals. Set academic goals that are achievable and realistic. Wanting all A’s or 100’s all the time is just way too unrealistic, and the pressure of wanting to reach the standard you set for yourself is just going to stress you out.

Wanting a certain award, or A’s in certain subjects allows you to allocate your focus properly and is within reach. While you should definitely strive for good grades, avoid getting caught up in the mind trap of trying to achieve ‘perfect’ grades.

Create a study place and ritual. Before school starts, choose a place anywhere in which you study regularly. Avoid having more than one, because having just one allows you to settle in and focus better.

If this place is in your house, ensure that the space around it is clean and free of anything that wouldn’t serve you while studying. Plus, you can put up some cute motivational quotes.

A study ritual is habits that you do before studying, that help you while studying. You can create your own of whatever things that help you to be more productive and focused.

HEALTH

Establish a sleep routine early. A week before school preferably, start waking up at the time you’d have to go to school and sleeping at your desired time. This is so that when school starts, you’re not feeling groggy while getting ready because you’ve already adjusted to the time.

Talking about sleep, ensure that you practice good sleep hygiene as quality sleep enhances brain performance and improves energy levels throughout the day.

Plan your meals at school. For us who have canteens or cafes near our schools, we tend to just eat whatever and we forget to nourish our bodies. You still can buy from them, but the night before, try to think about what you can eat for lunch the next day instead of impulsively buying.

Carrying small containers of fruits or vegetables to go with my canteen lunch is my favourite combination.

Carry a water bottle. I used to always forget to stay hydrated during school, so instead of drinking from fountains, I now prefer to carry around my water bottle from class to class.

Wear SPF.

Just having it sitting on my desk while I’m working, reminds me in my mind to drink water. Water also boosts brain performance!

Create a stress management plan. There are going to be times when you feel stressed, but we want to avoid stress impacting our academic performance and mental health.

Before school starts, plan what to do if you feel heavily stressed. This could be like a menu of things you can choose from or a step-by-step guide that you follow through. This plan should contain things that relax you, make you happy and distract you from stress.

Practice good posture. Once school starts, we sit at a desk all day, and most of us forget the proper way to sit while studying/working in class. This can lead to slumping or hunching on a chair, which encourages bad posture.

Remember throughout the day to practice good posture, if you can, put a little reminder on your device. Posture stretches before the school days also help.

Try to incorporate exercise into your schedule. Exercise is frequently neglected when we just have so much studying to do and we’re busy with other activities, but exercise is essential to leading a healthy lifestyle.

The good thing, is you don’t have to do it every day. Doing it 2-3x a week should be enough. Going on walks during lunch/recess, cycling to school or participating in gym are easy ways to incorporate during the school season.

Keep your bag lightweight. Carry the absolute essentials to school, having such a heavy bag can do a number on your back and also affect your posture. If you do have one, try to keep most things in your locker instead of bringing them to and from school.

Engage in social media mindfully. There are so many toxic studying accounts out there that encourage unrealistic expectations or offer harsh ‘motivation’ to students.

Please don’t interact with these types of accounts, even if they provide motivation to you, it is not sustainable at all.

SELF CARE

Choose your favourite way to take a break. Not just once a week, but always take breaks every day. If you want these breaks to be somewhat productive like reading a productivity book or exercising, then go ahead.

However, your breaks can also be ‘unproductive’. Play some games, go online shopping or just take a nap. One break is not better than the other, I just encourage you to take any kind of breaks you want daily.

Plan to engage in hobbies regularly. It is easy to neglect our passions and what brings us happiness when we’re focused on school. If you can, have a chunk of the day just purely for doing hobbies. It can be for 1 hour, 30 minutes or 10.

Or, join an afterschool club that focuses on that specific passion or hobby. Not only is it time for you to engage in the things you enjoy, you meet like-minded people who also enjoy it.

Try to plan things with friends and family. Before school, meet up with your friends or family and do things with them. Once school reopens, opportunities to hang out with your loved ones are scarce. So, do it now.

Create a no-hard productivity day. Plan a day in which you are doing the most minimal amount of productivity that you can. While you can include a few productive things, nothing that is mentally or physically exhausting is allowed on this day.

If you are way too much of a productive or goal-oriented person to spend one day of no hard productivity, create a catch-up day. Choose one day of the week that you focus on completing or doing anything that you didn’t do all the other days.

Keep a journal on you. Sometimes things happen during the school year, and it does cause conflicting or upsetting emotions within us. Creating the practice of journaling before school reopens is a good way for us to process our emotions and situations.

Carry a book you like in your bag or locker. When you finish all of your work in class, or you just want to take a break, you can read a good book. This is also a good alternative to spending your lunches and recesses when you’re not in a sociable mood.

Create a reward system. For example, if I study for x minutes, I can do x for myself. Or I can x grade, and I’ll get x. These don’t have to be big or extravagant rewards, but something simple like one episode of your favourite show can do.

MINDSET CHANGES

Practice a growth mindset. You are going to experience failure at least once (if not more) during your school career. You mustn’t take these experiences to heart, and instead, use them as lessons to encourage self-growth within you.

Practice this mindset now, so that when school reopens, you won’t have a problem with extracting lessons from failures.

Use comparison as a source of inspiration or motivation. It is easy to compare ourselves with our peers, as we are similar ages, but their skills can exceed ours. Instead of using up all of your energy to be envious of the, channel that energy into bettering yourself. Not to beat them, but to beat yourself.

View studying as a time to develop your skills. While yes, we do study to get good grades, studying can help us to grow our other skills as well. We build our discipline, focus and critical thinking as well.

So when you don’t get the best grade from an assessment or assignment, don’t beat yourself up and think all that studying was for nothing. You were building those skills, so next time, you can apply them when you have to study again.

Set firm boundaries with others and yourself. There are times when you just have to say, I have to study. Not just to others, but to yourself. Practice these boundaries before school when it comes to more general productivity.

There is no rejection, just redirection. Change your mindset that rejection is nonexistent, and there is only redirection. Incorporate it in your daily life like;

‘there’s no more stock left of my favourite product, there’s probably something better out there.’

That being said, I’m not saying that if there is a barrier to your goal, you just move on. However, you should not be chasing things that are not meant for you and shift your focus when necessary.

Detach when needed. Stop attaching your value or worth to things that are external and can easily be gone. This doesn’t have to apply to just grades, but also other situations.

Try to start reading or researching about detachment before school reopens.

Time is your most valuable resource, use it to invest wisely. Your teen years are going to be the most suitable time in your life to start investing in yourself.

You have fewer things to worry about(aside from grades) and you have a lot of opportunities now to explore the things that you want. Please, don't spend this time doomscrolling or any other time-wasting activity.

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