From Summer Time Blues to Back to School Grind

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By Josha Shivprashad

With the end of summer comes the end of bad habits, hopefully. Not necessarily bad, but rather habits that wont keep us on track for a successful year ahead. We are just a few weeks deep into the new school year, but our habits may not have transitioned with us like the season has.

Are you looking to get back into the school time grind without quitting living your best life cold turkey? Don’t sweat it, I have provided a guide for you on how to conquer the upcoming semester while breaking summer time binge routines all the while maintaining a stable social life. Sounds impossible right? Keep reading and I will show you how!

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1. Be Prepared!

​The first steps are preparation and organization. Prepare by setting some goals. What do you want to accomplish this school year? Perhaps you want to get more involved in class and discussions? Join some teams and clubs? You want to do all of this but you don’t know where to start? Make a vision board! Vision boards are great because they help you manifest thoughts into physical matter that can eventually become organized ideas leading to actions. Make this a group activity. You do not have to do this all by yourself. Round up a few friends on a weekend and turn it into a social event. Like-minded people who want to accomplish the same as you will also motivate you to put your visions into action, as you will them. Your Saturday Vision Board Social Night is what I like to call a “productive hangout”. Not only do you get to put a plan in shape, but you also get to hang out with some friend’s all the while sharing ideas, expectations and goals. 

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2. Organization Is Key!

​Time to organize yourself. Look at your vision board and organize how you’re going to carry out these goals for yourself. This is where self-motivation comes in handy. You must be the change you want to see (corny right?). Stop the Netflix binges; time to call it an early night followed by early mornings. Time to start saying ‘no’ to party invites and social gatherings…not all though! Time to start putting the phone down as well, Instagram isn’t going to get you to your goals. Grab your course syllabi and sit down with an agenda in hand. Write all your due dates for assignments and exams down. Organize your life around these important dates. Once you have them noted down correctly, you can organize work time for them first, then me time afterwards.  Writing due dates and exam dates down are so very helpful when organized correctly. A Calendar layout will give you a visual representation of what you need to do, to avoid procrastination and stress. If you’re anything like me, visuals are key! 

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3. Manage Your Time

Once you’ve organized what’s important, manage your time accordingly to meet these requirements you’ve set for yourself. If you have an assignment due, start it early. Brainstorm ideas, start-jotting notes down, create some rough drafts. Dedicate at least 2 weeks to an assignment, that way you don’t have to stay up the night before its due to finish it. Spending time on an assignment allows you to work on it thoroughly everyday. Once you’ve gotten into this habit you can then reward yourself with some down time, like Netflix, a good pump at the gym, a nice dinner, and/or social media time. 

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4. Put The Two Together

Back to school does not mean your social life is over. Work social into school and studying. Group studies are the best for this! Organize a group to study with if you have an upcoming quiz, test or exam. Do this a week or two ahead of the actual event though. Group study sessions work great if you set a plan and reward system up. You can share ideas and concepts with other like-minded individuals. Reward yourself with a hangout after. Get an adequate amount of time in for the actual study and then go do something afterwards that’s recreational. This was you know you’ve been productive but you also get to have some fun to distress and let loose a bit. 

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5. Dedication

Dedicate yourself to your goals and watch what follows. Once you’ve prepared, organized and dedicated yourself to your success and grind you’ll see that you do in fact have time to still have fun. Your confidence will also grow, which leads to more involvement in class discussions, because you’ve done the necessary work to get involved. You’ll see that you do have time to join some clubs, organizations and/or teams at school now, but also have time to go to a party or two if you want. Dedicate yourself to your work ethic and you’ll still have time to watch your favourite Netflix series. Once you’ve done this, you’ll realize not much has changed with the season, but rather, you’ve just adjusted with the time. Summer may be gone, but you can still have a great time all the while hitting the books, being the best you! So get to it, go and conquer what’s yours this school year!