Here is a few things that I do to prepare to go back to college after summer break
There may be a few links listed below. If you purchase an item from any link, I may receive compensation. However, this post was not inspired by Amazon. I truly mean everything that I say in this post. Which leads me to my next point, these are things that I personally do to help me prepare to go back to school. The content in this post may be useless to you.
As summer is quickly flying by, the thought of painfully early morning classes is hitting me pretty hard. Going to school 5 times a week and sitting through long ass lectures is something that I don’t want to do, especially after 2 ½ months of not having to use my brain at all. Although I really hate this feeling, I went through 4 summers of having this “end-of-summer-going-back-to-college” feeling (this is my 5th year), and it’s a tough feeling every time. But because I’ve been through so many tough summers of feeling unprepared, I have now mastered the ways to make sure I am ready to start the school year off strong and ensure that I have a successful year, or semester at least. Here are some of the things that I do.
1.)Go to bed early and wake up early
This one is important to me. All summer long, I slept at like 3AM and woke up at 2PM. This is something that I try to fix when I’m about 2 weeks out from my first day of class. I remember back in the day, I would always be sleepy as hell at school because I wouldn’t properly fix my summer sleep schedule. Throughout the years, this has become easier because I now know how to fix this issue for me. I used to love eating junk food late at night and this would get me all sugared up and keep me up all night. I now try to cut off my snacking at around 7PM. I also take a melatonin from time to time and these help me pass out pretty quickly.
2.)I hit the gym and start eating salads
One of the few things that excites me about the start of a new school year is all the new people I meet, especially those of the opposite gender. So when I’m about 2-3 weeks out from the first day of fall semester, I start a cleanse. I put an end to my burrito and french fries diet and start stuffing my face with greens. I eat salads and drink kale smoothies. I also start hitting the gym hard and shedding off some lbs. I want to be glowing when I return to school, and being a couch potato and eating junk food all day will prevent that.
3.) increase my productivity
As soon as the school year ends and summer begins, my productivity levels go down about 95%. I don’t read any books, I don’t memorize any vocabulary words, I don’t walk around any campuses all day, I pretty much don’t exercise any part of my body. It’s hard to go back to school after living like this for 2 months. Because of this I start adding some structure to my days, towards the last couple of weeks of summer. I start waking up early and planning things to do and start scheduling out my days. If I don’t have any errands or anything to do, I’ll make up things to do, to ensure I start being somewhat productive. For example, today, I didn’t have anything to do from 8AM to 5PM so I made a checklist of things to do. I read a book, I walked my dog, I went to starbucks for iced coffee, I walked my dog, and I’m now writing this post.
4.) back to school supplies and clothes
I always make sure I’m stocked up on my notebooks, pencils, and pens, even though a lot of the assignments are done digitally these days. I still prefer writing my notes rather than typing it on a keyboard, so I always make sure I’m stocked up on pencils and pens. I also make sure I buy some fresh clothes. It’s not easy finding clothes for cheap, so I use Amazon, Ross, or Goodwill.
5.) meditate, decompress
This is the last thing that I prepare. I make sure I have a nice routine of meditating or and disconnecting every night. Summer breaks are usually carefree for me. I’m fortunate enough where I don’t have to worry about working, so I don’t get too stressed out. But when the pressures of school start adding up, I start getting stressed out and anxious. I learned that if I have a designated time every night where I am able to disconnect, I usually feel a lot better. I do this in many different ways. Sometimes, I walk around the park near my apartment, or sometimes I drive up the hill and just stare out into the city.
These are some of the things I do to prepare. Hopefully these help you too.