Here are a few tips that you can incorporate into your daily life to ensure motivation and excellence during this school year!
Author: Hasina Qaderi
It’s that time of the year again! Back to school! Things these days are unpredictable and quite unconventional. Imagine trying to explain to your 2019 self what the first of school in 2021 looks like. These unpredictable times and new changes like online school can often make us anxious and unmotivated. It is a whole lot easier to fall behind in school when there is so much more to worry about. Here are a few tips that you can incorporate into your daily life to make sure you are not left behind during this school year! Whether you are excited, nervous, anxious it is definitely worth being prepared.
Create a Schedule: The first and foremost important advice I would give to anyone starting a new school year is to INVEST in a calendar and agenda! Schedules, routines, and time management are the backbone of succeeding in whatever you put your mind to. Creating a schedule to help you organize the soccer practices, piano lessons, homework, sleepovers and family dinners, etc., an agenda is something you need. Don’t put that much on your mind, use the calendar to help manifest your days, weeks, and months. With a calendar, you can choose what to prioritize while also making sure that you have completed whatever you need to be completed. This way, you have time to schedule things for your social life like outings with your friends, or “me time” – which is something that is absolutely necessary for you to thrive.
Figuring Out your Learning Style: Understanding how you best learn is an amazing thing to know sooner rather than later. That way you know what studying habits are best for you when you need to retain information for a test, write an essay, or create a presentation. If you are a kinesthetic learner, figure out what objects or activities can help you learn best. If you are an auditory learner, you know podcasts, recordings, listening to a teacher speak, etc., are ways you can learn and retain information the best so you would focus the most then. If you are a visual learner, you would focus the most when an educator is showing you a visual example on the chalkboard or drawing a diagram. Knowing what type of learner, you are allowing for you to focus your energy and time on the things that will actually help you retain and understand the information. This allows for efficient learning and gives you more time to spend on other activities that you have scheduled.
Speak to your Educators: We tend to think that educators aren’t there for us or that they are too busy to listen to what we need. But we have to remember that they are there for us! If you are struggling with a concept you learned, you have a deadline you can’t meet, you got into an argument with your friend, literally anything, you can go up to your educator and they will do their very best to help you! It is amazing to see how present educators can be when you ask them for something or just speak to them. If you are struggling with a mathematical equation, go to your math teachers for clarification, they will be more than happy to help so that you can succeed on your future tests. If you have a paper due soon and there was too much going on in your life making it so that you couldn’t submit the paper on time, talk to your educators, they will definitely propose a new deadline or help you submit your paper on time.
Go to your Classes: You can’t learn and do well in school if you aren’t in class actually learning. Attend your classes, you will be surprised about what you learn when you attend. For instance, not only do you learn about things that are relative to your course, but you will learn life skills that are helpful! One life skill I learned from going to class was speaking in front of large crowds. Being able to speak in front of 25 people helps prepare you to speak in front of hundreds of people. Classes are there for you, so take advantage of them and attend your classes – the only person you’re hurting when you skip your classes is yourself.
Note Writing: Studies have shown that you retain more information when you handwrite over taking notes on a computer. Therefore, my next piece of advice for you is to handwrite as many of your notes and courses as you can! It is time-consuming at the moment, but it will be helpful when you need to write tests, write papers, or create presentations! It saves studying time because you already have the information in the back of your head, all you have to do is refresh your mind through trigger words that bring the information back. Writing notes also keeps you engaged in class, instead of just mindlessly typing without actually retaining the information being taught.
Balancing your social and school life: SCHEDULING! As I mentioned before, the greatest way to get the best of both worlds is to schedule your entire life! If you have a thirty-minute family dinner, schedule it in, so that you can make sure you complete the tasks before it so that you can attend the dinner. Something that is also very important to remember is to take a break from school life if you are too exhausted. It is totally okay to take breaks, and you can schedule social time during those breaks. Don’t be afraid to schedule breaks or take days off from schoolwork because you have to put your physical, mental, and emotional health first!