#txstlbjsc

1. Mornings don’t have to be hard

Breaks are fun: getting to stay up all night and sleep in late into the afternoon never seems to get old. Unfortunately, this doesn’t last forever and you will eventually have to get used to waking up for your 9 a.m. class again. For the early birds of the world, this will be an easy transition with only minor adjustments. Are you the kind of person who sleeps through their alarms, or hits it over-and-over until it’s an hour after you initially needed to get up? Then start waking up early a few days before the semester starts. This practice will give your body time to adjust to early wake and sleep times. Another helpful tip would be to invest in an app to help regulate your sleeping routine or get an obnoxiously loud alarm clock and place it on the other side of your room to ensure that you get up when you need to. Starting this routine early will make it easier for you to transition into the semester. Besides, nobody enjoys waking up in a frenzied panic.

2. Plan on!

Set yourself up for success this semester by getting organized early. If your professor sends out a syllabus in advance be sure read it over to get a vision of what your semester is going to look like. Also, setting aside time to write down important test and project dates in your planner can help future you when you’re busy during midterms (On that note, if you do not have a planner you should definitely go buy one). Being able to write out everything you need on paper is an easy way to keep you from forgetting. Check out your university’s academic schedule, as well, so you are aware of breaks, registration days and school holidays.

If you’re anti-planner (even though it’s been proven that writing things down improves memory- look it up) then there are great apps that can help you stay organized. 24me is an iOS and Android app that acts as your personal planner to create a centralized location for your calendar, notes and to-do lists. Google Calendar is another app that can help organize your schedule from the comfort of your own phone. Through this handy iOS and Android app, the user is able to organize tasks and create personal goals to set for each day. You’re on your phone all day anyways, so having these tools can help give you one less thing to worry about.

3. You best prepare yourself

Picking out what you will wear the night before can help decrease morning panic and help you feel comfortable and confident for the day ahead. If you’re the type of person who rolls out of bed 20 minutes before class and walks out the door, try at least picking out a matching pair of socks; this will give you an extra 2 minutes to drowsily browse Instagram. Also, if you bring lunch to school, it is a great time-saver to pack one the night before and stick it in the fridge. That way when you’re rushing out the door with your keys and coffee in hand all you need to do is grab your lunch and put it in your bag.

Once you’ve left home, you have the next challenge of getting to school. For those who live on campus this will be easy-breezy, but, for commuters, the possibility of traffic and trains are a real concern. Be sure to check your university Shuttle Tracker or download an app like Waze that will help you monitor traffic and pick the best route to get to class. Following these steps can help you prepare for the next day and allow you to catch more Z’s (Because let’s be real, we all want to sleep in more).

4. Food, food, food!

In the midst of homework, organizations and school projects it can be easy for us to neglect our health and have one too many cheeseburgers. Reserving Sunday night to prepare healthy meals for the upcoming your week can give you one less thing to stress about when you come home at 8 p.m. from the library. Check out this Lifehack article for helpful meal prep tips. You can take this a step further and offer to go to the grocery store with your roommates or friends to make groceries less expensive and cooking more enjoyable. If you know you have a light workload on Tuesdays, then you could offer to cook dinner that night, while your roomie cooks on Mondays when you have a tight schedule. Planning for the week ahead will help give you the peace of mind to focus on work and school.

5. Get a head start

We all have that one friend that always waits until the very last minute to work on something and then stresses over it the whole night. Don’t be this person. Getting ahead early will help you out in the long run, even if you start with something simple. If your class requires you to read a book or novel, get started on it now before you have too much work and neglect it. If a class requires you to do work before you get to class try doing it at the beginning of the week, with all the hustle and bustle of life you may forget about it and, sadly, remember the morning it’s due.