Preparing for New Semester

I started planning for this new semester a couple of days after the new year. I’m a planner at heart so as soon as I had a schedule for the next semester, I started to think and plan to be right for anything that came my way. Even though I can’t control everything during the first week of school, I can observe and change my habits to flow better as a student. Most of the time when it comes to planning a semester I look at the syllabus, study methods, and sleep schedules. Along with being prepared for the unknown and being flexible with your professors and TAs.

Getting Good Sleep

I don’t know about you, but my sleep schedule is nonexistent when I’m on break. But one thing I can do is give myself a week or two before classes start to get back onto a good sleep schedule. My earliest class this semester starts at 11:30 which is excellent because I’m more of a night owl than an early bird. I mostly like to do my hair in the morning and get some semi-good sleep. I try and shoot to go to bed around 11 to 11:30 and wake up around 7:30 to 8 am now that I have a later class in the morning. Plus being able to have a good sleep schedule you’ll be able to get more things done throughout the day. Depending on your schedule, there is a way to make sure you get good sleep. I have heard of several ways to make sure you get good sleep. You can either sleep for 6 to 8 hours or if you don’t have the time to sleep you can sleep in 90 minutes cycles because that is one full REM cycle. This is the only piece of advice I wish everyone would take because sleep is the most important thing to survive as a human.

Creating Schedules

School

Whenever I make a schedule for my classes, I always ensure I have at least a little break before each class. Like I’ve said before my earliest class is at 11:30 in the morning and all of my classes end around 3 to 4 ish in the afternoon. I decided to keep most of my classes together with some breaks in between to give myself time in the morning and in the evening to finish homework, projects, and quizzes. This helps me keep on track with the classes and not fall behind with the material. Plus being able to keep on track with my classes helps me not be too stressed out. I highly recommend that once you have the syllabus worked out you can have a pretty good setup for how you want to get homework and assignments done in time. This goes with the idea of making study schedules for each course.

Study

For the first week of classes, I don’t have a study schedule because I’m still feeling out what the class and the materials are going to be like. Then after the first to the second week, I make a study schedule week by week. This helps me know what and when items are due for certain classes. Plus putting the time of when items are due helps me keep on track so I don’t have something late. You don’t have to have specific things within the subject, just set aside time to work on a certain subject if needed. If you like to plan out when to do certain assignments or work on a single subject then I highly recommend making a study schedule.

Work

So I have a job where we make our own schedule with the different places we need to go and review. We’re given a time like breakfast, lunch, dinner, or late at night. In turn, we get five places on campus for each week we need to review. I make my schedule around my class schedule based on when and where my classes are on campus. For example, I live on the east side of campus so the places on the east side are easier for me to do at the beginning of the week. If I need to go to the west side, I try to go at the end of the week. There are always certain places I love to go to because they have good service on campus but some places I don’t like going on campus. So I plan out my work schedule week by week like my study schedule. If you don’t have a job on campus then you don’t have to worry about this but know that if you do want a job on campus, your supervisors are super understanding about how you’re a student first and employee last.

Hanging Out With Friends

At the end of each first week of school, I make sure to spend time with friends and celebrate getting through the first week of a semester. This is something I did back in high school with my friends. I decided to carry this with me into college because it gives me time to charge my social battery and take a break from the stress of school. I love my friends and some of them read this blog so I hope that you enjoy hanging out with me as well. Most of the ways I hang out with friends is by joining them for study sessions, lunch, dinner, and even for social events. Your college friends are going to be your mini family away from your family so make time to hang out with them.

Updating My Notion

You know that I love using Notion for everything in my life. As course sites are opening up I put the syllabus in my notion template to keep me organized and ready for the upcoming semester. Once I get the syllabus into Notion I can settle for a bit. As the semester goes on I make changes when needed. This helps me keep on track with my assignment, test, quizzes, and other items in my life. This is a great tool if you don’t like to carry around a physical planner all the time. It is easy and student-friendly with creating the perfect online workspace.

Closing Thoughts

Everyone prepares for a semester differently and I hope that you all have a fabulous next semester. These were just some tips and tricks that I like to use whenever I prepare for a new semester. Remember, don’t stress yourself out, and if you find yourself stressed then find something to help you not stress out. I hope you all enjoyed reading this post and I hope you all have an amazing day, week, month, and year. HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!! Let’s let 2023 be the year for growth and happiness.