Back to school and not loving it? Don’t worry, you are not the only one. The transition from the long lazy days of summer to the rising with the sun and off to school days, is tough for everyone. And the toughest part is getting up early and ready on time to catch the school bus. This is so understandable, when for close to three months there was no rush to leave the bed until nature called or your tummy yelled, “Food please!”

And add to this the stress of studies, especially when your fingers refuse to hold on to a pen or pencil and move in the desired way because all they did during vacation was press the remote button or touch the supersensitive screen of a smartphone or tablet.

But you have been going through this phase every year and know what you have to do to get into the study mode. Organise, focus, set your goals and don’t give up until you achieve it. You have done it before, so you can do it again. And like each year, we are here to give you some help by sharing a few tips that will make this back to school transition a smooth one for you.

tips that will make this back to school transition a smooth one for you.

Get organised

By now you must be having your new books (if you are starting a new academic session), bag and stationeries. The eager ones would be having their bags all packed and ready to be picked up and taken to school. Those who haven’t done this and are waiting for mama to find the time to do it, they should roll up their sleeves and do it themselves — and at once.

A packed bag makes it easy for you to determine if something is missing and get it in time, and there will be no chance of you forgetting anything important at home. And on school days, pack your bags in the night and don’t leave it for the morning.

Getting organised also includes organising your personal things and space, like your study table, bookshelf, closet and just about anything you will be using regularly. This will remove the clutter and clear the mess, making room for you to think, move and work easily and more effectively.

All these sorting and setting must be taking place on regular basis, thanks to your mother, but then it is she who knows where your things are and each time you want something, you call out to her. When you organise your books, toys and closet yourself, you don’t have to waste time searching for it and your mother doesn’t have to waste time coming to your help all the time.

Moreover, you know what works for you in terms of arrangement, like where you want your school books, which is the right place to keep your stationery for easy access, where you want your favourite t-shirt and shorts to be placed to make it easy for you to reach it even with your eyes closed, etc.

Get into the routine

Going to bed and getting up on time are the hardest parts of the transition for all students. With your body clock having gone haywire for so long, getting it into a regular 24-hour rhythm takes time, so at least a week before your school reopens, you need to be in bed half-an-hour before the time you are supposed to go to bed on a regular school day.

Chances are that you will be wide awake and unable to sleep, but after relaxing in bed for some time, maybe reading for 15 minutes, you will slowly go off to sleep. Sitting in front of the TV, or looking at your iPad, phone, etc., will never make your mind relaxed enough to sleep until it is well past your bedtime.

The best way to calculate your bedtime during school days is to consider the time you need to wake up for school and get ready. Now count backward nine hours or so, and that is your ideal bedtime. Every day you should be in bed before that time.

Set the alarm to wake up early, for the first few days at the time you need to leave for school, then at the time you need to actually wake up. So this way when the first day of school arrives, you would have had a good night’s sleep and waking up will not be hard.

Always get your energy dose

This simply means having a nutritious breakfast, definitely a glass of milk, before going to school. I know the thought of eating something early in the morning is enough to want you to throw up, but start with a small portion of something light, slowly increase the amount to your regular breakfast size. The energetic feeling you will get after this at school will convince you to never skip your breakfast and soon your tummy will get so used to it, it will scream if you don’t fill it up!

There are lots of scientific evidence to prove the benefits of a nutritious breakfast to kick start the day for both adults and youngsters. I can’t go into all that right now, but it should be enough to point out that the last meal you had was your dinner, almost 10-12 hours or so since breakfast time, so your body badly needs some fuel to recharge it.

Settling in

The first day, even in the old school with old classmates, leads to butterflies in the stomach in most people, and if you are going to a new school where everyone is a stranger — then there is a zoo full of animals jumping in your tummy.

It is a good idea to get in touch with your schoolmates if you haven’t or rarely been in contact with them during the vacation. Make plans of where to meet and hang out during lunch time.

Those who are changing schools will have a few lonely and self-conscious days until you start making friends. Let me tell you a foolproof way of making friends quickly in a new school — excel in studies. Yes, everyone wants to be friends with good students, even the teachers pay more attention to them.

Go through at least the first few chapters in each subject before school starts so that you are familiar with what the teacher will teach and when a question is asked, raise your hand to answer it. Of course that is after being sure that you know the answer, otherwise if you appear goofy on the first day, that impression will last for a long time.

Being an active participant in class and learning well for your first tests and getting good marks will have the classmates coming over to you themselves to become your best friend.

Take up some responsibility

There are many class and school responsibilities that are assigned to students, based on the skills the students possess and their popularity. But the shortlisted students for different duties are mostly those who volunteer themselves to take up a responsibility.

So whether it is for the class monitor/prefect, the kid who has to collect the homework copies or be on duty near the water cooler during breaks, do take up some responsibility during each academic year. While some positions are for the whole term or year, so only a limited number of students can be selected for this, there are many positions that are short-term and assigned on rotation. Don’t give up if you are not selected as the class monitor or the head boy or head girl, take up any other position available.

These positions prepare us for real life, both in terms of our career and personal life where we have to take up responsibilities of different kinds and fulfil them. Besides leadership skills, what we learn is confidence, teamwork, accountability, supervisory skills and much more.

This should be enough to charge you up for having a great and successful academic year ahead. There are many more things to keep in mind as the school routine picks up pace, and you will find many more useful tips and pearls of wisdom in these pages to help you through.

Keep coming back for more! Good luck and study well!

Published in Dawn, Young World, August 06th, 2016