Summer is almost over and school is about to start. Maybe for some of you it’s already started and for others it’s something you dread. I am one of those people, I love school and the routine and sometimes even the work that follows, but saying goodbye to summer is never easy. That’s why I created this list of the last 6 things you can do to say a real “goodbye” to the holidays and ease the transition back to school.
Make last minute summer plans
It’s a great time to reset and focus on getting back to school and being fully prepared. So make those final summer plans, hit the beach with your closest friends, start a bonfire at night with marshmallows. Watch the sunset and, if you can pull yourself out of bed, the sunrise. The smallest of projects with the people you love can help you relax and get ready for school, a stressful and sometimes messy time. You can go hiking with your family and discover new places that you have never seen, or you can revisit those places that give you comfort.
If next year you are a freshman in college, the chances of you moving to another city or even another country are high, so I recommend getting to know your new “home”. Start by doing your research, then visit the most famous places in your new city, museums, restaurants, parks, so when you start school you will already look like a local.
Read this latest book
If you’re like me, you like to read and you always try to start a new book and finish the last one. And, if your school is anything like mine, you still have books to read that you probably won’t like and didn’t choose. This is why these last days are perfect for finishing the book you are reading, and if you can read a smaller book of your choice or start reading the books for school.
Because we’re talking about books, it’s time you got to know “Goodreads”, an Amazon website where you can track your reading. I use it and it’s probably the best discovery I’ve ever made. You can add books to your shelves like “want to read”, “currently reading” and “reading” and this site offers a description of every book you can imagine, and while collecting data, it can also tell which books you want to read. ‘he thinks you’d like, based on what you’ve already recorded. However, the most amazing thing about this site is the “reading challenge”. Each year you can choose a number of books you’d like to read, and when you finish a book you mark it as “read” and it goes straight to that year’s reading challenge.
(Click here for the Goodreads site)
Have a nice dinner with your friends (from school) to celebrate
It’s something I like to do with my friends. The last summer dinner all together, before school starts and we are all stressed out from work and tests and we don’t have enough time to all get together to relax. So gather your closest friends and have dinner together. If you are a small group, you can go to a fancy restaurant and treat yourself as you deserve. However, if you’re a larger group (like me), you can meet at one of your houses, where everyone takes one thing and you split the chores, or go to the beach and bring your own food. It’s always a fun way to spend the night, and you’re sure to make lots of new memories.
Build a Routine
At the start of a new school year, having a routine already “planned” is much better than having one the first week. That’s why I recommend everyone to have one, so that stress does not accumulate. I like to keep track of simple things in my life like working out, reading, journaling, and following a healthy diet. I use notion to log my habit tracker, but you can use an excel sheet or even a bullet journal. With this, you can cross out, every day, the habits you kept that day, and if you haven’t made one, don’t worry, it’s not the end of the world, you still have the day after. With this mechanism built in and over time, it will become natural to do the activities you want to do, not thinking of it as a task, but rather as a healthy habit, which you do for yourself.
Organize your space
I find this one extremely important as I believe a tidy space makes a tidy mind. So take this time to organize your desk, your shelves, all the materials from last year that you don’t need, throw out the things you no longer need that are just taking up space. Another thing that helps me stay creative and productive is changing up the layout of my room a bit. You don’t need to if you are happy with your room. However, if you want to change something, sometimes the only thing you have to do is replace things or change the position of your desk or bed and you’ll feel like you have a completely new room.
I also recommend organizing your digital space, so remove any apps from your phone that you don’t need or no longer use, and remove photos that are taking up storage. Organize your email, remove all junk and spam, create folders, and unsubscribe things you don’t need to receive weekly or monthly (like stores).
Start planning for the next school year and prepare everything
This is the last step on this list, and probably the most important since you want to start the new school year fresh and organized. During the school year, I like to have a schedule, so I can write down everything I need to do, like homework, studies or projects. Personally, I like to use paper. However, if you like to keep everything digital, I recommend using an app called Notion. I also suggest that you only have one place where you write everything, either online, in a bullet journal, or in a planner. It’s easier and more organized than having everything in different places.
With these six ways to end your summer on a high note, you’ll be more than ready to succeed next school year. And remember, just because school has started and you have more work to do doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have time to relax and distract yourself from work, so when you feel like it need, take the time and review these first three ideas. .
