Back to School Pep Talk–Success Strategies

What kind of student are you?  What are your gifts and challenges?

Perhaps you are someone who tends to procrastinate, forgets to do your homework, has problems doing well on tests, does assignments but forgets to turn them in, has a reputation for being disruptive in class, is often tardy, can’t remember the assignment.

Do you have time-management issues or are plagued by distractions of media, texting or lack of motivation? Is your backpack a disastrous, disorganized mess?

Are you sometimes even tempted to cheat or plagiarize, rather than disappoint your parents?  Maybe you are a student who is a perfectionist, a chronic worrier, or an over-achiever who is stressed, sleep-challenged and cannot turn it off.  Do you have well-intentioned parents with high, sometimes unrealistic expectations, which may frustrate you and cause you stress. Are you on “high-stress” mode much of the time?Do you obsess on your mistakes and forget about your successes? Are you hard on yourself much of the time?  Do you spend a lot of time worrying, fretting, saying “I’m tired!”?  Do you kick yourself when you don’t get an A+?  Are you competitive to an extreme level?  Are you constantly worried about not getting into the college of your choice or not having enough to afford it?

 Here are some Back to School Success Strategies that can help

If you are a procrastinator or forget to do or turn in your assignments, try out “front loading”.  When you get an assignment write it down in some kind of planner, datebook or electronic calendar and start working on it now.  If it is due in 3 weeks, make a list of the related tasks, schedule backwards from the due date, and start working on it TODAY!   If you leave it until the last minute, you will have the constant stress of the day-to-day, “I really should be doing this assignment” as well as that horrible last minute panic.   If you front-load the work and get it done towards the beginning of the three weeks, you will the rest of the time feeling good about being ready, minus the stress and the procrastination, as well as the nagging of your concerned parents.  (You also won’t have to use the lame excuse of “my ink ran out.”)

If you are often tardy, it may affect your grade, your reputation and your credibility.   

Do you know adults in your life who are almost always 10-15 minutes late?  You come to expect it, and find yourself respecting them less because they are always using up your time.  If you make a habit of being tardy, you are likely to have it plague you for your whole life.  It can adversely affect your relationships, jobs, and opportunities of all kinds.  So……get up 15 minutes earlier, take a shower, have some food.  Wear a watch and set it 5-10 minutes ahead to give yourself a buffer .  It will take 2 or 3 weeks of focus to shift that, become punctual, and you will be amazed how quickly your teachers will forget you ever were tardy.

Many people have trouble with time management.  You are not alone. 

You know there are certain places where you have to be at certain times, and certain times when you don’t have to be somewhere.  Don’t forget the “times in between”.  It is helpful to use some kind of calendar or note system to plan out when you will do your homework.  Time is like money; you have to budget it.  When people don’t have enough money, they take it out of the bank or borrow it.  We don’t have that luxury with time.  There are a finite amount of hours in the day and then it is the next day, whether we like it or not.  So here are some great “in-between times” you might have forgotten, which can be valuable in getting things done.  My daughter found out in college that 15 minutes here, 20 minutes there, and a rare cancellation of an appointment can be a great time to get things done.

Some examples are waiting for your ride to school, waiting for your ride home, during class when you are given an opportunity or done with your work, while in the car waiting for someone, while traveling in a car (if you have the stomach for it), before dinner, after dinner, instead of worrying about it, while arguing with your parents about doing it or not doing it.

If you are often distracted, you are also not alone.  We live in a distracted world.  Many distractions are meant to get you to want things, need things, and buy things.

Get good, quality sleep. 

Your body is the container that houses “you”.  You cannot function without it, and your good function is limited when it is run down.  During sleep your body and organs refresh, restore and get revitalized.  It takes the average teen body 8-9 hours to do this.  Remember that you body does not experience the same renewal when you go to bed late and sleep through half the day.  It may feel necessary to deprive yourself of sleep during the week, and “catch up” on the weekend and vacations.  While this may feel good, check out how you actually feel on the weekends and in the morning of those days.  Do you feel “caught up” or, “just as tired”?

School is your job, your occupation, your career at this time in life.  Treat it that way, because it is that important.  Your school live prepares you for success in the adult work you will soon be part of!

When you stumble, and you will, you will want to get up and R.E.P.A.I.R.  (See article on R.E.P.A.I.R for  how to proceed.