How to Get a Fresh Start Second Semester
If you want to have a fresh start, you’re in the right place! You learned what didn’t work last semester, and now you’re ready to make the most of the second semester of your freshman year.
Before you pack your bags and say goodbye to your family again, consider doing these 5 things to help you make next semester a better semester!
1. Establish a regular sleep schedule.
The winter break likely wrecked your sleep schedule. You sleep much later than you intend and stay up much later than you know you should. To some extent, this is what break is for. However, you don’t want to start second semester with this weird and disjointed sleep schedule.
In the days leading up to your return to college, make plans to get your sleep schedule on track. Go a step further and put that plan into action by forcing yourself to go to bed closer and closer to when you know you need to be asleep.
For example, if you are going to sleep around 2 or 3 in the morning currently, each day try to go to bed an hour earlier until you get to the time when you’d like to be in bed by at college. (I would suggest making it your goal to get to bed by at least 11 or 12 each night.)
Additionally, force yourself to wake by a reasonable hour each day. Don’t let yourself sleep until waking every day. Try to set your wake up time to when you know you’ll need to wake up at school.
For example, if you know you’ll have some morning classes, get your body and mind used to being awake and functioning by somewhere around when you’ll need to in weeks. If you have classes at 8, 9, or 10 in the morning, adjust your wake up time to 7, 8, or 9. While realistically you may need more (or less) time, this will help you have much less of an adjustment when classes start.
2. Establish a regular exercise routine.
With New Year’s Day approaching, you may want to join in on the “exercise more” resolution. The key to sticking to a goal like this is remaining consistent even before school starts. If you can make excuses now when you have much less responsibility, you will likely have more legitimate excuses that will prevent you from exercising when classes begin.
Start by picking a time, a type of exercise, and an accountability system to stay fit in college:
Time: Having a consistent time each day will help this resolution become a lifestyle choice. You want exercising to become automatic response rather than a mental battle with yourself each day.
Type of exercise: Committing to one form of exercise takes discipline but may not help you stick to a routine. Plan for off-days, rainy days, and other days when you just have no motivation with more simple and short forms of exercise.
Accountability system: When accountability is optional, so is exercising. Don’t allow yourself to have easy outs when it comes to your routine, especially in the first month. Find a person or a consequence that helps you stay consistent.
3. Create a budget for the semester.
If you’re a conscious, breathing college student, you likely have mini-panic attacks about your money—more accurately your lack of money. Prevent these anxious feelings by creating a budget before you return to college!
Here are a few tips to get you started:
First consider your earnings—what is your incoming money? If you have an hourly job with varying work shifts, try your best to estimate based on what is typically the case.
Next consider consistent bills—what money is outgoing? These items should include college tuition, room & board, car payments, etc. These items should NOT include coffee, brunch, impulsive clothing buys, etc.
Then consider extra expenses—what money is outgoing that can be adjusted? This is where you put non-essential items like the expense of grabbing a meal with a friend off-campus, going to a coffee shop to study, etc. Even if these items seem absolutely essential, they are activities you can cut back on if necessary.
Last talk with your parent(s)—what extra incoming money can you expect? Your parent(s) may or may not plan on covering some of your expenses, but you won’t know if you don’t ask.
4. Replace or repair personal items.
Have some worn out shoes, a damaged laptop, or a broken desk lamp? This is the time to fix or replace these items. Don’t wait until you get to school to deal with these needed items!
The turnaround from first to second semester is much shorter than you experienced last semester. You will only have a few days (or less) in between arriving and classes starting, so get these tasks out of the way.
When the second semester starts, you want your focus to be on starting classes, not running to stores to find something that can work. (You are also more likely to find better priced items when you have time to look and research online.)
5. Choose your planner.
Last semester, you likely learned that being disorganized can actually heavily impact your grades. You may not have connected these two ideas yet, but having your life organized in one spot can make all of the difference. So if you want to succeed during your second semester, make finding a planner your priority.
You have three options: using an electronic planner, using a paper planner, or using a bullet journal. Here are the pros and cons to each:
An electronic planner:
Pros: easy accessibility, ability to make quick changes, connectivity to difference devices (phone, laptop, etc.), timed reminders, almost impossible to lose
Cons: harder to see the big picture (e.g. an overview of the week), allows only limited information, can be time-consuming to enter information
A paper planner:
Pros: allows an overview of a complete week and month, easy to add notes, helpful for tactical and visual learners
Cons: often less accessible, no reminders, can be hard to make large edits, can be lost
A bullet journal::
Pros: allows customization, easy to change the format, allows room for creativity and additional text
Cons: time-consuming to create, easy to lose, requires creativity
**On a personal note, I don’t love electronic planners (need more space for detail), but I also am not fully satisfied with paper planners. I’ve been using a bullet journal for my planner and like it so far. However, bullet journaling is time-consuming and probably won’t work well for people who aren’t inherently creative.
Last semester may have been a struggle, but this semester is an opportunity to have a completely fresh start. Begin second semester with these 5 tasks checked off your to-do list!
