You may have gone to college partially to avoid taking your classes online. Now online classes are your only option due to the coronavirus.

Though you’re not thrilled about taking your classes online, you are glad to have an extended break. With classes resuming in a matter of days, how can you prepare to succeed? Prepare yourself for your classes moving online with these four tips!

Tip #1: Get rest.

Now that your sense of normal has been shattered, you may be enjoying the freedoms of no school. During the first part of this semester staying up late binging a show or chatting with a friend wasn’t possible. Now that you’re at home, you can spend your time as you wish.

Depending on how your college is handling classes, you may still have several days before your classes resume. So what should you do with this time? First and foremost, get rest.

Resigning to “one more episode” as you lie in bed likely will cause you to stay up much later than you should. Make getting good rest a priority in the days leading up to your semester continuing.

Don’t make the mistake of getting little to no sleep. You need your energy for this challenging transition ahead.

Tip #2: Establish a schedule.

Getting sleep may not be possible if you have no sense of a schedule. While you don’t need to plan out your day to the hour, you need to have some sense of routine in your life.

Without routine, continuing classes will be even more difficult. How can you establish routine? Try these 3 simple steps!

1. Start by prioritizing the right things. What things are important to you? Sleep? Eating? Exercise? Socializing? Try to block out time each day that you plan to do these important things.

2. Then prioritize things you know should be important to you. These things could be assignments due after break, helping out around the house, reaching out to that friend who is going through a rough time, etc. Block out time each day for these tasks.

3. Then fit in all the other things that are not necessarily the most important to you but things you want to do. You could want to catch up on a show, try a new hobby, etc.

By keeping some sense of routine you will help yourself be able to adjust better to this new part of the semester, which may feel like a new semester. 

Tip #3: Adjust your thinking.

What should you expect coming back to classes? Lots of change. The adjustment to the rest of this semester will take time. Prepare yourself mentally for these two realities:

• The rest of the semester will be different. If you’ve taken classes online before, prepare yourself that this will not be the same. Taking multiple courses online will be odd, even if you used to do this in high school. You likely have never and will never experience something like this again, so come in knowing that this is new and different.

• The rest of the semester will be stretching. Because this experience is new, it will also come with challenges. You will have to adapt quickly, and you will have struggles. Expect for you to have to take more initiative, stay more connected to email, need to set more boundaries, and fight lack of motivation.

Please don’t think these realities are meant to discourage you. Instead, use these realities to prepare you for the rest of your semester. And remember, any worthwhile journey comes with bumps in the road.

Tip #4: Find your organization system.

As you check your college email, you may find several emails from professors. As you check your course pages, you may find new syllabi. In many ways, this is like a new semester, so prepare.

Just like you needed to get your assignments organized at the start of the semester, you now need to do the same. But how?

Find a system that works for you. Keep in mind what has and has not worked in the past. Select an option that sets you up to succeed. (If you need ideas, you may find this post helpful.)

Unlike being at college, you won’t have the face-to-face reminders about upcoming assignments from your teachers or classmates and friends. Plan to help yourself remember assignments, projects, quizzes, and tests by getting yourself organized before classes start.

You are the master of your fate. The choices you make now can make or break the rest of the semester, so make wise choices. Set yourself up to succeed the rest of the semester by getting rest, establishing a routine, adjusting your thinking, and finding your organization system.