Starting Out Strong in a New Semester

It's the beginning of a new semester! This can be both exciting and nerve-wracking as you begin to navigate your new responsibilities. Balancing school work with extracurriculars, jobs, or anything else that demands your attention can be overwhelming. That’s why it’s so important to develop good habits that work for you. Stay tuned for tips on starting out strong in the new semester!

Develop Helpful Habits

• Work on your time management system. Strategies that work well for some people may not work at all for others, so it's important to find what clicks for you. Some ideas include:
• Use a planner/calendar to stay organized and keep up with your work. You can write down important dates and/or create to-do lists for the work you need to do each day.
• Prioritize tasks. When you're overwhelmed, determine which tasks are truly important and which ones can wait. Start with the most urgent ones.
• Use breaks. Taking regular breaks while studying can help refresh your brain and increase your energy, motivation, and ability to focus. Make it a habit to allow yourself to take some breathers. 
• Establish a routine. What does your schedule look like? What time of the day do you work best? Some people need a lot more flexibility to be productive, but for others, scheduling times to work can help them stay focused and always stay on top of their work. This leads to avoiding procrastination. Try to begin working on stuff further in advance. 
• Remember to take notes and review them. Work on finding the note-taking strategies that work for you and try to stick with them.

Set Goals for the Semester

• What has worked well for your in the past semester(s)? What do you want to improve on this semester? Ask yourself questions like these to develop goals. 
• You can set specific intentions for each class or have some overarching goals for all of your classes. You could create short-term goals at the start of each week, each day, or even each study session, or you could create a few long-term goals for the whole semester. Everything is up to you, but goal-setting can be a helpful way to stay focused and motivated to achieve the outcomes that you desire. 

Ask for help

• Remember to ask questions when you have them!
• Be aware of your resources:
• Go to your professors' office hours
• Learning Commons (learn more about all of these resources here):
• Tutoring
• Supplemental Instruction
• Writing Center
• Test Proctoring
• TRIO / Academic Achievement Program
• Request For Academic Support Form
• Make an appointment with a Learning Commons consultant

Take Care of Yourself

• Be careful not to take on too many responsibilities. 
• Engage in regular self-care. Find what helps you reduce stress. 
• Make time for yourself: do things you enjoy to help prevent burnout!

We hope all of your semesters start off strong!