Reset for Success: How I Prepare for a New School Year 🎒✨

Happy First Day of Classes!

I feel like even though I'm now in grad school, the preparation for classes remains the same. I actually really enjoy the time I take to reset for the new semester and to organize my physical and mental space before I begin dealing with all my classes.

For this reason, I wanted to share with you a little bit of my process. If you'd rather watch a short video about it, I have posted a video on Instagram and TikTok where it summarizes my steps to ensure I have a successful year.

Organize Your Physical Space

Clean Your Workspace

Did you know that a clean and organized space can help you focus better? I know this sounds like something your mom would tell you about while she yells at you to clean your room, but I promise you it's true. A cluttered space makes you pay attention to everything else except what you're supposed to be focusing on. That's why my first step to resetting for a new semester is to make sure that I clean and organize my workspace.

Use a Physical Planner

Another thing that you can do to organize your physical space is to use a physical planner to keep track of any important assignments and deadlines you may have. Using my bullet journal everyday is one of the only things that allow me to stay sane and know that I'm on track of any of my personal, school, or work tasks.

Although you can also use an online planner or to-do list, I've found that writing my tasks down and breaking down my projects is way more helpful than simply seeing an online list. If you're thinking about whether journaling would be useful to you, I encourage you to read this post where I talk about the benefits of journaling.

Organize Your Bag

Another part of your physical space is your backpack. Whatever bag that you use for school -- it's time to organize it and clean it. It's during this process that you can see if you still need anything before you start classes too, so definitely do it. Don't wait until the morning of your classes to throw everything in there and hope for the best! Show up ready and tidy!

Organize Your Digital Space

I recommend you to add a couple digital steps to your routine. I know that everything nowadays is online and that can be very tiring for some (trust me, I'm a social media manager I work online ALL DAY), but these steps can be very helpful to you.

Use an Online Calendar

The first step is to setup a Calendar so that you can keep track of any important assignments or schedules. I've been using Google Calendar since high school and it helps me so much, especially when it sends me a notification about events that are about to happen, like classes or a meeting. I definitely encourage you to use it and to customize it to your liking.

Backup Your Files

I'll never forget when I lost all my notes in high school a week before finals because my laptop turned off and wouldn't turn back on. It was a huge nightmare and it was really stressful, and from that day forward I started backing everything up on Google Drive. I know I sound like I'm a big Google advocate, but the truth is that I am. Their entire system is a powerful, FREE tool that you can use to help you organize yourself and your life.

(Bonus) Use an Organizational System

I love Notion. Although it may seem like I'm doing too much and I use too many things in my system, Notion has a special place and task. I use Notion to keep track of my classes and its details, my assignments, and any other important information. All my homework and projects are in Notion as soon as I receive my syllabi for my classes. Because I also use Notion Calendar, I'm able to see the events I have on my Google Calendar and my assignments all in the same place. If you like organizing things, you're going to love Notion!

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There you go! These are all the tips I have for you today and the start of your successful academic year. I know that, especially as graduate students, there's a lot going on in our lives. This is why I recommend a strong organizational system and an organized start to your year. The work you do before can save you a lot of work you may have to do afterwards, and that's when school really catches up with you.

I hope these tips were helpful to you. If you have any extra tips you like to follow, feel free to leave it in the comments. Thank you so much for your support!