This post is featured on behalf of Alycia Coloma.
The trick to hitting the ground running as you start a new school year is to make sure that all of your supplies fit your individual needs as specifically as possible. Try to view everything you buy for school as part of the overall investment into your education (and into yourself).
It’s important to find new supplies you are excited about—they should be the items you can’t believe you were living without. If you curate your essentials with intention, the back-to-school transition will feel positively effortless and maybe even a little bit exciting.
1. The Right Laptop
These days having the perfect laptop is an absolute necessity. There are so many choices and so many different bells and whistles that it can sometimes feel impossible to choose the right one.
If you value versatility, portability, and a good work-and-play balance, check out the HP Pavilion B&O series to help get you through the school year unscathed. Planning to do a lot of homework from coffee shops or at a friend’s dorm room? Then you’ll definitely want a lightweight laptop. To make transportation easier, look into getting a unique laptop bag so you can cart around your computer in style.
2. An Agenda You Will Actually Use
It’s easy to have good intentions going into the school year. You buy a trendy new agenda and use it for two weeks before giving up and going back to the usual chaos of was-the-homework-due-this-week-or-next? Before you buy the prettiest planner you can find, take some time to open that baby up and look at the pages.
What do you find yourself most needing to jot down? Test and quiz schedules? Planning out your study schedule? Homework to-do lists? Determine your organizational priorities and what your agenda would need to look like in order to accommodate them, and then you can make a purchase. If you want an agenda that not only helps you organize your life but also helps others, look into the Get One, Give One program from Passion Planner.
3. Great Linens
You’re probably familiar with the phrase “don’t dress for the job you have, dress for the job you want.” Definitely great advice. And similarly, I strongly encourage you not to sleep for the life you have, but rather to sleep for the life you want. Getting quality sleep is absolutely crucial to academic success.
Sleep affects our motivation, focus, memory, physical recovery, and even our moods. To put it simply: the better your sleeping habits, the better your school habits. In order to sleep for the good habits that you want, buy high quality sheets and a luxurious pillow to help get in some extra Z’s. Having nice linens will also make you want to take better care of your sleeping area in general—it’s hard to neglect an unmade bed if it’s got memory foam pillows and microsuede sheets.
4. New Hydration Tools
Whether it’s a new app that will help track your fluid intake or a cute new Hydro Flask, find a small way to spice up your hydration routine. Making sure you’re getting enough water throughout your day will ensure that you’re more focused and awake in class, not to mention more likely to remember the lecture.
Also, as a sweet bonus, your skin will start to clear up and you might even lose a little weight once your body is at a healthy equilibrium. That’s certainly a great way to start off the new school year!
5. A Timepiece of Some Sort
Whether it has old-fashioned wheels and cogs or it has an LCD screen, you’ve got to have a watch. First of all, it instantly makes you look more put together, even if you’re wearing sweat pants to class. But mainly, everything about school runs on a tight minute-by-minute schedule.
Always checking your phone for the time is inefficient, not to mention unprofessional and potentially disruptive during class. Take the time to do your research and decide where on the traditional-to-modern spectrum you fall before making an investment in a watch. Do you want it to track your steps or heart rate? Do you want to use it to set alarms? Do you want it to glow in the dark? Whatever it is that you want, invest in a watch that will help you stay organized and manage your time.
Back-to-school season always comes with growing pains. With just a little preparation and proactivity by investing in your routines, your health, and your sleep in advance, you’ll be able to sail smoothly through one exam to the next.
By Alycia Coloma
Alycia is blessed with four beautiful girls and enjoys DIY crafting with them in her free time. After receiving a Master’s in education from the University of Colorado, Alycia pursued a career as an educational consultant in order to help students and their parents plan for a better future. She’s a staunch advocate of continuing education, and believes that an insatiable hunger for knowledge is the key to better finances, a warm family, and an overall fulfilling life. Alycia finds it important to write about what she’s learned and express her opinions before a larger audience online. She leads by example, and teaches her readers that despite juggling four kids and a full time job as a single mom, it is possible to go back to school and achieve success. She enjoys finding new ways to work around tight budgets and offering tips for how to readjust and settle in a new situation—whether it’s collegiate life or a recent divorcée status. Her platform shares her wealth of information with the hope of empowering parents and students everywhere.