school starts for me again in about a week so i thought iād make a quick post of some of myĀ āback to schoolā resolutions! most of these are quite general but some are very specific to me personally, so those maybe wonāt be as relatable to others, but these are just my personal resolutions for the new school year.Ā
1. make sure my notes are kept organised
currently my school notes are an absolute nightmare. some of my class notes are on my laptop, others i wrote down in an assortment of notebooks, sometimes iāll write them on lined paper and then put them in my folder, and then when i come to revise i canāt find them anywhere! even worse, i never know when i should and when i shouldnāt be writing notes while the teachers is talking (because sometimes what they are saying will just be reiterated on handouts or on my schoolās google drive, and they often talk so fast i canāt write anything down in an understandable format, just messy short hand), so there are several parts of my courses that i donāt have any information for outside of my confusing textbooks! making sure i have clear and concise notes organised all in the same place is really important for me this next academic year.Ā
2. use my free periods wisely
i find my school environment very overwhelming for my mental health to the point where itās difficult for me to focus in class snd iām physically incapable of work, so last year i was using over half of my free periods in a week to just read or watch youtube videos to try and give my brain a break before having to go back to class again. that worked fine last year but if i really want to step up my academic performance in the next year i really need to start using the majority of my time away from class while still in school working, and save my rest periods for at home. for me personally i donāt think itās going to be possible for me to work in every single one of my free periods without being completely overwhelmed, but iām going to aim to use at least five out of seven of my free periods a week do some kind of school work
3. pay attention to what iām eating in school
i am extremely lazy when it comes to what iām eating at school, and on a regular day iāll find myself eating some fruit at first break and just a pastry or something similar for lunch. i feel like i really need to prioritise making sure at least three days a week i have some form of packed lunch and iām not just eating fruit and pastries at school every single day because that definitely isnāt good for my body or my brain. part of the reason i dont pack my lunch is because i leave for school at 6:00 and my lunch break isnāt until 1:00 so the food is just sat getting gross in my locker for seven hours, so if anyone has any recommendations for some good school lunches that wonāt go bad iād really appreciate them!
4. keep off my laptop during lessons
i donāt do it all the time but certainly during some of less engaging classes (cough cough philosophy) i have a tendency to switch between my class notes and the tumblr/buzzfeed/goodreads tab i happen to have open in my other browser. its a really really bad habit of mine so next year iām planning on setting a website blocker on during the classes i have a tendency to browse during to try and prevent the temptation of doing something more fun than taking class notes.
this one is extremely personal to me and i donāt think many people will relate to it, but next year i feel like i really really need to focus on what i say in class more. growing up, i was ignored and talked over a lot by other people, so when i do have a group of people listening to me and i start to feel a little more confident in that social situation, i tend to say things without thinking about them. this isnāt an issue when in social situations but in class discussions iāve often said things i regretted (whether that be oversharing personal information or revealing information that wasnāt mine to share), and it was extremely detrimental to my mental health last year, causing many panic attacks. next year i want to try and only contribute in class when itās necessary to the lesson and after thinking carefully through my words when sharingĀ