Yeah, yeah, I know. When exams finish up, the last thing you’ll want to be thinking about is school. But every single year it hits me hard — we have to hit the ground running in January, and it’s so ridiculously easy to get behind before we’ve even started. Just by doing a few small tasks during the break, your new semester self will thank you.
Lay Out Your Planner
If you need a new one for 2018, make sure you buy it during the break. If you make yours like I do, laying out the weeks of the semester while you have a break is like a therapeutic art project. You know you won’t have time when you get back.
If you have the funds, buy your textbooks
I hear you, I have not had a single semester where I haven’t switched or dropped a class. At Laurier, we typically have a month to return our textbooks to the bookstore if we don’t need them after we’ve bought them. You can avoid the lines both buying and returning if you avoid those peak times in the first week.
Amazon and Chapters also have some pretty decent return policies. By shopping in advance, you have plenty of time to find the best deal, capitalize on those Boxing Day sales, and get them shipped in time for classes without the massive commitment that everyone seems to fear.
Read your syllabi
Many courses don’t release their syllabi until the first week of classes, but if you happen to get your hands on one early, take a few minutes to read it. I find that about half the time I can tell if I’ll like a class before I even go, so getting a head start if you want to switch classes can never be a bad thing.
Find a back-up plan
Switching your courses? Make a small list of courses you may be interested in switching into. When you hate your class, you can casually just slip online and switch it out while all your peers are panicking. You’re welcome.
Clean your desk
Clean your whole dang room while you’re at it. Nothing says a fresh start like a clean workspace. Don’t bring last semester’s clutter with you — you don’t need it anymore.
Glance over your notes
Have a course with a prerequisite? Read over the notes from that course. If you had to take it first, it’s obviously going to be important. And while your peers are staring blankly at the professor because they forgot everything from the last class, you can be confident knowing that you’ve helped yourself out.
Most importantly, give yourself a break
This semester seems to have hit everybody pretty hard. Take some time for your mind and your body to recuperate before we have to do it all over again. Make some cocoa and put on a crappy movie. You deserve it.