Articles, Goals, Lifestyle, School, Stress, Tips

Making and Keeping a Routine

Scheduling a Routine in a Planner

With the new school year starting, everyone needs a new routine. It’s hard to make one, especially after a long summer break. Let’s find the basics of making a routine. 

Know Your Schedule 

To make a routine you need to map out your schedule.

First, what time do you get home? Give yourself some time to rest after school. After working your mind for 8 hours, you’re going to need a break.

Try to make it no more than twenty minutes. If your break is too long you will lose focus and end up scrolling or being distracted for too long.

Next, you need to know what days you have something after school. If you have soccer on Mondays at 4:30 then you might need to have a separate plan for that day.

Likewise, if you have an activity with no specific schedule, then you need to have areas of flexibility for that.

Finally, how much homework/studying do you have? Knowing how much you will have to do daily or every few days will affect your schedule.

See if It Fits

After you’ve had your schedule for about a week, think about any changes that might be needed. Is doing math after soccer practice too hard? Do you need less time to study English but more for science?

Finding these weak points is necessary to keep your schedule on track. After finding them, you need to see what changes need to be made. Having a routine that doesn’t fit can really give you some unneeded anxiety.

Routines are made to help optimize your time, so making a sustainable routine is important. Getting it down to where you are productive and comfortable is key. If you’re not productive or as comfortable with your routine as you think you could be, changes may be needed.

Making changes along the way will surely help you with the overall year. 

Breaks 

Breaks are so very important. Do not study or do homework for more than an hour with at least a 5-minute break of just breathing.

Once you get in the mindset to study it can be very hard to get out of that momentum, but without breaks, it will lead to some negative effects along the way.

I have hyper-focused on studying for 4+ hours without taking breaks —trust me— all it leads to is being burnt out and tired.

Making time for breaks and knowing your limits is vital. 

Dedication

To stay with a routine you need dedication. Keeping a routine isn’t a skill you can pick up overnight. You have to put effort into keeping yourself on track.

The first week of having a routine is the hardest — you will fail the most during this time, but don’t give up on yourself. 

Think about what went wrong. Was your second break too long and lead to scrolling on social media for hours? Was studying from 4-5 pm not the best because your family was all at home?

Seeing these flaws in your routine can help you build a better one. Don’t give up on yourself because you messed up for 3 days. It’s hard work, but it’s worth it in the end. 

 

Getting back to school can be hard, for everyone. The aspect of a routine can make everything a lot easier, so building one is super important. Knowing the method above that I use, with your own flair, can help you bounce right into school without all of the stress.

Hope you have a great school year, and this helps you!

Ashe

hey, I am Ashe. I'm in the 8th grade and have a passion for writing, and reading. I enjoy consuming and reviewing media of all types.

More Posts

You may also like

Leave a Reply