A Better Back to School: 4 Tips to Beat the End of Summer Dread
August 24, 2022
5 min read
How to ease the stress of summer ending and school starting.
Written by Irina Neagu
While back-to-school season brings in new opportunities for personal and academic growth, it brings a slew of stressors with it. Back-to-back exams, long lectures, and suddenly even longer lines at your regular coffee spots. By being proactive, you can make the transition from summer relaxation to busy schedule without the extra stress.
These proactive tips will help you plan out the transition and figure out where you need to introduce extra mental health supports.
Tip #1: Knowing your triggers
Identifying what causes you stress and when that stress typically comes can help you have an easier transition into the school year. Teaching assistants and professors always repeat the same thing over and over again: Planning and preparation will improve your grades. But this mantra can become anxiety-inducing for so many reasons. Slowing down to understand what makes you nervous can help you manage your mental health during the semester and help you excel during exams.
Do presentations cause you anxiety?
Does thinking about how difficult the test will be cause anxiety?
Are you anxious about your grades and being the perfect student?
Does your anxiety ever lead to Olympic-level procrastination feats?
Is group work something you find difficult to manage?
Is there a subject you find particularly draining to study?
Being proactive when it comes to improving your health and better understanding the feelings you are experiencing is the first step to making academic stress more bearable.
Tip #2: Incorporating routines
Jumping back to a regimented routine is difficult after a laid-back summer. The question that university students asked from the dawn of the very first university remains the same. How do we excel in the classroom without giving up the things we enjoyed?
Adding routines into your schedule, can help manage our time, allowing us to incorporate the activities that meaningfully improve our mental well-being. Planning to cook dinner once a week for yourself or scheduling a weekly call with a loved one are routine habits that help ease the back to school stress.
There are also dozens of helpful routine creating and tracking tools out there to help start this process that are both free and widely accessible. As half the battle with starting routines and habits is often remembering to do them, list making apps for either your phone or computer with built in reminders like Minimalist can offer an easy way to stay on track.
Tip #3: Finding community
Communities provide us with a support network of individuals who share similar lived experiences, ambitions and struggles that can help you adjust to a new school year. Whether that be someone also starting school friend or family, being able to communicate your struggles to others can help reduce potential feelings of stress or isolation that may come.
The new school year also presents an opportunity to find or build a new community. Join that Medieval Martial Arts club you always wanted to but never did or try out for the underwater hockey team you never thought you’d get the chance to play. A new semester can be an opportunity to connect with others we otherwise might not have.
Tip #4: Practicing gratitude
Times of transition and stress and can make us lose sight of the positives we have in our lives. Reminding ourselves of some of the things we enjoy about a new academic year and the benefits it can afford us can help make us enjoy and even look forward to a new academic year. Maybe it’s being able to see your friends who live abroad come back to campus, the opportunity to learn a subject you love, or even simply being able to bask in the fall weather that comes with the start of a new school year.
Struggling with how to practice gratitude in a meaningful way? Try journaling. Journaling is an easy and inexpensive tool that can assist you on the path to finding gratitude this school year.
School can be difficult, but the transition back into classes does not need to be. Making small changes now can have a big impact in the future. Taking the time to prioritize your mental health now as summer comes to close helps your future self have a productive, fulfilling and enjoyable school year.
Please note that this post is written for educational purposes, it is not therapy. If you need to talk to a professional please book a consultation with a psychotherapist through Resolvve.
