As the summer sun starts to fade, a new school year is beginning. Establishing a routine is key to ensuring a smooth and successful school year. If you are ready to dive into a new school year and make the most of it, follow these tips for creating an effective routine. The most important part of your routine is building in healthy habits to all aspects of your day and celebrating your successes.

1. Establish Your Sleep Routine

Often when we are busy with school work, it’s tempting to make sleep the last of our priorities. We may think that less sleep means more hours of productivity during the day, but the truth is just the opposite. When we don’t get enough sleep, our brains are not able to remember as much as we have learned. When we don’t sleep enough, we have less energy, we become irritable, and unable to focus. Our bodies do best with a consistent sleep and wake time that we follow every day. It can be tempting to believe that we can “catch up” on the weekends, but doing this can actually cause us to have jet lag and take even more time to recover. Check out the sleep foundation for more information about how to create your routine. 

1. Establish your Morning Routine

When we start a new morning routine, it’s important to consider making this time as relaxing and easy as possible. To do this, we might want to plan ahead to reduce the amount of overwhelm in the morning. This could mean having our clean clothes already picked out, having our bag mostly packed, and having a plan for an easy and healthy breakfast. If you are looking for more healthy breakfast ideas, feel free to reach out to our Nutritional Coach, Kate Kingsley. You may find that waking up a little earlier gives you more time to wake up, start your day, enjoy your breakfast, and even exercise. Also, waking up to an alarm that isn’t too jarring or using a light alarm (instead of a sound alarm) can be a less stressful way to wake up. 

1. Establish your School Routine

If you are in college, setting up your school routine takes some planning. Before the first day, walk through campus and make sure you can find all of your classes and note how long it takes to get there. During the first week, take a look at the syllabi for all of your classes and write down in a calendar when all of your final exams and projects are due, this way you will know ahead of time when you will have a busy week and can plan accordingly. 

If you have a child in elementary, middle, or high school, make sure to keep track of school events in a family calendar and review the routine that your child has during the day to help them feel in control. 

1. Establish your Afternoon and Evening Routines

After you come home from school, you might still have a lot of work to do and extracurricular activities to go to. It’s important to use this time to both relax and decompress, as well as complete the tasks that need to be done. This is a time to exercise, socialize, work on homework assignments, and prepare for the next day. If you are looking for someone to help you get your homework completed and organized, feel free to reach out to our Executive Functions Coach, Eric Whittington for more information.

A well-crafted routine is the foundation for a successful school year. By assessing your current habits, establishing consistent schedules, and incorporating healthy practices, you can create a balanced and productive routine. Remember, the key to a successful routine is flexibility and adaptability—embrace the journey, make adjustments as needed, and enjoy the process of growth and learning throughout the school year. Here’s to a great start and a fantastic year ahead!