Guest Post//Seven Tips for Surviving the School Year

Hi there, my name is Bree Dawn. I'm one of Eliza's friends and I cannot tell you how honored I am to be guest posting over here on her amazing blog. Eliza and I share many things in common: we both love putting our heart and souls into our stories, as well as spreading hope and joy amidst the world. And if I recall, Eliza is really the true reason I'm even here right now because if it wasn't for her, I would have never stumbled upon the blogosphere. So thanks for that, Eliza dear. ;)

Soooo, now that the introductions and formalities are all out of the way, let's dive right in, shall we?

School can be hard. Like, bold-all-caps kinda hard. I remember feeling overwhelmed and stressed out like crazy during the latter years of high school as well as the beginning of my time in college. And let's face it: Academics are no easy thing, my friend. So what are we poor students to do? Are we doomed to suffering all throughout our education?

The answer? Absolutely not, because as a very wise person once said, "You only fail when you stop trying."

Now, I know that you've probably heard this about a zillion times and you've probably tried it already and blah blah blah, right? But wait! Have you been doing it how I used to which basically means you opened your iPhone's notes app and made a to-do list on there? Cause guess what? That's probably why it didn't work. I did the same thing for awhile and it kinda worked, but I wasn't really happy with it. But here's the thing: If you don't physically write it down, you're missing that little energy boost that comes from physically crossing an item off your to-do list! This is such an important step, so please don't ignore it.

In order for this to be as satisfying as possible, I suggest getting a small notebook that you can use to physically write down all the tasks or assignments you have for a given week or maybe even just a day. Then, once you've finished something, you can cross it off and get that little burst of happiness because YOU ACCOMPLISHED SOMETHING.

Another idea would be trying out a bullet journal technique for organizing your assignments according to due dates. I tried the bullet journal for a time, but it didn't really work out long-term for me. But that doesn't mean that you won't have WAY more success with it than I did, so go give it a try if it sounds like something you'd be interested in.

I don't know why I waited until college to start doing this because honestly, it saved me freshman year! For me, this has just become a regular part of my week, but you could always reserve this as something you do every Sunday or Monday night if it suits your schedule. (I get assignments all throughout the week, so I have to constantly update my homework schedule.) Depending on how you want to do this, you could use your iPhone calendar, a physical planner, or a physical calendar: any way works totally fine.

Once you've decided how you're going to schedule things, next is simply figuring out how you want to do it. For me, I use my iPhone calendar because I've found that it not only works best for me, but the app also allows you to select specific colors for certain calendars, so mine looks like this:

regular events and activities=blue

homework due dates=red

concerts/shows=orange

exercise=brown

homework=yellow

important college dates=green

So using this color scheme, I'm not only able to better organize the different parts of my life, but also instantly recognize what is what when I open the app because I've memorized the colors that coordinate with each event. This is helpful when I'm in a rush or even when I'm just too lazy to really read whatever I'm supposed to be doing next.

One more tip is to try and schedule your homework in designated time chunks with little breaks in between. I haven't always been able to estimate very well how long it'll take me to do something, but it keeps me on track more times than not.

This is an important one because you need to take care of yourself. Burning out and crashing won't get you any closer to being ready for that test on Thursday. So learn your limits and how far you can push yourself before it's too much. And don't beat yourself up because you need a break or a night off. It's healthy to take breaks because you can't just work all the time! Sometimes you need to just take a breath and take care of YOU.

Some of my favorite ways to indulge in some self-care are long baths with a good book, a nice warm cup of hot chocolate or decaf coffee, watching a movie with my family, journaling, working on my novels, or writing some poetrical nonsense. But those are just the things that work for me! Maybe you'd prefer something more outdoorsy? Whatever it is that helps you relax and decompress, that's what you're self-care should focus on.

A big part of my first year in college was about learning how to balance my school life with my social/personal life. It wasn't easy, I struggled a lot, and there were a lot of times when I just didn't think I could do it. But guess what? I'm learning. I may not be there yet, but I'm well on my way to discovering what works for me and what doesn't and how to truly balance everything without completely giving up my favorite things. But how did I get to where I am now? Well, the big part of it was really just realizing that I needed to better manage my time and in turn, my anxiety because I actually did have time to go hang out with friends or family and maintain a social life. The big change came when I started learning how to just relax and choose not to stress because if I believed that I had time, it turns out I really would.

One of my biggest tips would be this: Try not to become dependent on coffee or caffeine to get you through the week. During my senior year of high school I had some run-ins with coffee and I eventually realized that caffeine had a tendency to give me a bad attitude (though maybe that was just me). So now, whenever I get the occasional coffee, I always make sure it's decaf. I also don't drink a ton of caffeinated soda. On the rare occasion, I'll slam a Coke to get me through a long day on campus, but I try to avoid it if at all possible because it's really not good for one's health and I don't like feeling dependent on something to get me through the day.

So moral of the story: Try to sleep and if possible, avoid caffeinated soda and coffee. One way to do this could be to get a decaf coffee and just pretend that it's caffeinated. This could possibly trick your brain into thinking you're getting caffeine, thus engaging in the placebo affect. (Honestly, I do this all the time and it actually...works?)

This year, I came across the Bible app, YouVersion and I really don't want to turn into an advertisement, but this app changed my Bible reading around this year. In the past, I've really struggled to find time or make time to sit down and really read God's word. And while I still struggle, this app make it a little bit easier.

There are hundreds of plans to choose from, all of which come in a variety of themes: hope, fear, faith, grief, love, and many others. All you simply have to do is choose which one you want to do! They also have yearly plans and plans to help you read all the way through the Bible!

It's honestly been such a huge blessing for me this year and I hope it's able to help you too, my friend.

Also, please don't neglect your amazing friends! I know how hard it can be to schedule in time to hang out when you have homework assignments at every turn, but friend time is important too! God has placed these people in your life for a reason and we need each other to make it through with the best possible experience. So go plan a coffee date with your best friend or if that doesn't sound like fun maybe go grab dinner and a movie with a friend you haven't seen in awhile.

If I can leave you with one thing to remember, it's this: Be confident! You have no idea what you're capable of achieving, my friend. You are so beautiful and I know that you can do whatever it is that you're facing right now. I know how hard it can be to believe in yourself because what if you're not good enough or what if you can't?

I saw that and it just made me stop and realize that we constantly hold ourselves back because "what if I fall?" when in reality, we have no idea that if we jump we could fly! So I urge you, go take that leap of faith because darling...you will fly.

All you have to do is have faith and leap.

-Bree Dawn (To know more about me, go follow me on Pinterest and Spotify)