Back to School Advice To Set You Up For an Actually Good Year

I graduated high school in 2021 and am about to start my second year of college. I spent the majority of high school fighting autoimmune disease, so I have some experience in the crappy parts of high school and I want to give you some of my tips on how to make it better.

Whether you are in high school, middle school, or college here are some tips that will set you up for an actually, genuinely, really good school year.

You Will Want to Look Back on This Year So…

Start a Journal for the Year

This is a piece of big sister advice that my sister gave to me and I think you should try it too. Ever since she was a sophomore in college, at the beginning of the school year she would buy a new journal and that was her journal for the year. It acted as a diary, travel/adventure journal, and a bit of a planner as well.

By the end of the year, it was filled with entries of her thoughts- both happy and sad, memories, sketches, rants, random to-do lists from days she otherwise wouldn’t have remembered, itineraries of road trips she took, photos, everything.

So now, she has this box of journals summarizing each year.

Since she told me about this, I have started one for myself, and I think you should too. If you’re not the “dear diary…” type, that’s okay. Use it for anything and everything, just designate it for this year so you can look back on it.

This is the journal that I use which I love, but any journal will work!

Commit to Taking Plenty of Photos and Videos

Both at school and outside of school, try to take as many photos and videos as you possibly can. I know it can be a hassle and for some people, it can feel embarrassing to take pictures and videos of something, but I promise you will be so beyond grateful to have them in a few years. Also, it gets less embarrassing the more often you do it, so keep that in mind.

Remember School is Just One of the Things You Do, Not Your Whole Life

Don’t Let the Idea of Going to School Consume You

I’m not sure if this is a universal thing or just me, but in high school, I would sometimes let the idea of school take over my whole life.

I was only at school for 6 hours of my 24-hour day, but it felt like it was my entire life. Even when I wasn’t at school, I would worry about what people from school were thinking about me.

If you also struggle with this and feel like school and the stress and anxiety involved with it take over your life, here are some things that helped me ease my mind when I was in high school:

Remind yourself that you are living your life right now and high school is only 4 years of that life. When you are in the middle of those 4 years, you are an individual person who is living your own life. You have 24 hours in your day and only 6 are spent at that school. Outside of those 6 hours, school and the people you go to school with do not exist in your reality. You get to decide what you do and who you spend time with. You don’t have to worry about what happens at school when you aren’t even there.

In the world of social media, Snapchat especially, it can be hard to separate your life from school. Make sure you have plenty of time when you are fully off your phone. This is easiest when you have things to do, so if you haven’t found a few hobbies you love just yet, start trying different things.

You Procrastinate?

The cycle of procrastination is a tough one to break, and it takes up way too much of your time that you could be using to hang out with your friends or do the things you love.

I know it is way easier said than done to break this cycle. However, there are some things you can do to try and stop it before it starts. Right now before the school year starts and at the beginning of it, start messing around with different schedules to figure out what works for you.

Think outside of the box: if you have always done your homework late at night, try waking up an hour earlier and doing homework then. You might fall in love with having that extra hour of time after school.

Also, figure out what organizational systems work for you. You definitely should have a place to keep track of all your assignments and to-do lists, but there are a lot of different ways to do this like:

• I use this dry-erase board to make to-do lists throughout the day
• I also use this planner which I find super helpful
• If you have a Mac, try using Stickies
• The Notes app on your phone or Mac
• The Calendar App
• There are also plenty of to-do list apps. I personally don’t love using these so I don’t have any good recommendations but there are definitely good ones out there!

Check out this blog post for more procrastination and productivity tips.

Don’t Do Homework Only at Your Desk

You have to do homework every day, but there is no reason to do it in the exact same place every day. I talked about this in this blog post I wrote for Pure World, but to sum it up, you can effortlessly add more adventure into your life just by changing up where you do your homework.

Go to different coffee shops; take advantage of the good weather before fall comes by doing your work outside on the grass, at a picnic table by a trailhead, or at the beach; drive somewhere with a good view and do your homework in the back of your car with the trunk open.

Mix it up and try new places. It will make doing your homework more interesting which might make it easier to complete, and you will make new memories and bring yourself happiness by just making a small change.

Love Your School Supplies

Start With a High-Quality Backpack You Love

I would highly recommend a Pure World Backpack. They have the cutest patterns, they are high quality so you don’t have to worry about your binders busting out the bottom halfway through the year, and they are made from hemp and hand-crafted in Nepal so you can feel at peace knowing your backpack was made sustainably.

Speaking from experience, you are bound to get loads of compliments when you use a Pure World backpack. A backpack is something you kind of has to use at school, but when you use a bag as cute bag as this, it just adds to your confidence which makes school way more enjoyable.

They are the perfect size for school (click here to see what I carry in my Pure World backpack for school) and you will get 15% off your entire order when you use the code “peaceofliv”.

Find a Way to Personalize Your Supplies

Paint your planners, notebooks, and binders. Get a colorful pencil case to make your school day feel a little brighter. Cover your pencils with friendship bracelet thread. Draw on anything and everything.

Don’t be afraid to personalize your things to really make them yours. It’s a small thing that will make school so much more enjoyable for you.

Upgrade Your Closet

Start With a Closet Clean Out

There are a lot of ways to go about a close clean-out, but here is how I do it:

Looking at your closet, grab anything obvious that you know you want to get rid of like the clothes you haven’t worn in a long time and the clothes you instantly take back off every time you try to wear them. Take a quick scan of your closet and grab any clothes like this and make a pile somewhere in your room.

Then, do the same thing but go a little deeper. Try everything on and whatever doesn’t fit right, is visibly old and dingy, doesn’t suit your style and express who you are, or just makes you say “ew” with that face- add them to the pile.

Then, go through it all again, but this time, instead of focusing on the no’s focus on the yes’s. What I mean is, imagine you were creating a wardrobe with only your favorite pieces. Grab anything that isn’t your absolute favorite and only the clothes you wear often that suit your style and make you feel your best. Don’t worry, this part is (mostly) just hypothetical for you to be able to see, the not-so-favorites aren’t getting thrown out the window.

Remember that clothes are meant to fit you, not the other way around. If something is too tight or too big and you tell yourself you will simply change your body to make it fit, well, this is a horrible idea.

Don’t actually get rid of anything yet. For the clothes that were hard to decide, or maybe didn’t fight right or suit your style- hold onto these. Put them in a box somewhere out of sight and re-access them in a few months. Styles and preferences change and weight fluctuations are common and normal and you don’t want to get rid of something that you might want in a few months’ time. Knowing you’re doing this will also make it way easier to choose to get rid of some pieces.

Go Shopping

Clothes are expensive, but it is so worth it to be able to express who you are and move with confidence throughout your day.

Start with thrift stores and second-hand shops. They have a surprising amount of clothes you will love at a fraction of the cost of buying clothes new (plus it’s a great way to practice sustainability.)

Try a Wardrobe Swap With Your Friends

You know how sweatshirts are always 10x more comfy and cute when they aren’t yours?

Move with this, and try a wardrobe swap with your friends!

Have everyone bring some clothes and trade with each other. Everyone will end up with new items for free, you can get rid of the clothes you’re bored with, then in a few months, you can do it all over again.

Play Dress Up to Find Your Favorite Outfits

Block out some time and have fun messing around with different outfit ideas. Get creative and try some funky pairings. You never know when you will accidentally come up with your new favorite outfits.

Come up with a few go-to outfits and keep them in the back of your mind. This will make school mornings so much easier when you can just reach into your closet and put on a cute outfit without even having to think about it.

Find Confidence in Your Style

I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but it really is true: confidence is everything.

That goes for everything in life, especially the clothes on your body. It doesn’t really matter what you’re wearing, but if you have confidence, you will look good.

If you have an outfit you like but feel uneasy about wearing to school, wear it a few times to get used to it first, and also have a mini photoshoot in that outfit so you can see how good you look in it.