10 back to school hacks | homeschool edition

Hurrah... School will be arriving soon! This is exciting, right? Right??

Wrong. Well, at least for some of us ( I am extremely excited. ) The first few weeks feel like heaven, almost, but later on it just becomes stressful. Not only do you have to worry about homework, but also chores and activities along with it! It is so hard to find time to do your everyday events and study. Luckily, I discovered some school hacks that might help you out.

1. Plan your outfits ahead of time.

If you have a phone, please use it for something other than texting. ;) ( Bad use of sarcasm there. ) On the weekend, pick out an outfit for everyday of the next week. Take a picture of the outfit laid out. That way, it makes it easier to get up early without worrying about picking out clothes! (It literally takes me forever to pick out an outfit. )

2. Take a break.

Rest your brain. You are in the midst of a super intense study session. Your hand is about to give out from writing and your head is about to explode. It is time to rest. Set a timer for five minutes to relax your mind. When the five minutes are over, get back to studying. After 3 breaks, take a 15 minutes break, then go back to shorter breaks.

Only use breaks when you actually need them though. If you take too many, you'll most likely not get your school done.

3. Workouts in a jar.

If you are finding little time to exercise during the school year, make a rest period useful. Keep a jar out on your desk ( or whatever workspace you're using for school ) and fill it with little slips of written workouts. For example, one might say 10 jump squats, and another 25 lunges. Make it your thing! Every time you're on a break, pull out a slip.

If you don't want to make up your own workouts, click here to just copy them onto your paper.

4. Classical music.

I love listening to music when doing my homework, but I noticed that I could do a lot more with instrumental music than music with lyrics. If you want to listen to music, try finding a playlist on Amazon Music or Spotify with classical music.

5. Word documents for essays.

I don't know about you, but when I write an essay or short story, I usually wind up with a lot of missing words and punctuation mistakes. If you have a computer to use, write your essay on Pages or Microsoft Word. You'll notice that when you want to change a word for a more descriptive one, it makes it quicker to backspace that word and type a new word than erasing it on your thin piece of notebook paper.

6. Get a good nights sleep.

I usually stay up extremely late doing homework, and then I can't sleep when I eventually get to bed. One way to help you fall sleep faster, is to drop some eucalyptus or preferably lavender oil on your pillow.

7. Write your ramblings.

This is kind of a "duh," but keep a journal or diary close by when you're doing your school work. If you get frustrated and can't figure out what to write for a report or essay, just open your journal and write! Afterwards, you will most likely think of brilliant ideas for your writing assignment. ( You. Are. Welcome. Just kidding. ;) )

8. Wikipedia

Yes, another related study hack, but it works. If you use Wikipedia, you might notice that it is a little hard to understand and is extremely long. If you want something shorter and right to the point however, just type simple.wikipedia.com. Believe me, it is way simpler!

9. Set the perfect alarm for yourself.

If you are not a morning person, it is very hard to get up willingly. A way to help you jump out of bed is to find your "jam," or favorite song ever and set it as your alarm ringtone. It works for me almost every time!

10. Keep yourself motivated.

Doing school can really stress you out, and sometimes you just wind up not wanting to do it. I find it very helpful to decorate your workspace to something a little brighter and cleaned up. Maybe add some quotes or Bible verses! When you're feeling down when doing school, just read some of your motivational quotes.

I hope some of these help you out as well as they did for myself. These can also work for those of you who are public schooled too, and maybe you can add your own little twist to it. :)

Adios amigos!

Lots of Love ( LOL ),
Josephine Frances 

Ps : I apologize for not writing for a few weeks... Getting ready for school and all of that jazz. ;) But I'm back, and am hoping to write twice a week again!