I put this worksheet together for my 8th grade middle school students during my time working as a student advisor this year and received a lot of positive feedback after they tried out some of the things on these lists. There was also proven results statistically speaking with higher academic performance over time after students reviewed this worksheet with me during their advising sessions.
These are 5 main areas which are often the main issues which students tend to struggle with and complain about in regards to school. Students frequently report tendencies to procrastinate, difficulty managing their workload in a timely manner, not having good self-care habits such as skipping meals, or getting distracted easily in class as barriers to them being able to get better grades. Therefore, dedicating more attention to these aspects of their lives and improving their difficulties in these areas is likely to simultaneously increase their grades in school as well.
Feel free to leave a comment below about whether any of these tips have worked well for you specifically (or not) after trying them out!
Procrastination Tips
- Work for just a bit (periods/intervals of time), making sure to take necessary breaks in between
- Break down tasks into smaller steps (and spread it out over a period of time, depending on due dates)
- Eat your frogs first aka do the hardest tasks first to take advantage of when you are more alert and less tired.
- Find out what times during the day you usually work best in (ex: morning, afternoon, evening) and choose those blocks of time for getting your schoolwork done.
- Make studying fun! To give some examples, you can do it with friends, at a place you like hanging out at, while eating, or by making a fun game out of the study material.
- Rid yourself of distractions and temptations. Don’t answer your phone and if it helps, turn off all notifications to avoid the urge of checking your phone, messages, or emails so often.
Time Management Strategies
- Planning – helps create organization/structure for your mind because we are people of habit
- Get a planner and get into the habit of keeping a daily planner and carrying it with you as a point of reference throughout the day
- Jot down all of your to-do’s as soon as the thought crosses your mind because you may forget about it later
- Scheduling – helps to plan out the upcoming month in advance, and preparing for the week ahead so that there are less surprises along the way and to avoid forgetting important things on our to-do list
- Designate each hour or so in each day to something on your to-do list, similar to how your class periods at school are structured
- Decreasing the tendency to procrastinate – any of the above tips that have already been mentioned would help with this
- Develop short-term and long-term goals – it helps to actually write them down on paper
- Prioritize!
- At the beginning of each month, list your top 3 priorities, keeping in mind that they may or may not change with time. What this means is, figure out what your top 3 main goals in life are at this current moment in time and ask yourself how much time you spend each day working towards those goals or whether you are even spending any time at all doing towards those goals. As a rule of thumb, you should be spending most of your time and energy each day committing to the #1 priority on your list, followed by your #2 priority, and then your #3. For example, if your #1 priority is to pass math, but you are spending most of your time each day doing sports activities even though that is not even on your list, then you need to re-evaluate your schedule and commit more time to math tutoring instead.
- Get Inspired!
- When you draw inspiration from something or someone and you act upon those feelings of inspiration, it yields in better results because it comes from a place of truly wanting to engage in that activity.
- Don’t put off things that you really want to do, try, and explore.
- Capitalize on your talents – you were born with these innate gifts and talents for a reason
- Setting a timer – You can do this for all of your important to-do tasks if forgetfulness is something you are struggling with. Some examples are using a timer for taking necessary breaks while you are studying, for waking up from naps, or for remembering to take your medications.
Helpful Study Techniques to Try Out
- Table of Contents – memorizing the table of contents is a really great study trick that oftentimes in and of itself can give you the answers to many test questions. It is basically a “map” of the overall content before you even dig deeper into reading it. An added benefit is that it also makes finding information in your textbooks easier
- Highlighting – This is extremely helpful because you can then go back to what you read and skim over just the most important concepts which you had highlighted before. It saves time and reminds you what to focus most on.
- Color-coding – This technique helps a lot with organization and creating structure in your mind to avoid confusion. You can create a mini key that shows what each color represents which makes it easier for your mind to associate similar concepts together.
- Flashcards – if you are a very hands-on type person or find yourself learning and remembering things better this way, this study technique may just be the solution to your lower-than-expected test scores.
- Make online quizzes – Quizlet is one great source for doing this. You can even find pre-made quizzes over the subject material you are studying through this website so you don’t even have to make it all from scratch
- Testing yourself over the material like this is a really good way of making sure you are ready for big upcoming tests
- Avoid relying completely on electronic means of reading, writing, studying, etc. There is something about putting pen to paper that helps with brain memory and processing information into your long-term memory that typing out just doesn’t do.
- Location and lighting matters! Where do you study best at? Do you find yourself being able to concentrate better when at a library, a coffee shop, at home, or at school? Do you focus better around other people or quietly and when you are alone? Some people even find it better to focus under certain lighting conditions – whether yellow or white, dull or bright, etc.
- Start seeing a coach or mentor. Start 1:1 and/or workshop style tutoring sessions.
- Ask your classmates to help get you caught up on material that you may have missed while you were absent or to help you understand a concept that you are having difficulty with.
Developing Better Self-Care Habits
- Healthy diet and proper nutrition
- Not skipping meals
- Avoid binge-eating
- Getting regular check-ups with your doctor
- Taking necessary medications
- Drinking at least 8 cups of water per day is recommended by doctors
- Hygiene
- Using natural products on your skin and hair
- Exercise, sports, stretching, yoga
- Meditation, relaxation techniques and breathing exercises
- Every day, choose at least 1 fun thing that you love to do and commit some time to doing it.
- Surround yourself with positive people who care about your wellbeing and lift your spirits. Avoid allowing toxic people and relationships into your social circle and life – for example, people who put you down, are disrespectful towards you, or intentionally make you feel uncomfortable.
- Speak up for yourself – this is especially important to remember if you feel like your voice isn’t been heard or considered
- Community service, random acts of kindness, and having compassion for yourself
- Write a letter of appreciation to one of your teachers, close friends, or a family member
- Getting involved in your community helps to satiate one of a human being’s primary needs which is to proactively take a part in helping to improve the world at large
- Don’t forget to also have compassion for yourself. The relationship you have with other people is a reflection of the relationship you have with yourself.
- Balance – decrease your stress levels by not pushing yourself past your limits, but at the same time don’t procrastinate or waste your time either.
- Having a perfectionist mindset and attitude is not healthy and is a sure way of developing self-critical and self-hating behavior because we are human and make mistakes sometimes. In other words, it is cruel to expect yourself to be perfect.
- Some students tend to sway to the opposite extreme which oftentimes has to do with low levels of self-worth and not believing in themselves.
- Social support – Your social life matters too. It’s important to have regular communication and conversations with those who are close to you and keeping them in the loop about your life and how you are doing as well as reaching out for help if you feel like you need it.
Improving Focus and Concentration
- Try sitting in the front of the class and closer to the teacher.
- If you need to, kindly as your peers if they can speak more quietly amongst themselves, or just let the teacher know you are having a hard time getting your work done because the class is too noisy.
- Develop a mutual agreement with your classmates who you are working on classwork with to help each other finish your assignment first so that you can have the rest of the class time to socializing (without having to worry about it or having more homework to do later).
- If getting easily distracted is a re-occurring issue that is really hindering your progress, mention that you are having this problem to your parents as well as your doctor.
- Figure out a way to make it fun – when learning is fun and you enjoy the subject material, it is easier to stay engaged.
- You are more productive when you are in a better mood. Consider putting off working on assignments until you are feeling better.
