Deb­bie Ja­cob

Wel­come back to school!�It's go­ing to be a great aca­d­e­m­ic year - if you start the year right.�That means you have to be pre­pared. �In oth­er words, get your­self or­gan­ised.� The key to suc­cess is or­gan­is­ing your­self - your time and your work. Check out the tips be­low.

1.�Claim a qui­et cor­ner in your house to study.�Your bed­room is a good place if you can make it dis­trac­tion free.�Dec­o­rate your room. Make sure you have a fan and prop­er ven­ti­la­tion.�There's noth­ing worse than try­ing to study in a room that is too hot. Make your study area invit­ing.�Make it a place where you look for­ward to study­ing.

2.�Make sure your study area has a stur­dy, large ta­ble or a desk with draw­ers.�You need an area to spread out your work. A book­shelf is al­so help­ful.

3.�Set a time ta­ble and stick to it.� Have your study time the same time every day.�Don't make it too late so that you are too tired to study. When you cre­ate your study time, come up with a study plan that in­cludes a rou­tine for re­vis­ing.� Good stu­dents re­vise their work every day.� Good stu­dents do not do last minute cram­ming.

4.�Cre­ate a qui­et time for study­ing.� This means you have to be firm with your fam­i­ly and friends: Don't call me, don't text me or e-mail me dur­ing my des­ig­nat­ed study time. Switch your cell phone off. Turn the vol­ume down on your com­put­er if it alerts you to e-mails.�Tell your fam­i­ly when your study time is so they don't call you or sched­ule chores dur­ing that time.

5.�Make sure that your study cor­ner has ad­e­quate light­ing.�Eye strain caus­es fa­tigue, and you can't study prop­er­ly if you're tired. You should have over­head light and a good desk lamp.

6.�Have a check list for sup­plies and al­ways keep those sup­plies on hand.� Your sup­plies should in­clude, pen­cils, erasers, pens, pa­per, note­books, a�pen­cil sharp­en­er, ruler, high­lighters, mark­ers, a dic­tio­nary and the­saurus, and any spe­cif­ic sup­plies that you need for spe­cif­ic class­es. Use your plan­ner to or­gan­ise study time for re­vi­sions.

7.�Buy or­gan­is­ers � Pur­chase�a�mul­ti-tier tray to keep your es­says you're work­ing on and oth­er school work. Make sure that you al­so have a plan­ner or or­gan­is­er so that you can write down your home­work as­sign­ments.

8.�Have your com­put­er handy so that you can use the on­line dic­tio­nary or oth­er sites for re­search. Again, make sure the com­put­er, name­ly e-mail, is not a dis­trac­tion. For­get Face­book and oth­er pos­si­ble dis­trac­tions.

9.�Re­ward your­self with breaks.�You should al­ways have wa­ter at hand when you're study­ing,�but you should al­so take�a short break for a snack or juice. Walk around, clear your head.� Stretch or do ex­er­cise. Work an ex­er­cise regime for an hour a day in­to your day. Be­lieve me, you'll have more en­er­gy and you'll be able to face your aca­d­e­m­ic chal­lenges with much less stress.

10.�Eat well � When you take a break, fruits, com­plex car­bo­hy­drates and pro­teins. Don't drink juice with ex­tra sug­ar. Avoid sug­ary snacks.

There you have it:� Ten sim­ple tips that will help you start your year off right.