Back to college, again. You probably have at least mixed feelings about returning to college. As a result, you may feel the urge to procrastinate important tasks. Don’t. Procrastinating only makes the start of the semester more stressful.

So before this new semester begins, take some time to prepare. Working ahead helps your semester have a better start and sets you up to succeed. Below are 5 things students often forget when preparing for a new semester!

#1. Research your textbook options.

Don’t make this big mistake. You should not purchase all of your textbooks before arriving on campus. You can end up buying the wrong edition, spending more than necessary, or making up some other mistake.

You should, however, research your textbook options before arriving on campus. So where should you look?

• Posted course syllabi: Teachers will often post their course syllabi on campus intranet pages or course pages. If the syllabus is a recent copy, the textbook information is likely accurate.

• Reliable students who’ve taken the class before: If you know a student who has taken the class very recently, they can be a great resource for textbook information. Sometimes these students may even let you borrow the textbook for little to no money.

• Your future teachers: Though this can be intimidating, your college teachers are often happy to help direct you to textbook information. Note that this should be more of a last resort. (Sending an email before doing any looking can sometimes communicate that you’re not willing to look for the answers for yourself and, in turn, communicate you’re a little lazy.)

Know your options before the first day of classes. Even if you don’t have your textbooks by the time classes start, you should still have a plan for how you will read course material until your books arrive.

#2. Arrive with a buffer.

I was guilty of this at times. Though arriving at the last minute possible may feel like a great way to squeeze all you can out of break, it usually makes you feel more stressed than relaxed. In other words, those extra hours at home usually cause you more stress in the weeks to come.

Choose to arrive on campus with time to spare. If you have more time than needed, you can always use this time to catch up with friends, run to a store, or sleep. Typically the worst that could happen is that you’re ready for classes to start.

#3. Identify bad habits.

Bad habits are sometimes hard to spot until after you’ve experienced the consequences. Now that you have a semester under your belt, you have a better idea of your weaknesses.

If you’re still having a hard time identifying the bad habits that led to some unpleasant consequences, ask yourself these questions:

• Why did your grades suffer? Maybe your grades were surprisingly low. Why do you think they suffered like they did? How did you spend your studying time? How much time did you spend studying? How did you prepare? These are all good ideas to explore when trying to identify your studying bad habits.

• Why did you get easily distracted? Focus is a commodity that is in high demand. There are so many tasks, roles, and ideas that compete for your attention that you may have struggled with being constantly distracted. Try to think through what things tend to distract you.

• Why did you struggle to wake up? College likely showed you that you weren’t really that tired in high school (at least not in comparison to college). As a result, you might have struggled each morning to wake. Take some time to consider what things made waking up hard. What did you do the night before that made waking harder or easier? What did you do after your alarm rang that made waking harder or easier?

• Why did you struggle to go to sleep? Staying up late can become an addicting feeling, even when you are extremely tired in college. What things contributed to you struggling to sleep at night? What things seemed to hurt or help? 

You can’t fix your past mistakes if you don’t know how or why they happened. Before the new semester begins, take some time to identify and even write down your bad habits you’d like to remedy.

#4. Make it easy to make good choices.

“Make it easy to do right and hard to do wrong.” This might sound a little weird, but this principle can definitely help you make better choices this next semester. Before you arrive back on campus, take some steps to help you make good decisions.

If you struggle with spending too much money…

• Unsubscribe from email lists. Whether it’s clothing, fast food, or some other luxury item, if you know you struggle to have self-control with your money consider unsubscribing from their email lists. You can’t be tempted by a discount or sale you didn’t know existed.

• Cancel subscriptions. Probably a greater downfall than simply spending money is subscription services. Spotify, Hulu, and other premium services add up. You may find yourself spending too much money on subscriptions causing you to not have enough to pay for other things you need more (like food for meals).

If you struggle with spending too much time on social media…

• Delete distracting apps. One of the simplest ways to stop spending time on social media is to delete apps off your phone. This doesn’t have to mean you’re deleting your accounts, but it does make extra steps necessary to check social media. Logging in on a web browser takes much longer and will deter you from wasting time you don’t have.

• Set time limits on apps. Again this doesn’t mean you have no social media presence, but setting time limits on social media apps can help you be more aware of how much time you are spending.

If you struggle taking care of your health…

• Get nice exercise clothing. Exercising can be difficult to fit into a busy college schedule, but if you like your exercise clothing you might be more likely to exercise. Feeling good in what you are wearing while exercising can help provide extra motivation to exercise.

• Make breakfast plans with a reliable friend. Knowing someone is waiting for you to eat breakfast can give you an extra incentive to eat enough meals each day. (I’ve personally tried this, and this tip really helped me as a night-person.)

This isn’t an exhaustive list, but you get the idea. If you want to ease yourself into making better choices, make it easy to form good habits.

#5. Contact your advisor with questions.

Don’t wait until the last minute to ask important schedule questions. This is what many other advisees do, which means your advisor has less time to direct you. 

Even worse than having less of their time, you may not be able to fit in required classes. (This has happened to me before, and this situation is incredibly stressful.) Don’t wait and chance having to stay another semester because of a mistake that could have been prevented.

If you want your advisor’s help, contact them before arriving back on campus. If they don’t respond soon, you can always send a follow-up email checking back in with them.

Insanity is described as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Please don’t act like an insane person. Instead, choose to take small, manageable steps that will help your semester start smoothly.