Term three is often the most challenging when it comes to academic workload, especially for the senior grades. But I’m sure I don’t need to tell any parents that!

At the start of the year Shine From Within ran a half-day workshop for teen girls called Back 2 School. It covered releasing negative habits and thought patterns from the year before, time management skills, stress relief tactics, self-care rituals and setting goals for the year ahead. As always, I learned a thing or two from the girls who attended. It was wonderful to have a room full of girls keen to get off on the right track when school started back (even if some of them were sent kicking and screaming by their parents). They were engaged, excited to share their tips and had loads of questions.

What I found really interesting was the students who came along already knew what they needed to do. But they needed the reminder and fresh motivation to actually put things in place and create healthy habits that worked for them. Everyone has different styles of learning, different times of day when they can focus best and different distractions to be aware of. The sooner they can tune in to what actually works well for them and get into a routine, the better. I hope some of these tips come in handy in your own household.

“Everyone has different styles of learning, different times of day when they can focus best and different distractions to be aware of.”

When we brainstormed what worked for them in terms of time management and study, these were the top tips they came up with:

• Break your study and assignments up in to smaller tasks
• Have one diary for everything; including assignments, work and social activities so that you can clearly see how many commitments
  you have
• Turn off your phone
• Cultivate positive relationships with teachers
• Go for a run or do some sort of exercise to clear your head
• Create a study group with like-minded students at school to support each other
• Drink lots of water and eat fresh healthy foods
• Get organised and use worksheets and tools to support your way of learning
• Write your to-do list for tomorrow, today
• Ensure you have a clear, neat desk space to study
• Create an afternoon ritual that works for you to get into study mode
• Schedule in time to have fun and look after yourself too