4 Back to School Tips with BlockSite

We are officially in the second month of the school year and we thought it’s the perfect time to dive into back-to-school tips as you get back into your school routine. Whether you are a new or returning student in your college career, high school, or are a parent and want to help set your child up for success, our back-to-school guide is offering tips on how to start this school year on the right foot, how to be more productive, and how to reach your academic goals.

Establish your routine

After the summer months of going to bed late, sleeping in, and spending all day outside, with family, with friends, establishing a routine might not sound that exciting. But re-establishing a daily routine is crucial in ensuring you’re set up for success so you can meet your goals, find time for your hobbies, and feel focused as you tackle your daily and weekly assignments. Of course, your daily routine and day-to-day might change from time to time, and it’s important to stay flexible, but having a structure set in place will help you feel organized and focused as you move through it. 

If you aren’t sure how to create an easy-to-follow daily routine, here are a few general tips:

1. Set a designated time to wake up and have breakfast
2. Follow your class schedule and attend every class
3. Try to not overload yourself with commitments- social commitments included
4. Set time aside in the evening to work on assignments, projects, etc. 
5. Choose days of the week for social outings
6. Set a time frame for the ideal hour you would like to be in bed by

Find & create a comfortable workplace 

Cluttered desks, overcrowded tables, loud background noises, uncomfortable chairs, and dim lighting- are all components that can lead to a distracted session of studying or completing assignments. When it’s time for you to get in the focus zone, you want to create an organized atmosphere so you can focus without the temptation of paying attention to what’s happening in the world around you. In fact, studies have found that when you lose your focus, it takes up to 23 minutes to refocus yourself. 

Try to create, or find, an organized environment that will help you concentrate and where you’ll feel comfortable spending a few hours at a time. 

Create a digital distraction-free zone

It seems that no matter what we’re doing, who we’re with, or where we are, our cell phones are calling on us to check them. And our phones, and the apps within them, were designed to make us feel exactly that. Social media notifications, email pings, push messages- they’re made to make us feel instant gratification as long as we continue to check them. It’s what we call the attention economy. It can be very challenging to not pay attention to the devices we’ve incorporated into the daily parts of our lives, so it’s helpful to have a few things set in place and on your side to overcome that need of wanting to check. One is BlockSite. With BlockSite, you can literally choose the time of the day you want your distractions blocked from interrupting you. 

For instance, let’s say you carve out 2-4 pm every day to study, review notes, or begin your weekly assignments. You can use BlockSite to schedule those exact hours as hours you want your biggest distractions blocked. Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Discord, Twitch, or Reddit - you can build your list to include whatever you need. Check out our Chrome extension for free and see how blocking your distractions improves your focus and thus, your productivity. 

Organize and review your notes 

After you finish class, try not to pack your things and immediately forget about all of the notes you just wrote. Try to set time aside each day, or week, to review your notes so you can have some one-on-one time with the information you learned. You’ll be able to fill in any gaps you might have missed, or fix the parts that don’t make sense. Highlight what you found interesting, or something your teacher/professor emphasized. Interacting with your notes will help you remember what you learned and will set you up for success later in the semester. In addition, when you review your notes, you’ll be able to keep track of anything else mentioned in class like upcoming assignments, exams, important deadlines, etc. 

We hope you found this helpful! Here’s to a productive, helpful, and fun upcoming school year and semester from everyone here at BlockSite.