10 Things To Do Before Starting A New Semester

As one semester ends, it’s time for another one to begin! It’s time to end whichever break you’re currently on and crawl out of bed to prepare for the next few months of classes, clubs and college life. Yay? Hopefully it’s a yay. Even if it’s not a yay for you to be starting a new semester, these tips will help you make the process a lot easier (and affordable).

1. Purchase notebooks, textbooks and other supplies.

Time to stock up on any school supplies you’ll need for the new semester. Be sure to check what you already have to avoid buying things you don’t actually need.

If you had notebooks from last semester classes that still have a ton of space (read: you didn’t take any notes in that class because it was a joke), try to reuse some old notebooks! It’s good for your wallet and the environment. Simply tear out the pages you already used and boom! New notebook.

You don’t even need to leave your house to buy these things, I usually end up renting my textbooks for a lot cheaper with the Amazon Textbooks Store because you control how long you need the book, don’t pay to ship it back and always get a great deal of up to 80% off price list for rentals between 30 to 360 days and up to 60% off purchases. You can find out about current deals and sales by following Amazon Prime Student on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat (amazonstudent).

2. Restock your snacks and other necessities.

Aside from restocking on school supplies, be sure you have enough of your other essentials. This means ensuring you have enough shampoo, toothpaste, toilet paper, tissues, etc. It also means restocking on all of your favorite snacks.

3. Map out your syllabi.

If your professors have already posted the syllabi online, check them out and see what you’re in for this semester. Map out important due dates or test days and add them to your planner.

4. Put your schedule on your phone and your wall.

It’s good to keep it readily available, especially when you’re still a little bit unfamiliar with it. Be sure to include professor names, course numbers, time of the course and the classroom’s location.

In the beginning of the semester, it’s helpful to make your schedule your phone’s lock screen so it’s easy to access.

5. Plan your club/work schedules.

I don’t know about you, but filling out planners and calendars with color coded pens is incredibly therapeutic and makes me really feel like I have my life together, even though I’ll probably never look at the planner again after that day.

In addition to that, if you are a student who also works, now’s the time to figure out which hours will work for you and which shifts you can take. It also might be a good time to look into joining a new club.

6. Revise your morning/nighttime routine.

Figure out what worked for you last semester and what didn’t. Maybe you want to try heading to bed earlier or waking up earlier. Perhaps you plan on saving money and brewing coffee at home instead of hitting up Starbucks for class.

{ Related: 10 Ways to Brighten Your Morning }

7. Set your alarms.

You might already know this, but I’ll let you know just in case. On iPhone you can set alarms to go off on specific days each week, even multiple days per week. This prevents you forgetting to turn on your alarm, which can be very detrimental if you have morning classes.

It might also be helpful to spend the tail-end of your break adjusting to waking up and going to sleep at the times you’ll have to wake up and go to sleep during the school year. Doing this will help your body fall into a normalized routine before starting a new semester so you won’t feel as tired or groggy.

8. Make a list of shows/movies to watch and books to read during your down time.

It’s not always about the work, you need some fun, too! This is especially crucial if you know you’re going to have random gaps of time between classes during the week. This is also a great idea to utilize your time–instead of spending an hour figuring out what to watch you can just look at your list! Plus, when you have Amazon Prime you can also stream thousands of movies and TV shows with Prime Video. I just finished the movie Love Rosie and I definitely recommend it.

With Amazon Prime Student you get unlimited reading on any device with Prime Reading, which you can download on your phone or tablet. This means being able to read plenty of books on the go without having to constantly lug them around. I recently read The Things We Wish Were True as part of Prime Reading on my Kindle and it was amazing.

Plus, there are magazines and comics for those who aren’t totally into books.  If you prefer listening over reading, Amazon Prime also includes original audio series listening with Audible. These are great to listen to while you get ready in the morning!

9. Clean your space, bag and desk.

This includes dumping out any crumbs, crumpled up sticky notes and plentiful tubes of lipstick that may have gathered here. Don’t feel ashamed if you need a vacuum to deal with all of the crumbs that may or may not have collected in your bag. Toss out pens that no longer work, papers you no longer need and do some general cleaning of your space.

You should also just generally clean your dorm room but if that’s a bit much for you, simply cleaning out your most-used spaces is a great idea.

10. Get in touch with friends you didn’t see as much last semester.

Remember all of those friends who you saw a bunch, said “Let’s hang out sometime!” to and then never actually hung out with? Yeah, those friends. Make a point to make concrete plans with friends you didn’t quite spend as much time with last semester.

If you’re feeling extra, make a list of friends you’d like to hang with this semester on your phone and use it as a checklist, marking off friends as you accomplish the task of making plans with them. Seems weird, but it works and helps you remember to stay social!

Seeing as I have partnered with Amazon Prime Student for this post, I also encourage you to try out Amazon Prime Student before starting a new semester! Seriously, the first six months (courtesy of Sprint) is totally free and you can cancel whenever, so there’s no harm in trying it out. If you still like it after six months, students receive 50 percent off of regular Amazon Prime Membership at only $49 per year.

What are some things you do before starting a new semester?

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of CLEVER and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.