The End of Summer Holidays: What Happens Next?

As many of us will agree, the summer holidays are the perfect time to decompress and enjoy ourselves. No early mornings, minimal homework, and all the free time in the world! Though for some, this free time serves as a worrying reminder of how unprepared they may be for their next step. This could be an important exam year, college, sixth form or stepping into the world of working.

There is no right way to feel about what’s coming next; it’s human nature to fear the unknown. So, let’s focus on what we do know.

Reflecting on your progress, engaging your mind, and making plans for the future will help you with that feeling of uncertainty, and in turn help you make that next step.

This is where we come in…

Exam Year: How to Smarten Up When Studying Gets Serious

September for many will mark the beginning of the lead up to exams, which can feel very stressful and daunting. An instinct most will have is to cram in as much studying as possible, without any clear goals or direction.

While revision is key during exam year, having a clear plan on what you want to achieve, how you’re going to do it and planning for downtime and breaks from study is far more important than giving yourself information overload, which can quickly lead to burnout.

As the famous saying goes: Work smarter, not harder. Luckily, we have just the study tool you need.

• Our interactive book ‘Smarten Your Study’ makes the boring stuff fun, the hard stuff easier, and the forgettable parts of your studies more memorable.

You don’t know the exact content of your exams, but you should know exactly how you will prepare yourself for them, and the results you want to achieve.

By smartening up your studies, you may even be able to reduce your study time as well. Taking breaks while studying is not only beneficial for your studies themselves, but for your mental wellbeing.

Exam Results: How Reflection Can Help You Make Your Next Step

Some of you will have just completed your exam year and at long last, your exam results are in and the suspense is over! So now what? These results may have been what you expected, and for others, they may not. Nevertheless, you may already have a general plan for what’s next.

Proactively reflecting on your progress and making clear plans will help cement this decision. Here we have some resources that you can use to start this off:

1. Our free Reflective Thinking Bundle that contains a Reflective Thinking eBook which explains the importance of reflecting and teaches you how to do this effectively, and a Reflection Worksheet that will help you apply this to real life.
2.  How to Bullet Journal: Or BuJo for Short – Our book that introduces a new and improved method of organising and tracking your progress.

With the right resources, reflection is simpler than it sounds. For a better future, you must acknowledge and learn from the past.

Back to School: How Can You Re-Engage Your Mind?

Over the six-week holidays you many have done lots of fun things like gone on holiday, spent time with your friends, went shopping, or just took the time to relax before heading back to school. No matter how you spent your holiday, readjusting your mind back into growth mode is not an easy task.

Thankfully, we have a variety of resources for you to choose from that can make this transition easier for you.

In terms of returning to growth mode, you’ve already begun the first steps. By simply following the three questions of direction, you will find swapping texting for a textbook that much easier. These are:

1. Where am I now? This step is something you’ve likely already covered. ‘What have I achieved?’ ‘How confident do I feel?’ These are all questions you need to ask yourself before moving to the next step.
2. Where do I want to be? This is an easier one to answer. What are your goals? Where do you see yourself ending up after you smarten up your studies?
3. How am I going to get there? Normally, this would be a difficult question. Thankfully, you now have our tools that allow you to break down the path to success.

To use this free resource, please click here.

A Gentle Reminder

For those returning to school, it doesn’t have to be painful. With the right intention, reaching your goals is much quicker and a lot less stressful. Remember that school is meant to challenge you, so do your best, engage your mind, smarten up your studies and remember how far you’ve come already. Your best is always enough.

For those who have now left school and are venturing into the world of work, make a clear plan of where you want to go in life, and how you’re going to get there. There is an entire world of opportunities that are yours to take.

If you’re needing a helping hand, you can be sure there is a tool for you on our website that will help you on your journey, no matter what stage of it you are at right now. Visit our shop or check out our free resources to explore what help we can offer.

Follow us on social media!

• Facebook
• Instagram
• TikTok
• Twitter
• YouTube