Independent learning isn’t so bad. Here’s 5 helpful tips to make sure you spend your Mondays right.

First and foremost, Plan your day ahead. Create a timetable for Monday beforehand. Not too long ago, Monday was the beginning of your long week. Now, students perceive this as just an extension to the weekend. This cycle is not healthy for you or your grades. Monday is meant to be a day where you don’t have to worry about the google meets glitching, or turning on your camera. The students have been given the independence they’ve been asking for.

Before you can think about what you’ll be doing the whole day, you have to wake up first. As nice as sleeping in sounds, is wasting your time napping all day really the best idea? Didn’t think so. If you want your Mondays to be a little better, wake up early, go for a jog, and have some breakfast. Waking up early gives a person the luxury of having more time in the day to be productive and get tasks done.

Ring, buzz, tweet. Turn it off. Phones are the ultimate distraction when trying to be productive. Calls, messages, social media… Mute all kinds of notifications while you are studying. Any kind of distraction will drastically reduce your ability to learn a skill or retain information.

Don’t have enough willpower to stay away from all those distractions? Ask a parent for help. Loop in your parents about your study plan. Most parents will be very supportive of this gesture, and will ensure that you are left undisturbed. They may monitor what you are doing and will likely prevent you from wasting time. Also, lots of people do better at successfully completing their game plans after presenting them to someone.

After a long, productive day of hard work, you deserve a reward. By rewarding yourself in the moment, your brain elicits positive emotions, leading to the realization that your efforts result in a positive reward. By doing this continuously, your brain will start to link pleasure to accomplishing the task or objective and move towards it in the future. So, finished all your Asynchronous Monday work with time to spare? Go hang out with a friend, buy yourself some dinner, or have a stress-free night in.

Maybe there isn’t one exact way to do manage your Mondays, but in order to find a system that works for you, you have to step out of your comfort zone.