Imagine you stayed up until 3:00 am finishing your homework causing you to sleep right through your alarm. Frantically, you get dressed, pack your bags, and drive to school. Once you get to school and shuffle to your advisory, you realize the single most important thing that you forgot to do: eat breakfast.

With hunger pains, you head off to your first class. You realize you lost your homework that was due that day, and, –oh no– there was a quiz that you forgot to study for!

At one point or another, every teenager faces situations similar to this one, but there are simple ways that situations like these can be avoided.

First off, it is unnecessary for high school students to be staying up until 3:00 am, struggling to finish their homework. In most situations, this is likely from a lack of prioritizing. One simple and easy way to help make prioritizing easier is to keep a planner or a to-do list, which you can use to write down all of the assignments you have due for that week. If you highlight the times when you will complete assignments, it will also help you stay organized. I have found that using this skill has kept me more organized and has helped me become a better time manager. With everything written out in my planner, I can now better estimate how much time my homework will take me.

When you are in a rush to get out of the house, do you have time for things like brushing your hair or eating breakfast? In situations like these, it is best to have a survival kit. A survival kit can contain anything you may want or need in the future. For example, you might pack a granola bar in your survival kit in case you forget to eat breakfast. You may also want to include gum, a travel size mouthwash, or deodorant in case you forget to brush your teeth or apply deodorant. This kit is an ingenious idea. With it, you do not have to worry about the concerns of your body at school.

Next, everyone has tried to solve the case of the lost homework assignment, scouring through dozens of folders and binders just to find one piece of paper. There is a better way to organize those hundreds of papers. By using an expandable folder with a slot for each class, or a binder that holds all your folders, it is much easier to carry all your papers around, without having to worry about a worksheet being in the wrong place. This organizational technique makes so much more sense than carrying 10 different folders around, because it creates less need to search for the right folder.

Finally, one great studying hack is to take breaks. Your brain will not remember all the information you have been studying for if you just have a 5 hour cram session. Rather, you should spread that studying out over a couple of days, and study for an hour, with a 10 minute break after 30 minutes. Your brain will retain the information so much better than if you try to study the night before. This method works great when studying for finals. With all the information that is covered in that final exam, it is much more efficient to spread out your study sessions that way.

With these helpful tips, you can get a good night’s sleep and get to school with energy and on time without missing any assignments!