Ring! Ring! Ring! The late bell rings its final tune as some students still race around the halls, trying to find the right classroom with their schedules in hand. With a new school year starting again, there are fresh and returning faces entering the building. Though the first few days are usually the easiest, it won’t be long before the work starts to pile up again. Here are a few productivity tips to assure that you, as well as the rest of the student body, have an academically great, mostly stress-free year ahead.

1) Paying attention in class is half the battle. Though studying on your own time is very important — through flashcards, notes, or study guides — just listening to what’s happening in class can be an enormous amount of help. Of course, taking a little extra time each day to review doesn’t hurt either. Even fifteen minutes a day can really make a difference by the next test.

2) Getting distracted by different websites? Use helpful website blocking to steer clear of them. Special extensions that can be downloaded on the computer such as Block Site, StayFocused, and Nanny can allow only a limited amount of time on the blocked websites you know you’ll get distracted on so that you can finish that paper in peace without the worry of getting distracted by that cat video posted on Facebook.

3) Take time to try new things. While the year is still young, try participating in different types of clubs, sports and classes. Take every opportunity you can handle and dabble in a few things before selecting the ones that you like. Don’t be afraid of auditioning for a play, eating new diverse foods, reading a book on your own time or joining a competition in a subject you enjoy.

4) Studies show that teaching a subject can often be the most useful in terms of studying. Copying down notes and reading out of a textbook is a good start but one way of deepening your understanding of the topic is to try to teach it to someone else, whether it’s a sibling, a parent, a friend, or even the teacher. This will give you extra practice with the subject, knowing the facts on a deeper level, and being able to put ‘tutoring’ on your future college resume.

5) Use the Pomodoro Method. One of the best proven ways to get work done in the shortest amount of time is to use what is called the Pomodoro Method. What it does is give you 25 minutes of hard work and then add a five minute break afterward. Every third break is shortened to twenty minutes until all of the work is done. It is simple and has been proven to be the best amount of time needed to get the most work done. Add that with one of the site blocking extensions and your stress is guaranteed to be cut down by half.

6) Don’t forget to stay healthy. In between the clubs, piles of work, and hopefully plenty of socializing, it’s important not to forget our own living mass of tissue and organs that is the reason we’re all studying for that final exam in the first place. Exercise is one of the best ways to relieve stress and regain energy. Apart from those already playing sports for a team, getting at least 30 minutes of exercise per day should be enough, even in simple actions such as running, dancing, or biking. The regular amount of sleep should be at least seven hours, though ten hours never hurt anyone either.

7) Use the resources around you. They say that Google is your best friend, but there are plenty of helpful websites, apps and books that can really impact in what grade you end up getting in the end. Networking, which is gathering connections from the people around you for a greater benefit, can make a difference in whether you missed something from a class or not. Going to tutorials, asking other people for help, using the Internet to your full advantage is really not the chore that some perceive it to be.

There is a lot of advice to give out, a lot of friends and enemies to be made, and a lot of experiences to be had. Though your academics are very important, it is also necessary to keep in mind that you should also take time to enjoy yourself. Remember to take plenty of breaks and reward yourself for all the hard work you have been doing. Be sure to have fun and have a great year.