As I slowly emerge from my first midterms ever, I realize, like many other freshman, there are steps I need to take to make the rest of the semester less of an “Oh shit, I forgot to study for that” situation. Here are my new rules – freshmen slackers pay attention.

First of all, actually use your planner. I haven’t, but I’m going to. Instead of making random notes in various notebooks, a planner will keep me organized and on track. I can look ahead a couple of days, replacing my current system of: “You mean I have two hours to write a four-to-six page paper?” This leads to me hurrying back to my dorm to stare at my computer screen for the next few hours and pray my printer decides to work seconds before class starts. Yes, getting organized and using the planner would be a good thing.

Secondly, don’t take so many naps. I am a huge fan of napping throughout the day. However, if you wake up from every nap, roll over, look at the clock and let out a blood-curdling scream, it’s probably not a good thing. I don’t know how many times I have laid down to take a quick little nap and slept through something I was supposed to do, which brings me to my third point …

Put your alarm clock out of your reach. Those times mentioned during point two? I did have an alarm clock set. But instead of getting up when it went off, I merely put my hand out, hit the off button and went right back to sleep (yes, the off button – the snooze button makes me feel guilty). By putting my alarm clock out of reach, I’ve learned I’m much more likely to actually stay awake.

Fourth, do not, I repeat, do not study while in bed. You will fall asleep and no studying will get done and you will fail your quiz. Period.

Fifth and finally, please do not attempt to read and/or study while walking to class. Simply put, it’s a bad idea. There is no real way to walk and read or walk and study at the same time. Tripping and falling flat on your face and having everybody laugh at you is, in fact, a very real possibility.

Surviving my freshman year up until this point has been one of those experiences I’ll probably look back on and wonder “How the hell did I pull that off?”

I firmly believe that if I at least make the attempt to follow my five new rules, I may be able to pull off the rest of my college career. I sincerely hope you can too.