There are a few things you can do to ease the stress on your back and shoulders. Save yourself some future backaches with these tips!
Lighten Up the Load
Use a flash drive. Flash drives have become so inexpensive that they are reasonable to use in your everyday routine. Make arrangements (you might need to present your case to the principal along with several friends) for permission to use a printer at school to print out assignments. Put all your work on the drive and print them as needed.
Download reading assignments. Most flash drives can hold entire books in their memory. Many classic books you read as assignments are available as free downloads at sites like Project Gutenberg.
Use your iPod as an external memory. You can carry around your assignments much like you do on a flash drive. Just follow these instructions for transferring files.
Email your assignments to yourself. If you don’t have a flash drive or an iPod, you can send your assignments to your own email account. Then you can open them from any connected computer and print them out. Emailing assignments is a good way to make sure a large paper or other type of assignment won’t get lost or damaged, too.
Color code your classes and tools. If your school work is organized, you won’t need to carry everything you own all the time. Color code your work so that you know the days of the week by “colors.” If green is the color for science class, and you have science every Tuesday and Thursday, then you will know to carry your green supplies and folders on those days.
Throw things away each week. Yes, it’s a hassle, but it’s worth it. Make time every week to go through your book bag to discard the things you don’t need.
Keep two sets of books. This may not be possible with all your texts, but it might work for a couple. Try to get your hands on an extra text so you can leave one at home for homework assignments.
Take advantage of study hall. Remember you really can complete some of that work in school!
Create a locker system. Create a system that allows you to identify exactly what you do need to carry home each night. For instance, you could start your day with all books on the top shelf of a locker. Between each class period, move the books you’ll need to take home to a lower shelf. If you come up with a system, you will be less likely to carry everything all the time.
