Set out your homework on your desk the night before. Take 10 – 15 minutes to look through your homework, to check your diary daily and to set out your homework in readiness for the morning. None of these tasks take much mental effort but they do get you to focus on what needs to be done in the morning and take care of any time you’d otherwise waste on organizing things. Make sure you know what should be done the next day.

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Go to bed at a sensible hour that is early enough for your sleep needs. If your friends want to chat or phone you into the later hours of the night, inform them that they have a deadline, after which you will not be picking up the phone or signing into chat.

Decide how many hours you will be needing for your homework. It is better to overestimate than to underestimate. Wake up this many hours early, but make sure you are catching up for this lost sleep at night.

Stretch and do some deep breathing exercises before tackling the day. The stretches will help to wake you up and keep you feeling lithe and strong. The deep breathing will calm you and get you ready for homework without a panic.

Drink warm water mixed with the juice of half a lemon. This will wake you up and energize you. It is also a very cleansing drink first thing in the morning. Another alternative you might like to try is warm water with sugar, and a bay leaf. Once it forms a part of your daily routine, you will hate missing it. It is probably also a good idea to eat your breakfast now unless you would rather leave it for after your homework – that choice is personal and up to you but don’t miss it.

Be seated for your homework. The work you did the night before should have set you in good stead to leap right into your homework. Try to tackle it as follows:

• Do the most important thing first, so you can get it over and done with.

Leave small, five-minute worksheets for the end.

• Mark off everything on your diary to-do list (if you don’t have one, make one – it is both an organizational and motivational tool)

Finish up in time for getting ready for school. If you didn’t manage to finish everything, do not fret – it is likely you would not have done so anyway. After a week of this new routine, assess whether you are coping with doing your homework in the mornings and whether there may be a need to balance doing some at night and some in the morning or to make other changes to your schedule.