After you get back from Thanksgiving break, there’s about two weeks of school left. Two weeks to get your sh** together. Get off your phone, close that Twitter tab on your laptop, and jot down those notes as if your life depends on it. And it does. If you fail a class this semester, your family’s going to disown you. Okay, not really, but it would be a great shame to go from acing your classes all throughout high school to ending your first semester with a 2.4 GPA standing.

Take the time to visit professors during their office hours. If it doesn’t work with your schedule, find ways to arrange alternative meetings. Your professors only want the best for you; it is up to you to take advantage of the education that is provided by them.

Finals may not be for another 3 weeks, but that doesn’t mean you can wait until the last second to cram. Unlike high school, you either take the final or you don’t. You can’t take it early and very few professors will allow you to make it up unless you have a real family emergency to tend to. Key word: real. So start reviewing now, and thank yourself later.

You probably have a few more assignments due this next week, ones that will be the final deciding point in whether or not you have a cushion to fall back on if you screw up on your final. Don’t be that person who needs a 125% on the final in order to ace the class. Finish your papers, finish your part on whatever group projects you still have, and double-check your grades. Teachers constantly reminds us to approach them about any missing points or inaccurate grades we may have seen. Get it done, because every point counts at this point.

Winter break will be a nice and well-deserved time for you. But you need to first focus on school, because it is crucial to your future. There’s no room for slacking when you have another semester ahead of you. And after spring semester is over, you have a whole summer ahead of you to relax or put more time into passions like traveling and photography. Keep it up!

However, you need to remember that getting your life together these next few weeks does not mean forgoing sleep and downing one 5-Hour Energy shot after another. If you are productive throughout the day, you won’t have to pull all those all-nighters and mess with your health. So sleep (in moderation), eat nutritiously (not because of stress), and take a break every so often. These next two to three weeks will fly by like a breeze, and you’ll be cozy at home before you know it.