Most of the students with whom I work have depression, anxiety and mild substance abuse. One of the easiest, cheapest and most effective tools for combating these struggles in college is detailed planning. Below, I’ve outlined the Top 5 things I tell every student to implement as they are showing up for Fall semester.

1. Syllabi Dates. Encourage your college student to plug-in all dates into their calendar from the syllabi they receive over the coming days. Once all the test dates are put in, reverse engineer two weeks prior to the test dates and put study dates into the calendar for no longer than 90 minute chunks. If it’s not scheduled, it will get pushed off till the last minute.
2. Professor Office Hours. Everyone will want to meet with professors the Thursday and Friday before Thanksgiving. Have your above-average college student pull their professor’s office hours from the syllabus (yes, all professors put office hours on there) and plug into the calendar.
3. Download Your University’s Academic Calendar. In June, I downloaded the Indiana University’s academic calendar for Fall 2016. It is a small file from Indiana University’s Academic page for any student or parent to view or download. Once downloaded, your college student can upload it into their calendar. Now, they’ll know Add/Drop dates, Fall Break, Winter Break, Finals, etc.
4. Don’t Talk Every Day…w/ Parents. Plan to talk 2x/week – (eg. Wednesdays and Saturdays). It’s time to intentionally create more autonomy, build trust, and not feel like you need to hover over them.
5. Set up Counseling and Support Early. Get it planned and scheduled before you need it. Counselors and mental health providers get slammed since there are so few of us in most college towns. There are even fewer psychiatrists for medication management. Start looking for a counselor/therapist now before the semester gets in full swing. Psychiatrists are often scheduled out 2-3 months.

Good luck and please reach out for more suggestions and strategies to mitigate the challenges your college student is facing with depress, anxiety or substance abuse. Don’t go it alone.