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There is an emotional tax transitioning from the fluid flexibility of summer to the strict structure of fall.

Back-to-school success takes students, parents, teachers, coaches, guardians, and even non-parent colleagues.

Routines help lower workload, stress, and anxiety by minimizing the daily decisions the brain needs to make.

As the golden days of summer shorten, we begin to obsess over the visible marker that the season is ready to turn with back-to-school sales and the return of morning traffic. This transition demands a rapid shift from the fluid flexibility of summer to the strictly choreographed schedule of fall, and several stakeholders pay the emotional and mental tax of pulling off the annual resurrection of structure.

Each stakeholder carries a weight

The process of going back to school is one that is discussed with joy and trepidation. The student starting a new chapter or the parent finally getting back into routine. The reality, however, is that the success of back to school takes everyone including teachers, coaches, guardians, and even the non-parental colleagues. It also doesn’t just start on the first day of school, but rather the countless decisions, tasks, and emotions that come before and after the first day.

Students, whether K-12 or college, have long worked to earn their grades, but their hardest work is internal during this transition. A child’s brain is wildly adapting to social hierarchies and processing high levels of........

© Psychology Today