Listen to Music:

Everyone studies better when they're listening to music, right? If you were 14 in the mid-'90s (I was!), then you love Mazzy Star. They are releasing their first album in seventeen years this September and listening to the first single will definitely make you feel like you are locked in your bedroom "doing your homework" and waiting for your boyfriend to call while the leaves change color outside.

Other bands evoking a perfect twinge of cozy, autumnal melancholy (we're still making our way to the true gothiness of full-on October) include my latest throw-back interest, Swans (as well as the perfection of Tempers covering them), Zola Jesus's latest, a collaboration with JG Thirlwell of Foetus and Julianna Barwick's moody, practically religious sounding Nepenthe. Listen to any or all of the above while reading some Mary Ruefle lectures, and you'll soon have that too-cool-for-school intellectual feeling that made hanging out in your dorm reading Hindu philosophy and listening to Yo La Tengo so much fun.

Actually Learn Something New:

It's a little unnerving how this can happen less and less as we get older. Our neural networks want us to keep learning for a zillion compelling reasons, not the least of which is watching them light up when they connect with each other in illustrations of the human brain working hard. Thankfully, there are lots of ways to keep learning. I decided to get magazine subscriptions and actually read them (which reminded me of how awesome Bomb is). I've learned about ballet, property forfeiture, Hope Gangloff and how scary Google Glass is. Another option is taking a class. Learn how to Vogue at ODC or go to yoga school (lifelong dream #234) at Laughing Lotus. You can work on something on your own too, maybe by learning to make God's Eyes or essential oil sprays. Pick something you know little about, say outer space, semiotics, ancient history, botany or bike mechanics, and then research it. Watch documentaries. Sign up for Brain Pickings weekly "interestingness digest" where Maria Popova will regale you with all sorts of random information on art, psychology, writing, science and sex, just to name a few subjects. You'll be wanting to take notes in no time.

Skip Class:

It can't be all new outfits, tropical Trapper Keepers, researching Madí on You Tube and Dictionary.com-ing every word we've forgotten or never knew. After all, we need balance in our lives. We need the TGIF line-up and slumber parties and some extra-curricular activities. We need to sneak out and get in trouble. So don't hit the books so hard you forget about the rest of your life. Go see some of those bands you've been listening to in concert (Zola Jesus is playing at the Palace of Fine Arts on September 26). Go to the Bernal slides. Put on a leather jacket and go find your Judd Nelson. And start counting down until Christmas Break; it'll be here before you know it.

Study:

Paul HardingPaul Harding

How To Reclaim That Back-to-School Feeling