If you're like me, the end of the semester can also mean the end of your sanity.

If you don't have a schedule or a set of tasks to do, you lose sense of time and motivation. If you don't have self-care routines lined up, you stop taking care of yourself. If you don't make an effort to stay in contact with people, you stay completely alone.

Over the summers, I've come up with a few ways to combat this.

The first and, in my opinion, the most important: put yourself on a schedule.

I set a schedule during any break from classes. I highly recommend the same to anyone, even if you don't think you need one, just to make sure you don't lose track of time.

It doesn't have to involve an alarm or a rigid schedule of hour-by-hour, but something like "wake up, work out, shower, breakfast, chores, lunch, chores, relax, dinner, relax, sleep" is better than "I have nothing to do all day."

Along with keeping a schedule, have something productive to do.

Don't really know what to do with yourself? Here's an article with ideas, ranging from traveling with close friends to working on a creative project you've never had time to do. Want to read but don't really know where to start? Here's an article talking about an author with lots of books.

There is a lot to do during a summer break, and those articles aren't exhaustive. Personally, I already have my books lined up and know what I mostly want to do - write, travel, plan.

None of that involves self-care, though, and self-care is extremely important.

It's easy to lose a self-care routine when there's no schedule to follow, hence why I recommend one to everyone. Besides, what better time to start a new self-care routine than during the summer? There's more time during the summer to try new things for yourself, so why not take advantage of that?

Personally, I've started working out in the mornings and soaking my feet every week. It may not be much, but it's more than what I did for myself in the semester. I plan on finding a skin routine for my acne-prone face, a good rhythm to lotion my legs and a better way to track my various moods.

These kinds of things may be small individually, but put together they're going to help make you feel like the best you. Obviously, nobody's self-care is the same. Everyone is different and needs different routines. Take the summer to figure yours out.

A final important way to take care of yourself this summer: stay in contact.

For me, that means doing my best to not go a full day without talking to anyone. For someone else, that could mean keeping in contact with parents while studying abroad. For another person, it could simply mean not forgetting to check in with friends they won't see until the fall semester starts up.

As a species, we're social. Even the most introverted people need some kind of social contact, and summer is the most likely time for people to lose connections and feel disconnected from friends and family.

With all this in mind, I hope everyone has a good summer and starts their fall well - whether that's starting college, going back to college or going into the workforce.