2 things to help your teen have their best term ever

In high school, Milad kept getting stuck in a frustrating cycle: he’d be on top of things for a while…then fall behind again. He would overthink, avoid tasks and slip into old (unhelpful) habits.

His grades weren’t terrible, but they weren’t where he knew they could be.

His parents tried tutoring. It helped with getting his homework done but didn’t change anything fundamental.

“I thought of it as getting work done rather than learning and building habits.”

He’d get home and even if he had only one or two small assignments, he’d ignore them. Work would go in a day or two late.

He wasn’t meeting his full potential. He knew it, and his parents knew it.

By the time senior year rolled around, Milad knew this was it - his final shot to show colleges (and himself) what he was really made of. His parents were searching not just for help with a subject or homework, but a way to build lasting habits and confidence.

That’s when Milad and I started working together - not just to get better grades, but to learn how to learn across subjects and strategically manage academics, extracurriculars and college applications.

His full story in his own words is linked below, but here’s what Milad says made the biggest difference:

📆 Time Management

• Between school, football, and college applications, Milad had a lot on his plate. He learned how to build a real schedule, on his terms. One that balanced everything, left room to breathe, and helped him feel good about school.

• He stopped scrambling and started leading.

• Important: at the outset, Milad wasn’t thrilled at the idea of taking time to create and manage his own calendar (not his school’s calendar or a to-do list, his very own calendar - many teens resist this big time). But he gave it an honest go and experienced the inevitable benefits of better time management - grades and free time went up, stress went down.

💁 Accountability

• Milad didn’t just learn about time management and organizational skills, how to write essays, study and focus - he had hands-on support practicing these core skills and productive habits every week (from someone who wasn’t Mom or Dad).

• This made it easier to break out of past patterns of procrastinating, asking teachers for extensions and turning work in late. This made it faster to dismantle the old ineffective ways of doing things and replace it with a clear, simple new way of doing things.

• He shared: “after a couple of weeks you get into the rhythm, it becomes engraved in your brain…not just for managing academics but everyday life.”

The result? His best academic term ever. He stayed on top of everything and still got to play football, hang out with friends and enjoy being a senior.

His new skills and mindsets translated to college applications. He built a plan, stuck to it, and got into his first-choice school.

Milad said that learning how to learn “structured him differently” and I think that says it all. This wasn’t just about grades. It was about growing into the person, into the learner, he knew he could be. And really, that’s my vision for every teen - to level up into the version of themselves that knows they’re smart and capable of CRUSHING it.

Check out Milad’s story in his own words here:

If your teen isn’t getting the grades they want and knows they could be more organized and confident, invite them to watch along. It might just change how they think about school (and themselves).

Talk soon,

Kelsey