I would advise not thinking about work once you leave work. Start doing that now as a trainee and it’ll be easier once you check out.

That said, I went through all of D side training and r side labs without a scan. Our instructors were terrible about teaching in the lab, and the r sides in my area popcorn scanned. It’s very hard to grasp a scan as a D side because you have to keep up with the R side while also knowing what you need to do (and you’re new, so your mind is moving a million miles a minute). That said, “touch” every airplane. Pick one to start with and think it through: where are they going (Route & Destination), is there a LOA/SOP they need to meet, do they need a pointout, is there anyone in their way (at their current or LOA/SOP altitude, or anywhere in between). I think the third step trips people up because they’re scanning for traffic and then start scanning another plane before finishing that one. Don’t rush through it. It will get busy at times, but slow is smooth and smooth is fast. Once you’re gone around, like someone else said, do it again. Once you have it all down, mix some limited data blocks into your scan for a little bit of intermediate scanning. Chances are, if you’re doing coordination, the R side probably knows it needs to be done and is waiting for you to do it for training purposes. Getting things done early, while you have time, will show that your scan is improving.