Thankfully, school let out for summer holiday a week ago, so I can hopefully have more time to write! I was planning on working on this post a few days ago, but I ended up on a mountain "retreat" with no WiFi or cell signal. Now, I'm not as addicted to my phone as a lot of people my age (as well as younger or older), but I didn't exactly appreciate my phone basically being reduced to an ultra-expensive brick with no warning.
That said, I've finally got a chance to work, and I wanted to share something that I've been thinking about-- rather than making New Year's Resolutions, those of us who are still students (or teachers for that matter) might be better off making New school year resolutions.
I talked a bit about New Year's Resolutions in a post earlier this year (if you haven't read it already or don't remember it, check it out here!) Basically, I was saying how we don't have to change everything to make a new year a good year. That being said, sometimes there are changes we need to make.
In a few months, I'll be heading into my last year of high school. Which is intimidating, for a lot of reasons. One huge reason is that there is really a lot of pressure to make senior year the best year. I wrote a lot about how to succeed in school earlier this year, but I don't think it showed the whole picture for me.While my grades would generally show that whatever I'm doing in school is working, I think that my overall stress level would say that it definitely wasn't working.
I ended up being terribly disorganized-- my desk and my backpack and my room are all a mess-- and procrastinated about everything. You'll know I haven't posted that often, and this is why. Honestly, I kind of procrastinated writing this post, about procrastination.
So with a lot of stress on my back coming out of this past year, and a lot of pressure to make the next year fantastic, I've decided it's time to set some goals.
It would be really easy to write down lofty ideas like "stop procrastinating," "be organized," "stop being late to things," or "get in shape." But one thing I did learn in my extra early Student Leadership class was that your goals have to be SMART.
What are SMART goals? Simply put, they're goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, rewarding, and timely. For example, "stop procrastinating" isn't very specific or measurable, whereas something like "start my homework as soon as I get home" would be a better goal.
If you're a student like me, I would suggest setting goals for this school year. It really makes more sense than setting goals for the calendar year, since for us things really start over in August, not January. And we get the added bonus of a whole summer to work on our goals before we get back to school. If you're not a student, don't feel left out. Goals are always a good way to get things done.
That said, my goals for this school year are:
- Start my homework as soon as I get home, if at all possible.
- Clean and organize my backpack and school materials about once a week.
- Use a good planner and actually keep up with it.
- Leave home in time to be at school, meetings, or events a few minutes early, if at all possible.
- Post once a week, if at all possible.
If you're setting any goals for this school year or just goals in general, let me know in comments! I'll try to keep you all updated on how it's going, if you're interested, so maybe we can help each other stick to it!
If you have any good tips for staying productive and organized, suggestions for planners or organizational materials, or books you'd like to reccommend, feel free to let me know as well!
Definitely good ideas! The only comment I can make is to keep goals realistic. The number one reason people fail in their "New Year's Resolutions" is by either making their goals too lofty, or making too many of them. Be realistic, and like you said, be specific about what you intend to do!
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