Another Saturday, another post! I hope this week was a relaxing week for you if you’re on summer break!
Although its not even July yet, its never too early to make goals for the next academic year! This upcoming year will be especially important to make goals because last year, we pretty much all slacked on school work since we were no longer in the school building and getting the same level of education as we would have been.
While I’m not an absolute expert on setting and achieving goals, I’m certainly not new to them and have used them to my advantage multiple times before. This post will include various mini-topics like how to set goals, what goals you should be setting, and habits to make and break in order to have a smooth transition back into a full year of being in-person at school!
How to Set Goals Using the SMART Goals Method
I don’t know about you, but in elementary school I got constantly lectured on “SMART Goals” and had to come up with a goal for multiple school assignments. I thought then that it was really annoying and a waste of my time, but now I see that SMART Goals are probably the best method for goal-making. Here’s what each letter stands for:
- Specific. Make sure when you make goals that they are as specific and defined as possible so you know exactly what you want to achieve (and by when, but we’ll talk more about that later). Avoid using words like “get better” or “do more” as they are very general.
- Measurable. This part is really important- it shows your progress and how you can track it to make sure you’re on time with your goal. Making it measurable will also indicate when you have completed your intended accomplishment.
- Attainable/Achievable. When you set goals, you want to make sure that they are definitely possible to achieve, but not too easy or too hard. It should be challenging, but attainable.
- Realistic/Relevant (and Reward!). You obviously want to achieve your goal, so make sure you have a clear plan of how you are going to do it. Also make sure that the goal you are making is relevant to yourself.
- Accordingly, reward yourself based on how big your achievement was and how long it took you to complete. You deserve that reward for your hard work! If you are making a long-term goal, you can reward yourself for mini-milestones as well.
- Timely. Last but not least, you need to make sure your goal is timely. Think about what you want to work on now or in the near future. Also, set a clear deadline!
Hopefully that was clear- I tried to be as detailed as possible. Like I said earlier, SMART Goals are a great way to make goals and track your progress!
Speaking of tracking your progress, I would recommend writing down your goal some place where you’ll see it often so you can be reminded of it. Also set reminders on your phone or write on dates in your planner to check your progress so you know you’re on track.
What Goals to Set For Going Back to School
Personally, I didn’t do in-person learning at all this year, and I know that’s the same for a lot of you out there. Although we don’t like to admit it, I think all of us have been less attentive and motivated with our schoolwork, and maybe even slacking. I touched on this in the introduction, but its really important to start changing our habits and goals now to know what we want to achieve before the challenge even comes to us.
Here are some ideas for goals to make that you can elaborate on your own to fit your life:
- Take class more seriously
- Try new methods of studying to improve productivity
- Study an additional day out of the week (or more) than what you were initially doing before
- Make the most of the time you have with your friends and create more opportunities to spend time together (but prioritize family and school first)
- Involve yourself in more clubs
- Make more friends or go out of your way to be kind to others
- Find a part-time job or a side hustle
A lot of these things we couldn’t do last year, like spending time with friends and getting a part-time job, so use this year as your redemption year and go all out!
Habits To Make and Break Next Year
Some of these ideas are similar to the goals I mentioned, but you can make them into goals if you want! I’ve been told that a habit takes 30 consecutive days of doing or not doing for it to become a habit. You can use the SMART Goals above to make a plan of how to make an action a habit in a month!
Here are some ideas of habits you can make:
- Write assignments down on your planner so you don’t forget to complete them
- Set multiple alarms before the time you want to be out of bed so you can let yourself wake up (or get just a few more minutes of sleep between alarms!). See my method in this post. (that was my second blog post ever so excuse the inexperienced writing!)
- Get back into your studying routine or learn how to study
- Go to bed earlier because you actually have to be somewhere in the morning!
- Make a printable checklist of items you need each day to have handy for each day before you walk out the door if you are forgetful
- Designating time for self-care each week because your schedule will get busy!
- Get homework done first thing when you get home, or before dinner
And here are some ideas of habits that you should break that you might have formed over the last year or have gotten worse:
- Procrastination
- Not doing your best on schoolwork/ doing the bare minimum
- Not doing homework (this isn’t as much as a “habit”, because my school, at least, didn’t give homework this year)
- Allowing distractions (like phones) while completing assignments or studying
- Not checking your work before submitting
- Not reading books that aren’t required for school
Feel free to take these ideas or tweak them if you want, or leave them- up to you!
My Personal Goals And How To Figure Out What Yours Should Be
Here’s my simple answer to help you decide what goals you want to achieve: work on your weakest area(s). If you have not studied for more than a collective 45 minutes this year (me too!) then make a plan to study. Make your weakness become your strength.
I’ll admit that sometimes I make a goal and forget about it because I keep it to myself and then just decide that its not worth it. To avoid that this time, I’m going to publicly state my goals for next school year.
I plan to read 8 more books this summer (that is, until school starts- August 20-something-th). The only reason I stopped at 8 is because I’ll be doing traveling and day trips that might make it harder to keep up. And if I really try for my goal, I might even exceed that number, which would be great!
My second goal is to find a great study method (preferably two) that works for me and is effective by Thanksgiving break. In middle school, I only did a Quizlet once or twice before a test, and that was all the studying I would ever do. I’m setting this goal because I need to truly start studying!
My third goal is to either do at least ten minutes of geography each day or half an hour twice a week- whatever works best for my schedule when I get back to school. Believe it or not, I’ve actually been slacking on my geography practice because most of the time I like to use internet resources, but I try to give my eyes a break from the screen most of the time since I already spend probably too much time looking at it anyway.
I hope you felt inspired by this post to write down some goals for your next school year and to start thinking about them before its too late!
Comment below what goals you are making for the next academic school year! Also in the comment section write what grade you are in and the best piece of advice you would give to those going into the grade below you. ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️
Love others, stay positive, and get vaccinated!
-Natalie B
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