Last year at this time, I wrote about New Year’s resolutions, and how you can include study skills goals in them, even though the new calendar year falls in the middle of the school year, and could fall at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of a grading period, depending on how your school’s calendar is arranged. I followed that post with one about setting goals related to new grading periods, and how that could be related in turn to your New Year’s resolutions. This time, since I posted about knowing your grading periods between the Thanksgiving and winter breaks instead, I am hoping that you will use the beginning of this new calendar year to review how well you did with keeping track of your grades and/or making improvements to your study skills both before and during your winter break, so you can set study skills goals that will help you either become or remain positive about how you will handle the longer time without a break that comes with the return to school after the holidays.
If you are returning to school having accomplished all or most of what you set out to do before or during your break, remember that the study skills goals and/or New Year’s resolutions you decide to implement now do not need to be anything big. The most important thing you can do in that case is to resolve to build on your successes. If you had a harder time sticking to your plans before the break, and/or did little to nothing related to your studies over the break, you may need to spend this week playing catch-up before you think about making new resolutions or setting new goals, but it is important to make sure you set them nonetheless. If your grading period ended before the break, you should certainly make your New Year’s resolutions and set new study skills goals for yourself sometime this week. However, if your grading period has not yet ended, if you still have midterm exams to study for, and/or if you have both work you could have completed over break and new work to do, waiting until later in the month to set your new goals, especially if a new grading period is beginning then, might make more sense. If you do decide to wait to set new goals, though, make sure you write a reminder to yourself to do it, and put it where you are certain you will see it.
Just as with study skills improvements throughout the school year, the ones you choose as goals for the new calendar year should be specific and manageable, and should build on what you are already doing. As I have said many times before, the more specific you are about how you plan to improve your grades and/or your study skills, the better you will do. Another important thing to remember about study skills in general and New Year’s goals in particular is that you should be realistic about where you are and where you want to be. Building from where you are, recognizing that getting to where you want to go will take time, and focusing your goals on what you think you can do are all ways you can increase the chance that you will stick to your goals and see improvements in your study skills and your grades. If you have made some improvements but find that you still struggle with certain things or in certain subjects, it is okay to recommit to some of your previously-set goals instead of setting new ones, as long as they are specific and manageable enough. If they’re not, you can always tweak them to make them more realistic or to add actions you will take to help you meet them. If you are pleased with the progress you are making, try to find new ways to improve and make those your goals. Even if you think you are already where you want to be, there will always be more you can do, and simply recommitting yourself to continuing to do what you have been doing is a worthy goal in that case.
Turning study skills goals into New Year’s resolutions is not meant to take the place of evaluating where you are in your school year. Instead, it is meant to supplement what you do to keep track of your progress throughout the year. While the beginning of the new calendar year should not be neglected when it comes to checking your progress with your study skills and setting new goals, neither should it be the only time in the year when you focus on them. Just as I mentioned last year that one of the mistakes many adults make with their New Year’s resolutions is that they make them so unrealistic that they are impossible to keep, so I will mention now that another mistake they make is in thinking that once they have given up on their New Year’s resolutions, they have no choice but to wait until the next year to try again. In case you haven’t already realized this, waiting until the next calendar year starts, or even until the next school year starts, is the last thing I want you to do if ever you find that the goals you’ve set are too difficult for you to keep. Just as with adults and their New Year’s resolutions, the much more positive and healthy way to look at study skills goals or any other New Year’s resolutions you may set is to remember that there really is no wrong time to reset them if that is what you need to do to improve your chances of success. Whether you need to start again after a setback, push yourself to build on a goal you are already meeting, or choose other times in the year besides the turn of the calendar to make changes because they make just as much, or maybe even more, sense to you than the New Year does, all that matters is that you go for it and keep striving to make progress wherever, however, and whenever you can.
No matter where you are on your study skills journey as this new year begins, and however well or poorly you feel you did with the goals you set and what you were able to accomplish before and/or over your winter break, taking another look at them now and deciding whether you need to reset and/or recommit to current goals, set new ones, or do a combination of both is a good way to start the new year on a positive note. While the New Year is far from the only good time to set new goals, and any goals you set now can and should be revisited any time you feel yourself slipping so that you do not give up on them, it is an important time to remind yourself how far you’ve come and where you’d like to go. While you should not put undue pressure on yourself about it, neither should you completely ignore it. As with so many other things on your study skills journey, figuring out what works for you is the best way to make the most of the fresh start and chance for a reset that the New Year brings.
One of the ways you can make the most of your fresh start in the New Year is by joining my membership site. In my next post, I will detail some of the changes I’ve already made and the plans I have for the site, but if you want to get a head start on adding new strategies for success to your New Year’s resolutions, head to my homepage and check it out!