It’s the time of the new year when many of us make resolutions for the months ahead. As a senior going to college soon, I’ve been worrying about my habit of procrastinating, something unsustainable in a college environment. This year, I plan on working towards my goal of having a healthier relationship with schoolwork deadlines. Oftentimes with resolutions, I’ll think about how I have a whole 365 days to complete them, and the next thing I know, the number has shrunk to zero. This year, I’ll start by resolving to make better resolutions.

There’s actually a method called SMART that is known for being successful with goals. It stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely goals. To make a specific goal, I want to do more than just limiting my procrastination, so I will make a schedule for my work. A measurable goal should have clear progress checks and indicators for when you have achieved laid out milestones. To make a goal achievable, it should be challenging but still possible with the resources and time that you have. This ties closely into making a goal realistic. You need to make sure that you are able to commit to the goal by taking anything else going on in your life into consideration. Finally, a timely goal must have set times or deadlines to make progress checks more clear. I hope to achieve my goals for the year by creating and practicing SMART goals and hope you too can use this method to accomplish your own resolutions.