The New Year is an exciting time for everyone: you can mentally close out a lot of open tabs, relax for a week or so, and look forward to what the next year will bring.
Many people take this natural cycle of closure and the creation of a new global chapter by thinking about all the things they want to get done in the next year.
This is a great practice because it allows you to think ahead and dream big! But, did you know that only about 20% of people stick with their resolutions for a month, and only about 8% of people stick with their resolutions for the whole year?
How can you avoid becoming the 92% of people who give up on their goals?
Here are some of the best resolutions for students to set (but you don’t have to be a student to have these goals, either!) as well as how to actually accomplish what you want in 2024!
Student Goals: New Year Resolution 2024
Focusing heavily on your university or year 11 and 12 life is sure to bring about positive results that can launch you into another great year next January, but you don't have to set goals that are only about school life.
Setting and accomplishing goals as a student gives you multiple lifelong benefits:
- Setting yourself up for further success by accomplishing meaningful goals regularly
- Understanding how to motivate yourself to do hard things and be consistent
- Implementing a habit of self-discipline and self-reflection
- Learning how to identify meaningful goals and the steps needed to reach them
You may be surprised how many adults don’t know how to do any of these things, which makes life difficult.
You don’t always need to know what you’re doing or what you want with utter certainty 100% of the time (almost nobody does), but being able to choose a path that makes sense and is what you actually want to do is important.
Practising goal-making, habit formation, and self-evaluation skills with New Year Resolutions is imperative for success later on in life. Even if you don’t manage to keep up with your resolutions, you can use it as a lesson in what not to do.
10 New Year Resolutions for Students
What are the best New Year Resolutions for students?
Many common resolutions include things like “get fit” and “study better.” But these goals are so ambiguous that they are almost impossible to keep up with. How can you aim for something that doesn’t have a clear target?
Instead, try one of these top 10 goals for students, or use them as inspiration to set your own resolutions!
1. Create an Optimal Study Routine
The key to any habit is to take the time to make it customized for your specific needs, personality, and other individual factors.
Everyone has a way of learning and studying that works best for them… but not everyone knows what that way is.
Focus on trying different learning and study methods until you find one or some that work best for you, and then modify them as needed!
2. Create Systems to Overcome Procrastination
Procrastination is a beast that affects almost everyone at least a few times in life. For some, it seems like an issue every time there is something to be done.
If the conventional methods have never worked for you, try researching for unconventional ones!
3. Adopt Healthier Food Habits
Fad diets and restrictive diets are almost always bound for failure because they aren’t actually very healthy, or at the very least, they aren’t satisfying. Strict dieting can leave you with nutrient deficiencies and in extreme cases, an eating disorder. Or, they might just make you miserable because you feel hungry and restricted all the time.
A better approach is to adopt new healthy food habits at regular intervals. You can choose one new habit per two weeks, per month, per quarter, or when you feel like you’ve successfully added your previous habit to your lifestyle.
Taking small steps is much more effective than trying to change 15 things at once which is generally too overwhelming.
4. Start a Fitness Routine
It’s best to develop a target and a sustainable workout plan so you can keep up with gymming or exercising throughout the year. Abruptly working out for hours a day when you didn’t do anything previously will leave you too tired and sore to carry on.
Start with 20 minutes a few times a week. Only exercise in ways you actually enjoy – it doesn’t have to be at the gym! Set a metric (remember SMART goals!) so you can measure your progress.
Set an attainable goal so that you can celebrate meeting it, rather than feel disappointed that it’s taking too long. Then, you can set another goal!
5. Nourish My Mental Health
Mental health is becoming more of a mainstream topic these days, but it’s still severely underappreciated.
Too many people still think that “sucking it up” is the best way to deal with problems and emotions. This leads to a tangled web of feelings and beliefs in our heads that we aren’t even aware of, but that dictate our behaviours toward ourselves and others every day and leave us unable to cope with adversity.
Instead, try incorporating nourishing and helpful mental health practices into your daily or weekly routine. You don’t have to tell a soul about your practices if you don’t want to; the only person it matters for is yourself!
Try journaling, arts and crafts, singing, yoga and/or meditation and pranayama, taking mental health walks (or “hot girl/guy walks” if that motivates you more), sitting in nature, a self-care routine, or anything else that makes you feel better able to process your thoughts and feelings.
Also, sometimes, it’s cathartic to have good a cry in the shower.
6. Try Something New Every Month
If you aren’t exactly sure of what you want to do or you don’t have a specific thing that can last you for a year, try setting the goal of trying something new once per month!
This can be a one-time thing or a month-long process. The aim of this resolution is generally to try things and see if you like them or dislike them.
Great short-term or one-time things to try include
- Sewing, knitting, crocheting, and embroidery
- Running, swimming, or other sports
- A pottery class
- A public speaking club
- Learning a new language
- Learning about a different topic each month
7. Create (and Stick To!) a Budget
Financial health is incredibly important for students and adults. The earlier you get your financial wits about you, the better!
Learn about the different budgeting techniques and have patience with yourself as you incorporate financial habits into your daily life.
8. Read More Books
Reading more is a really popular goal all over the world.
Try setting a starting goal for one book per quarter, and if that goes well, you can up your goal by the end of the year or for next year.
The other important thing is to start with books that you genuinely enjoy rather than books you wish you enjoyed. If you want to read lots of biographies and other nonfiction books, but you just can’t get yourself to do it, settle for the genre you actually like.
It’ll be easier to shift your reading habit to more informative books if you already have the habit of reading in general.
9. Break Social Media Addiction
Addiction to our phones and computers is an ever-growing issue; they are little dopamine machines designed to keep your attention for as long as possible.
Some of the steps you can take to overcome this addiction include:
- Uninstalling unnecessary apps and/or making them log you out often
- Using a tool like Offtime to limit how much time you spend on apps
- Disable push notifications
- Avoid using any social media for one day per week (break the streak with a detox)
- Set “no-phone” zones and rules, like no phones in the kitchen or while you’re in the bathroom
- Replace your phone use with physical activity
Most of the time, using a phone is just a quick fix for a sudden and intense urge for something. When you get through that initial urge and move on to something else, it usually becomes a lot easier to deal with.
10. Get More Organized
Just like the other vague goals, it can be hard to achieve when you aren’t sure what “being organized” actually looks like.
Identify what about your life feels disorganized. Your desk? Your bedroom? Your computer desktop? Your cupboard? Your backpack? Your planner?
What do you want to achieve? Feeling relieved when you open your cupboard door? Knowing exactly where you left your keys every day? Being able to locate a document in less than a minute?
Work on one thing first: Create systems to keep your desk tidy by getting rid of the things you don’t need/use and adding organizational containers. Start making it a habit to go through your backpack every day. Limit the amount of clothes you have and donate all the things you don’t wear.
Focusing on one area at a time can make a big difference.
“New Year is a new morning and a new morning is a new opportunity and a new opportunity is a new path and finally a new path is a new richness!”
―
How to Decide Your New Year Resolutions
How do you choose which resolutions are right for you?
Life is so full of possibilities that it can feel impossible to limit yourself to just a few paths. The key in this instance is to remember that you will also be living a life outside of these resolutions; you are not boxed in to only reaching for these established goals. They are just meant to help you strive for a tangible and helpful preset goal.
The number one way to consider resolutions is to think about what will actually make you happier or make your life better.
Consider your strengths and weaknesses, short-, medium-, and long-term goals, your environment and lifestyle, and your likes and dislikes.
Choose resolutions that cater to your strengths or are designed to improve your weaknesses, will bring you closer to your goals, can improve your relationship with your environment, and are enjoyable.
How to Follow Through with New Year Resolutions
Setting goals is fun and easy. The hard part is achieving them. How can you make sure to commit and achieve your resolutions?
Only Set 1 to 3 Goals At Once
Consider the 10 ideas suggested here and think about if any of them make sense to you. Think about any inspirational ideas you get from thinking about them and write your own resolutions, if you desire.
Now, cut down your list to only the top 3.
You can have a backup list of your next top 3 goals to implement if you meet your goals before the end of the year, or you can focus more energy on your remaining goals once one gets completed. However, it’s crucial that you only focus on 1-3 goals at a time.
Evaluate Your Progress Often
Too many people take the “set it and forget it” approach to their goals. It’s important to look at your goal often and check your systems, habits, and progress.
Write your resolutions somewhere you will see and think of them often. Make a vision board on the computer or physically and put it somewhere prominent.
Write it in your journal. Schedule your goals. Have a weekly routine of looking at all your resolution information.
Keep it at the forefront of your mind so you don’t lose touch with why you want to achieve your goal.
Modify Your Approach
When you have your routine progress evaluations, decide if the way you are doing things is working for you.
Sometimes, we need to change our approach either because it’s not working, it has become boring, or we are onto a different phase and need a revamped process.
Don’t be afraid to experiment with different ways of doing things!
The New Year is a great time for looking forward and making plans for monumental growth. Set achievable goals and create usable systems to make it your best year yet! So, what is your New Year's resolution as a student?
Enjoyed this article? Leave a rating!
Loading...
