Classes start in two days. Man, this summer flew. I’m ready for this new semester even though it is going to be tough. Of course, we gotta keep it positive, and I think with the right motivation and smart goal setting, I can make things happen! Each semester I like to set up 5-6 goals for myself to undertake over the course of 4-5 months. These can range anywhere from academics to health/fitness! I always try to keep in mind that I need to make SMART goals, too. [specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-specific] These are my goals for the semester and hopefully this post will inspire you to make your own SMART goals!

1. Keep on top of homework. Do it when I receive it, not the night before it’s due. I have to say this was hard for me last year. In high school, I was never really challenged and most assignments–even the long ones– I could accomplish the night before in a short amount of time. Now, HA. Procrastination station does not have any space to exist in my college life. My workload now needs to be started as soon as I receive assignments. #NoDaysOff This semester I want to attack assignments as soon as they are given so that I am not a. stressed out all the time and b. stuck because I waited so long to ask for help. These two situations are not good for me or anyone!
2. Find a good balance for school, extracurricular, and free time. Last year, I had a tolerable work load where I could go to any athletic event I wanted, attend 3-4 club meetings a week, and still watch all my daily TV shows and some Netflix without being overly stressed. I’m not sure if that schedule is going to work out for m this year. I think the best way for me to do this is focusing on the early foundations of my courses first and then slowly adding extracurriculars and the occasional hour-long TV show. Multitasking will help here, too. I’m a big fan of muting the TV during commercial breaks and studying my note cards with vocabulary or reading a section of my textbook.
3. Hit the gym consistently. I think overall I’ve been going to the gym pretty consistently while I’ve been at home! Luckily, my parents have a membership that I can use during breaks. At school, I love to do Zumba and weight classes mixed with some basic cardio workouts during the week. I’ve already decided which classes I’m going to try out and have penciled in work out days that fit my schedule! My goal right now is 3-4 times a week for an hour. This will also knock off some of the guilt when I take a cheat day and eat an extra dining hall cookie 😉
4. Make smart decisions in the dining hall. This is a big one especially when the third week of eating grilled chicken, chicken fajitas, chicken stew, and chicken nuggets gets old. I’ve started reading blog posts about ways to eat healthy in the dining hall and they have given me a lot of ideas! **Hint Hint to all my blogger friends. Link your posts in the comments.** It’s okay to take a cheat meal once or twice a week, but I want to try my best to skip the pizza and fries when I can!
5. Make connections with my professors and find a lab for the spring! Grad school applications need recommendation letters. I want to start forming strong relationships with my professors now that my classes will continue to get smaller as the difficulty increases and more of them become majors-only. Also, I feel slightly behind in the “finding a research lab” department! I haven’t done formal research AND I’ve actually done a total recall of what I want to do with my life post-undergrad [more on that in a future blog post, I’m sure]. So, I was thinking that finding some labs to try out would help me narrow down what I could see myself doing in the future! (I’m a chemistry major in case you didn’t know!)

What are your goals for fall semester! Do you keep a list of goals and how often do you mark your progress? Let me know in the comments!