How to Keep Your Education Resolutions This Year
According to a study by the University of Scranton, nearly half of Americans set out to make positive changes in the New Year. Unfortunately, just 8% of resolution-makers actually achieve their goals.
But you don’t have to be part of that statistic. To ensure your educational resolutions are met with success this year, consider these tips:
1. Express your resolution(s) in writing and aloud
Mark Murphy, Senior Contributor on Forbes Careers, reports, “Vividly describing your goals in written form is strongly associated with goal success, and people who very vividly describe or picture their goals are anywhere from 1.2 to 1.4 times more likely to successfully accomplish their goals than people who don’t.” So—jot your goals down on paper and keep them someplace safe. (Note: For this activity, writing by hand is likely to be more effective than typing).
Telling people your resolutions can also make you feel more accountable. When you let people close to you know about your goals, they can give you encouragement and will likely follow up with you later on progress.
Furthermore, telling others may make you think twice about giving up. Wanting to avoid the experience of admitting you abandoned your goals can, in fact, be a powerful force that keeps you on track toward them.
2. Tailor your learning experience
It sounds cliché, but the learning experience should be two things: fun and personalized. It should be fun, or engaging, because when you enjoy an activity, you’re much more likely to go back to it. And it should be personalized, so you can cater to your learning style and therefore maximize your productivity.
It’s easy to fall back into old habits—the same old habits that have gotten you nowhere in the past. But it’s time to turn over a new leaf and shape your improved routine.
To become a stronger reader, for instance, immerse yourself in material and genres that interest you. Poring over Shakespeare isn’t the only way to improve your reading comprehension and vocabulary. Instead, try reading “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving or any of the Grimm brothers’ fairy tales. Make it about what you like.
3. Revisit your motivating factors
This means reminding yourself of why you made your resolution(s) in the first place. Was it to make your college applications more competitive, gain entrance to a higher-level course, or simply learn a new skill? Whatever the reason, it is worth exploring and meditating on again.
For instance, if your resolution was to boost your SAT score by 100 points to get into a specific college, peruse the college’s website. Watch videos of tours around the campus or connect with current students on social media. These actions are important because they can reignite the drive that propelled you initially, thereby giving you the motivation to continue toward your goal.
4. Use a goal-tracking app
We’re living in the Information Age, so we might as well use the technology around us to our benefit. To continue advancing toward your goal at a favorable pace, download an app like Strides.
Such apps express your daily efforts as percentages or graphs, so you can better understand how you’re progressing toward your goals. They also allow you to set reminders, create checklists, journal, and much more.
5. Look at every disappointment as a lesson
Maybe you’ve heard the saying, “The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” If we keep this mantra at the forefront of our minds, we can change the way we perceive let-downs—that is, from disheartening failures to insightful learning opportunities.
Imagine, for instance, that your resolution is to increase your math average by 3 points, so you spend the whole evening studying right before a big test. However, you’re disheartened to learn you didn’t get the minimum grade you were hoping for. What can you take away from this experience?
Tom Stafford of BBC would say it’s that cramming is an ineffective study technique. “After six hours of looking at study material (and three cups of coffee and five chocolate bars) it’s easy to think we have it committed to memory,” remarks Stafford. “Every page, every important fact, evokes a comforting feeling of familiarity… But being able to recognise something isn't the same as being able to recall it.”
The problem with cramming is that it doesn’t commit material to your long-term memory, which makes it especially counterproductive with content you’ll be tested on multiple times. Instead of reviewing for a long period immediately before an exam, spread out your studying over several days.
6. Reward yourself for small victories
Even though we tend to think of a New Year’s resolution as a single long-term goal, to get to the finish line, we must also incentivize and reach short-term goals. For instance, suppose that your resolution is to broaden your Italian vocabulary. Once you’ve reached the benchmark of learning 50 or 100 new words, celebrate the accomplishment by treating yourself to your favorite meal, a new article of clothing, or something else that you’ve been wanting.
Motivational speaker Tony Robbins explains it this way: “By rewarding yourself in the moment, your brain elicits positive emotions, leading to the realization that your efforts result in a positive reward. By doing this continuously, your brain will start to link pleasure to accomplishing the task or objective and move towards it in the future.”
If you take these steps, 2021 can be your most educationally productive year yet!
Tiffany Sorensen holds a Master of Science in Spanish-English Translation from New York University. She works remotely from sunny Mexico, where she gives English and Spanish classes, writes educational articles, and designs practice tests for the ACT.