As the first week of the fall semester is coming to a close, you may be overwhelmed from learning about all of the work that you’ll be expected to do over the next few months. This is normal, so don’t freak out quite yet. 

One thing that every student should do in order to feel a little more in control of their semester is to set goals. 

Goal setting has been proven to lower stress levels, improve academic performance and even help with your eating habits – things that all college students should strive toward. Who doesn’t want less stress, better grades and a healthy diet?

Setting goals is important, but it’s even more important to set effective, achievable and observable goals and to make a plan on how you will achieve them.

A Harvard study explains that when setting goals, you should also ask yourself why you want to achieve them and how you will do it.  

So, instead of saying “I want to make good grades this semester,” you would say something like, “I want to get a 4.0 this semester by staying organized and going to class everyday so that my cumulative GPA will rise and I’ll have a better chance of getting into graduate school.”

Setting goals early will help you stay motivated and be successful for the rest of the semester. Now that you know what you’re up against in your classes, this is a perfect time to sit down and figure out what you want from this year. 

Here are a few areas that you should focus on while setting your goals:

Academics: Since we’re all here to get an education, it makes sense for one of your goals to be related to your grades. Maybe a 4.0 is too ambitious for this semester, but you can always improve your grades. 

Fitness: Avoiding the freshman (or sophomore/junior/senior) 15 is a goal that we can all strive for. Whether your goal is to go to the gym at least once this semester or to run a 10K, do something to get active.

Financial: Saving money is hard in college. Those dollar drinks and food runs can add up quick and being poor is not fun, not to mention stressful. Save yourself some stress and make it a goal to save a few bucks here and there.

Social: It may seem weird to set a goal to be social, but when you’re busy with classes, fitness and work, it can be easy to forget to relax and focus on yourself and friends.  

Happy syllabus week and have a great and successful semester.