Each time a year comes to an end, doing some introspection can do wonders for you and the quality of your life. It can help you determine where you stand and whether you believe your life is moving in the right direction. Ultimately, it comes down to the question of how to optimize it for the better, replacing habits that no longer serve you with new ones, all while learning something along the way.
But we’ve all seen our fair share of these generic new year new resolutions posts, so this is not intended to be one of them. Instead, we’ve gathered some of the best concepts that apply to individuals who are living their high school days. So are you excited to learn these 20 new year resolutions for students in high school? Let us share them with you and see if there are some improvements you can make in your life.
1. Develop a healthy sleep pattern
When you’re young, sticking to a healthy circadian rhythm is probably the last thing on your mind. On top of that, if you’re like most students, you probably find it very hard to resist doing the things you love and letting your passions seduce you well into the nighttime. The problem is, this kind of lifestyle is going to have negative effects on your health in one way or another, both in the short and the long term. The very next day, you are likely to:
- Be unable to concentrate
- Stumble with tuning in
- Feel groggy and unwell
Keep this up and you may encounter major health problems down the road such as:
- High blood pressure
- Diabetes
- Heart disease
Hence, getting enough sleep and developing a healthy sleep pattern should be one of the top new year resolutions for students in high school.
2. Put an end to procrastinating
Procrastination is a classic one among all students who have ever walked this earth. After all, the seductive charm of putting something off and leaving it for another day is a powerful force many succumb to, toxic as it may be. So in the next year, make it a challenge to pinch yourself every time you’re having these thoughts. Turn the demon on its head and do things today that can be done tomorrow. As a result, you’ll feel much less stressed the next day.
Understandably, no one likes doing chores and boring tasks, but we’ll let you in on a secret – they become much more easily digestible if you challenge yourself to complete them in as little time as possible. You could even set a Pomodoro timer and fully commit yourself to the task as long as the timer is running. Once it stops, however, what’s done is done and you’re no longer allowed to work on that task! It’s a self-imposed rule, but no less effective, so use it to your advantage.
3. Start reading more
Naturally, you’re going to be reading a lot in high school, whether it be textbooks or various literary works. But that’s not the point – the idea is to broaden your horizons by reading up on things that are not taught within traditional school systems, but may supplement the foundation of your knowledge. A young mind is naturally curious, and quenching that intellectual thirst is fun! Even a simple novel can help you expand your English vocabulary, and reading about various topics and fields of study can actually help you discover subjects that could later on become your academic path.
4. Go on a social media detox
Scrolling through endless posts on social media is almost like an addiction of sorts. Much like eating fast food, it gives you that dopamine rush you crave for, only to end up feeling empty inside as soon as it subsides. Understandably, not everyone uses social media in the same manner, and in certain cases, it can act as a catalyst to ignite discussion among your peers.
Therefore, there’s no need to quit it cold turkey. Instead, a much better approach would be to gradually reduce the time you choose to spend consuming social media content. By doing this, you will also train your brain to not crave that dopamine fix as much, which will ultimately lead you to focus on other more productive tasks more easily. You will also decrease your feelings of:
- Isolation
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Inadequacy
A good trick is to place your phone in your drawer while you’re trying to focus on other things so as to avoid being distracted. You can also use some sort of a timer to limit your consumption of social media content.
5. Do something for your mental health
Your mental health is not something that is to be taken for granted. Research indicates that 75 % of high school students in the US expressed feelings of boredom, fear, anger, or stress while in school. Therefore, it’s vital that striving towards better mental health becomes one of the new year resolutions for students in high school.
As for the steps you can take, that partially depends on who you are as a person and what energizes you. With that in mind, consider doing more of the following:
- Exercising
- Sleeping
- Smiling
- Getting some fresh air
- Drinking fresh water
- etc.
Anything that is either generally recognized as relaxing or good for your health should do fine, mixed with what you personally find revitalizing.
6. Work on setting and executing your academic goals
Before working on executing them, there’s goals you need to set, whether it be personal, academic or any other. Take some time to evaluate your academic performance for the ongoing year. Are you satisfied with your GPA or do you think it could do with a boost? Perhaps your extracurricular activities could use some additional variety? Take a deep dive and be honest with yourself.
Have you done your part to improve your grades or do you think you could accelerate your efforts by working with a tutor? Remember, it’s a whole new year so a whole new you can get a chance to shine. There are great things ahead, and even if the finish line may seem out of reach early on, you can even take some time to apply to college in your junior years. Yes, it’s possible indeed! So wherever you’d like your life to lead you, this year is the time to start planning.
7. Learn the proper way to manage time
The correct approach to time management can make the difference between completing your studying and homework on time and spending another sleepless night catching up with your duties. This will greatly serve you later in life as well, so it’s definitely a skill worth learning.
While time management is an art and a science, at Novel Prep, we are huge proponents of creating a schedule that gives you an overview of what still needs to be done. This allows you to allocate a sufficient amount of time to different tasks, whether it be:
- Studying
- Assignments
- Homework
- Leisure
- etc.
Getting a good grasp on the essentials of time management means being able to create a good balance between your academic duties and personal life.
8. Make studying a habit
Every time you wake up, do you need to actively think about brushing your teeth or has it become almost like a reflex at this point? See if you can train yourself in a similar fashion when it comes to studying. Sometimes, getting started truly is the biggest barrier to overcome, and by making it a habit, the obstacle shrinks into nothingness.
9. Become more stress-resilient
Let’s get one thing out of the way – stress is a part of life and a part of school. There’s no way to get around it. On the flipside, there are things you can do to make yourself more resilient to it and even certain techniques to calm yourself down on demand. Examples include:
- Deep breathing
- Meditation
Of course, mental health is not exactly something that can be solved with a witty one-liner or one-size-fits-all advice. Your personal situation may be far more complex than that, so it’s worth thinking about seeking support through counseling if need be. Sometimes, on the other hand, becoming more stress-resilient boils down to something as simple as taking the extra time to unwind after a hard day.
10. Learn a new professional skill
Envision yourself several years down the road – where are you likely to be in terms of your career or academic path? Consider whether learning a new professional skill could come in handy somehow. For instance:
- If you’re planning to become a programmer, why not learn a new programming language?
- If you’re going to be a graphics designer, why not get a better grasp of a tool or graphics design software?
The idea is to complement your field of interest with a practical skill that might come in handy later on. Feel free to attain mastery over it in any way you see fit, whether it be through experimentation, workshops, online tutoring courses or project-based learning.
11. Dive into new hobbies or interests
Diversity is the spice of life, and without taking on a new hobby every once in a while, you’re essentially robbing yourself of the experience. Now, depending on your existing preferences and interests, this could be a wide variety of things. If you seek inspiration, you could try:
- Painting
- Cycling
- DIY and crafts
- Dancing
- Coding
- etc.
See if this meshes with your extracurricular activities (for instance, there may be a book club at your local school). Otherwise, you can attend these in your local area, online or even become self-taught. At any rate, the idea behind it is, while your typical high school subjects are going to be the foundation of your education, the latter doesn’t cover every aspect of life. Therefore, taking on a new hobby or two deserves its place among the new year resolutions for students in high school.
12. Create a test prep schedule
If there’s something you’ve probably learned by now is that cramming simply doesn’t work. So as part of your new years resolutions, make it a point to prepare for your exams way in advance, especially when it comes to the following important milestones in your academic progress:
- ACT exam
- SAT exam
- PSAT exam
It goes without saying that the score you get on one of these can dramatically shape your future academic opportunities, help you get your foot in the door of the world’s most prestigious universities and even impact your chances of securing a scholarship.
Speaking of which, did you know that Novel Prep offers SAT prep and AP prep services are designed to provide all the resources you need in one place without you having to traverse the depths of the internet to find them? Does the very thought of not knowing how to start preparing for these important exams send shivers down your spine? At Novel Prep, we’ve helped well over 7000 students get where they want to be and we even offer you a guarantee on improving your grade (kindly refer to our service pages linked above if you’d like to know more).
13. Build a better relationship with your teachers
Professional relationship may seem gray at times, and the fact of the matter is that you’re simply not going to be vibing with everyone all the time. That’s life! And that’s okay. However, we’re almost willing to bet that you have at least one or two favor teachers you look up to and genuinely enjoy learning from them and their expertise. If any of this applies to you, we’d truly like to encourage you to find a way to express your appreciation.
How does any of that matter apart from just being nice? Well, alongside the AP Capstone program, it will increase your chances of being able to secure a letter of recommendation from them. And best of all, if you focus on the people you genuinely respect, you can be authentic in the process so none of it will be fake!
14. Develop a growth-oriented mindset
These days, being ‘growth-oriented’ is a buzzword, so that alone seemingly makes it easy to discredit it. But let’s dive deeper and uncover what it really means. You see, you can go through the motions of practice, whether it be studying, training martial arts, or learning an instrument, but if you don’t believe that hard work will bring you the results you want, that, in and of itself, can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Cultivating a growth-oriented mindset will also change the way you perceive obstacles which will soon become an opportunity to test your mettle, learn from your mistakes, and, ultimately, grow and advance. At the end of the day, resilience in the face of adversity is the kind of mindset that will help you not only in school but in life as well, in the broadest sense of the word.
15. Consider setting up a dedicated study space
Researchers and academics have emphasized the importance of setting up a dedicated study space times and times again. Most of it boils down to pure psychology; as in mentally switching gears into study mode just by walking into that room and embracing what it represents. Compared to trying to study in random places, your concentration (and, consequently, the return on your effort) will skyrocket. But your study space must be more than just a space. It should have the elements of being:
- Well-lit
- Free of distractions
- Quiet
- Clean
- Pleasant-smelling
If you want to go above and beyond with this, you can also hang some motivational quotes on the wall. Whatever resonates with you or lights a fire in you will do.
16. Improve your GPA
Out of all the New Year resolutions for students in high school we’ve covered thus far, you can never go wrong with taking the steps you need to boost your GPA. The reason being is that it tends to be one of the major deciding factors college officials take note of when determining who gets in and who doesn’t. But first, you’re going to have to determine what’s holding you back from reaching your full potential.
- Should you get better at taking notes in class?
- Should you be more diligent about doing your homework?
- Should you stay after class to make extra sure you’ve understood the course materials?
Anyone can set a goal of improving one’s GPA, but what you need is execution. And to do so, you’re going to need some clearly outlined steps to take that sometimes aren’t as apparent as many would like to think.
For this exact reason, we encourage you to take a look Novel Prep’s AP Credit course that was designed to be the fastest and most efficient way to boosting your GPA. In addition to that, these are online courses, making the flexible and adaptable to your schedule by their very nature.
But make no mistake – this is no ordinary online course because you get personalized support as part of the package. In other words, one of our high school tutors with a proven track record of success will work with you one-on-one to determine what’s still holding you back from reaching your academic goals and we also go as far as to offer you a guarantee on your success – and one on one tutoring is not something you will get from your ordinary tutor!
17. Learn how to learn
Before you can start thinking about how to improve your grades, you should master the art of learning, as it will immensely benefit you in the long term. It’s about optimizing the process itself so that the time you choose to pour into it is put to good use. Our Novel Prep tutoring experts often notice that students spend a massive chunk of their time on things that aren’t that important, all while neglecting what actually matters. One of the hidden benefits of choosing us is that we show you how to fix this, which means you’re going to be at an advantage even in the event you decide you no longer require our tutoring services.
18. Organize and declutter your space and life
You’d be amazed how quickly physical clutter can become psychological clutter that weighs you down like an anchor, rendering you unable to get in the right mood for studying. Be honest with yourself and answer the following:
- In your current arrangement, how easy is it to find your calculator or your pen?
- Check your PC. Can you pull up your school-related files within seconds or do you have to spend a lot of time searching for them?
- Can you feel the psychological burden of the mess that’s on your table?
Decluttering your life is one of the most practical new year resolutions for students in high school. Why not try committing to it yourself?
19. Start researching colleges you’d like to get into
Your academic future is closer than what you’re probably imagining. 4 years can fly by so fast that you won’t even notice. Now is a good time to let your dreams loose and start researching. In the process, you should check:
- What the campus life is like
- Their academic program
- The student life
- Their admission requirements
If you’d like to read more about the latter, we’ve actually prepared a list of US colleges with high acceptance rates. It’s also a good idea to visit their respective official website to gather additional information.
20. Lay out your plans for the future
While tending to your commitments and responsibilities is the responsible thing to do, give yourself some ‘me time’ and start daydreaming a bit. Start by asking yourself where you’d like to be in the future and what path you’d like to walk on in life, whether it be academic or career-oriented. It’s okay to talk about this with someone you trust. You can even ask us directly for advice. Tell us, who else is as kind to go to such great lengths to keep their tribe happy? No one. Because they’re not Novel Prep.
Conclusion
As we conclude our list of New Year resolutions for students in high school, we’d like to remind you that certain things from your past are best kept in the past. After all, they’re no longer a part of your life, although memories stay. But instead of viewing them as an anchor, reshape your perception and view them as a catalyst that has helped you learn, grow, and develop as a person who’s now wiser, more experienced, and more skilled. May the new year be a new chapter in the book of your life. So be sure to celebrate it wholeheartedly and start working on implementing your New Year resolutions.
