New Year’s Resolutions are probably the most broken promises ever–we promise ourselves that we will eat healthier, drink more water, and go to the gym. We promise that we will pay more attention in class, and do all our work on time. Gym memberships go unused, Chinese food is ordered on an impulse, grades slip due to late work. In theory, New Year’s Resolutions are the best motivation–stemmed from the social construct of what constitutes as a year–beginning anew every 365 days. In essence, with a blank slate, everything can begin again, better.
Besides the hilariously common resolution of drinking more water, I had two real Resolutions, both of which, in the eleven days since 2017 evolved into 2018, have been fulfilled: doing all my homework the night before it’s due, going hand in hand with staying more organized.
In anticipation of my Resolutions, during a trip to Boston, I bought a 2018 weekly planner at Black Ink on Charles St. in Beacon Hill. It is a tiny book, easily kept in the compartments of my cluttered backpack. A world map stretches from cover to cover. I began writing in it on January 1st, writing all my homework from over Winter Break that I still had not begun. January 2nd came, my homework was done, my planner in the front compartment of my backpack.
I continuously write my homework in it, and actually complete it before school the next day–I have not had to scramble in the half hour I had before class started to write that essay, or do those notes. Organizing my homework in the planner, checking it off as I went, combined with my motivation to do better in school, have all made my 2018, all eleven days of it, a successful one.
Organization hasn’t extended very far into my life, reaching only the surface within the planner. My backpack is filled with floating papers, my locker contains unused notebooks and random books that I haven’t needed yet this school year. My room is cluttered with books I have and have not read, co-mingling with one another in crates with no rhyme or reason.
With one Resolution well into effect, another is suffering. Doing my work on time, and well, is a time-consuming activity, that leaves little time to organize my life. It seems as though I am constantly discombobulated. With the weekend slowly approaching, I feel as though this time can be filled not only with completing assignments in preparation for Midterms, but organizing my thoughts, my things, and doing so with time to spare.
New Year’s Resolutions require effort and motivation but can provide pride in oneself and a relieving of stress. My stress levels are much more balanced than before, though they have not reached the perfect height. Achieving these goals, fulfilling my Resolutions, is, in itself, time-consuming. Getting organized enough to allow my planner to be automatically filled with “to-do”s, my homework is done in a timely manner, will leave me with enough time to do the things I’ve missed most: reading books independently, relaxing, and going out.
All in all, I hope that my New Year’s Resolutions don’t just become another failed attempt at change. I hope that, in my months leading up to my senior year, that I can organize my life in such a way that my last year in high school can be as close to a breeze as possible.
