Having a goal in mind can be quite helpful whenever you feel overwhelmed with college. It may serve as a guideline to follow while solidifying the purpose behind your actions. More than just meeting class deadlines, setting your own goals (the destination) and specific reasons for those goals (the extrinsic/intrinsic motivation), it creates a space for you to continuously grow in the areas that you work for. 

Set a system. Think about what you can do now for a goal that you hope to achieve in two weeks, two months or even two years later. Building a system that is well-fitted to you would undoubtedly guarantee steady progress and any wanted improvement. Figure out what would be the best investment in your daily life and make that a habit. 

For each long-term goal, make short-term goals. If you are someone with big dreams, make sure to think about all the smaller steps needed to get there. As a skater, if one of your goals is to perfect a program, the process would usually take more than one step or one day. It would most likely look like a lot of planning, frequent practices, etc. Likewise, when you find an academic objective, break it down! It prevents any piling of stress to do everything at once before a deadline or a performance/competition.  

Now, write it all down! I could mentally feel the difference when I kept track of my week on a planner compared to when I would try to remember my to-do list or what was next in my schedule from the top of my head. I found that writing down anything and everything that I needed to accomplish allowed my mind to be at ease because if I ever have a doubt, I can just look back at my planner. 

My ultimate tip: Don't ever feel discouraged if it turns out that you need more time than originally planned to reach a goal! Rather, when that moment ever comes, think about the difference in your current self compared to when you first began the steps toward your goal and commend yourself for getting that far – no matter how far it is. 

Being on top of things is important, but college is really about the experience and what you make of it. It is more worthwhile to reach a smaller goal while enjoying the journey than achieving a larger goal but becoming exhausted and then losing the motivation to improve yourself any further.

Evaline Jun is a 2020-21 Collegiate Ambassador and a member of the University of California-Berkeley intercollegiate figure skating team.