This close to the end of the semester, no one wants to do anything more than go home and celebrate the holidays. Sometimes, it takes a little push in the right direction to keep yourself going. As Christmas nears, make sure to prepare for the end of the semester with these three tricks.

1. Set goals for yourself
Even when school is stressful and teachers are piling on the work, keep high standards for yourself. Give yourself a reason for doing what you are doing. If you have goals that you expect yourself to meet and put in the necessary work to achieve them, you will be successful. Remember the things you have to do and hold yourself accountable for completing them. Maximize the time you have and put your best foot forward. Even if you are not completing something that will directly affect your future, you will be developing habits of responsibility, accountability and hard work, which will affect your future.

“Setting small goals can help you if you want to achieve something because big goals can make something look impossible to accomplish. When you divide it into smaller goals, it looks a lot more doable and can help you achieve something more challenging,” said junior Nathan Hakenewerth.

2. Motivation, not procrastination
One of the biggest struggles near the end of the semester is to keep yourself from procrastinating on homework or studying. You must find what strategies keep you motivated and prevent you from procrastinating. One idea is to write down what you need to accomplish and check things off as you finish them, starting small. That way, you are motivated by seeing what you have already completed. Whenever you are tempted to procrastinate, find a way to overcome it.

“I remind myself that even when classes are tedious, they will pay off in the end and help me to achieve my hopes and dreams,” said sophomore Dania Salman.

Find what works best for you and utilize it to keep yourself on top of your tasks!

3. Focus on what is important
It can be a temptation to prioritize other things when you are sick of school work. Just remember that your grades can drastically affect your future. Invest your time in what is going to matter the most in five or ten years, not things that can wait till tomorrow or next week.

“Getting a really good GPA freshman year is really important, because sophomore and junior year are really hard and a good GPA freshman year will really help you in the long run. Turning in all your homework is really important too, because even though it can’t completely keep your grade up, it’ll at least keep you from failing,” said junior Lori Cook.

When it feels like homework is not worth the time or effort, remember that you get out of it what you put in. Do not slack off at the end of the semester!