The final bell has rung. Goodbyes have been said. The hallways are empty.

Summer has begun. The question is, “Will it be a productive summer?”

You may be a student. You may be an adult whose job is in education. You may be the parent of a school aged-child. For just about all of us, the end of school and beginning of summer has an impact on our routines. For a huge percentage of our population, summer provides the largest block of discretionary time we will have all year.

Those few weeks will go by like a flash. The back-to-school sales will be in full swing. The first bell of the new year will sound. Students all over the country will complete that first writing assignment of the school year, the one entitled, “What I did during my summer vacation.”

What about you?

What will your story be? What will you do on your summer vacation? How will you make your summer count? What skills have you wanted to learn? What new habits have you wanted to add to your life?

If it’s going to happen, now is the time. You’ll have the same 24 hours each day as everyone else on the planet. You have more discretionary time than you’ll have for the next year. Without some thought, however, August will be here and you will have little to show for it.

As you think back over your life, what are the summers that are memorable for you?
…The summer you learned to swim?
…The summer you learned to ski?
…The summer you learned a musical instrument?
…The summer you took that great trip?

Are you ready to build some memories?

Start by taking a blank sheet of paper and writing your own, “What I did during my summer vacation” letter. Write it as if August is already here. Go into detail.

Next, turn your well-crafted story into a plan. Take out your paper planner or digital planning tool. Start brainstorming the specific steps that will get you from here to there. Make the tasks specific. Break down projects into steps you can execute in a single sitting. Assign realistic dates to keep yourself on track.

With clearly worded next steps in your paper or digital planner, moving towards your goals is simply interwoven into your day.

Keep the letter you wrote. Re-read it once a week throughout the summer. With the letter as your compass and your planner as your road map, you start to see your plans become real.

Could this be the summer to remember? It’s up to you. What are you waiting for?

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