October 17th is National Mulligan Day.

There’s something kind of nice about the first months of the year. The fresh start that the New Year promised, the one with healthier diets and more exercise, may be gone, but on February 1st, after a month of bad habits returning and too many cheat days to count, one can simply say that the new year starts with the new month. February will be better. And if February isn’t? Then March will.

Of course, this do-over can only possibly last until June–after that, the next New Year is closer than the last, and there are no days where you can aim to simply get a second chance to start fresh. This especially true in mid-October, with the New Year only 79 days away compared to the 292 days to the last.

National Mulligan Day, however, can allow the re-do that February 1st used to offer: named after a move in golf that allows a player to re-do a stroke, mulligans have since been associated with the ability to give yourself a second chance.

For school especially, we could all use a mulligan. The first quarter finishes at the end of October, and I know that many people (myself included) have not been entirely successful at being able to productively finish all my homework without my phone distracting me, or staying organized like I had intended in late August.

So on this day, why not have a resolution in October? Try giving yourself another chance at productivity, or at least at waking up on time. Let yourself try again. Even on a non-academic scale, you could try to re-do a conversation that went sour–you can never go wrong making things right, when you get the chance.

Happy Mulligan Day!