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Goal Setting and Time Management

Have you ever said to yourself, "I need to study more" or "I wish I had more time to get into a work-out routine?" How about actually accomplishing these things? Not much luck, huh? Why do we fail at achieving our goals more often than we succeed? A big part of it has to do with effective planning. In order to accomplish a goal you have to be deliberate in setting goals and making progress toward goal achievement, using your time effectively. This three-step process can help you accomplish this.

1. Create a Vision
2. Set Concrete Goals
3. Develop a Daily Plan

Create a Vision

Before you know what you need to accomplish in any given day, you need to have a clear understanding your overall vision. You must define why you are here…why are you in school…what do you hope to accomplish in your life…what is really important to you.

When creating your personal vision, be ambitious and be specific. Think about what you really want to achieve. Don't be afraid to create a vision like 'become self-employed within 5 years of graduating from college.' By setting lofty visions you increase your expectations of yourself and your actions will likely follow.

By reflecting on these questions you begin to form a clear picture of where you need to be focusing your daily efforts. Sit down and really think about these questions. Write out your answers so you can refer to them routinely (the front of your calendar is a great location for your personal vision). Once you have defined this vision, you can use it as a measuring stick for each of your daily activities. Are you spending your time on things that are crucial to your personal vision, crucial to what is truly important to you?

Set Concrete Goals

Once you know what is important to you, you need to set concrete goals. Goals take your personal vision and transform it into achievable tasks. The crucial first step in goal setting is making sure that you have set an effective goal. This means making sure your goals are SMART. The SMART model allows you to take a goal like 'study more' and make it something that you can actually work to achieve.

Specific

Be clear as to what exactly you want to accomplish. For example, change 'study more' to 'study my chemistry and math materials.'

Measurable

Define a specific measurement so you will know when you have achieved what you set out to do. For example, expand on 'study my chemistry and math materials' to 'study my chemistry and math materials at least 2 hours each weeknight.'

Action-Oriented

Make sure that the goal reflects you actually doing something. So, expand in the previous statement by saying, 'review the previous day's notes and complete all associated exercises for my chemistry and math materials, spending at least two hours each weeknight.'

Realistic

Make the goal challenging, yet realistic. For instance, if you know that on Wednesday nights you have a Student meeting that will routinely keep you from spending two hours on your homework, make sure you reflect this in your goal. For example, 'review the previous day's notes and complete all associated exercises for my chemistry and math materials, spending at least two hours each weeknight except Wednesday, when I will spend one hour after the Student meeting.'

Time and Resource-Constrained

Define the timeframe for goal accomplishment and what resources you will need to accomplish the goal. For example, 'accomplish this goal by the end of next month, using the library as my study location.'

Effective goals are also manageable goals. This means that a goal like 'complete my term paper for my English class one week prior to the due date' needs to broken down into smaller pieces. So for instance, this large goal is made up of the following smaller goal pieces:

Meet with my instructor by October 15^th to finalize my term paper topic.
Spend at least four hours per week working on my term paper between October 15^th and November 15^th.
Complete the rough draft of the term paper by November 15^th.
Have study partner review rough draft by November 20^th.
Make revisions and turn first draft into the instructor for comments by November 25^th.
Make final revisions and complete term paper by December 10^th.

Develop a Daily Plan

Armed with a personal vision and concrete goals, you are ready to tackle your day-to-day tasks. Most of us refer to the way we accomplish our daily tasks as time management. This is really a misleading term. It implies that you have the ability to control time, when in reality, time marches on at a steady pace regardless of what you do. What you really need to do is learn to manage yourself in the time that you have available to you. Below are some tips to make the most of your time.

Spend the last 15 minutes of every night or the first 15 minutes of every morning reviewing what you need to accomplish. This small amount of time can save you hours later in the day, ensuring you have the necessary information, materials and plans in place to effectively go about your day. Reflect on your personal mission and goals, making sure you have considered these in planning your day.
Review your to-do list daily. Make sure the things on your list are things that are important in accomplishing your goals. Watch that you don't fill up your to-do list with things that help other people get ahead at the expense of accomplishing your goals.
Know when you are 'at your best.' For some it's first thing in the morning, for others it's right before bed. Use this time to accomplish your most challenging tasks so you can focus your best energy on it.
Make sure you set aside enough time to get done what needs to get done. Don't sell yourself short. It's better to block out fours hours to study for your math test and then find out you only need three than it is to have only set aside two hours and find you need four! Remember that learning is the key reason you are at school. Set aside enough time to make the most of your studies and make this time focused time.
Use only one calendar and carry it with you routinely. At a minimum, your calendar should have sections for dates, notes, phone numbers/addresses, and homework assignments. There is no need to have a fancy leather-bound calendar. A plain old notebook with some calendar pages in it and divided sections will work just fine. Find one you are comfortable with.
Color-coding your calendar can help you easily make sense of your day. For example, use red pen for personal activities, blue for your class schedule, and green for assignment due dates and tests.
Avoid sticky-note overload! Transfer notes to yourself to one standard location, for instance in a specific section of your calendar.
When clearing off your desk, go through the items only one time and DO something with them. For each item on your desk, decide if it can be thrown away, filed away, or if you need to act on it. If it needs to be acted upon, add it to your to-do list and/or calendar. This tip goes for clearing out your e-mail too! Don't waste time re-reading e-mail two or three times!
Define one specific place to keep track of your homework assignments and test dates for all your classes. This prevents you from flipping through each class' notebook every night to see what you need to do for the next day.