By Katrina Dunlap
How many of us set goals for the academic semester or year? Goals are important to getting things done and moving forward to advance both our professional and personal lives. They serve as a motivational tool to keep us on track and focused on the many smaller tasks that lead up to achieving our desired outcomes. Goal setting is a foundation upon which to build your personal and professional development. Goals should encompass short-term, long-term, personal and professional.
聽鈥淏egin with the end in mind.鈥 鈥 Stephen Covey
As a graduate student, consider the obvious goal 鈥 graduating. To envision this goal, one must examine the many steps that may take place along the way (e.g. passing the qualifying exam, writing the thesis, defending the dissertation, etc.). In his 1989 book entitled,聽The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, author Stephen Covey suggests to begin each day, task, or project with a clear vision of your desired direction and destination, and then continue by flexing your proactive muscles to make things happen.聽There are numerous self-help books that references goals setting such as聽The 4-Hour Work Week听补苍诲听Personal Development for Smart People.聽 These self-help books encourage an introspective view of what鈥檚 important and articulate a wide range of goals that a graduate student may set forth.
How to say 鈥楴o鈥
In setting goals for yourself, it is equally important to learn how to say 鈥淣o.鈥 For graduate students, we often feel the pressure to say 鈥榊es鈥 to every opportunity that crosses our path. We often say 鈥榊es鈥 to joining another student organization, or attending a social event. 聽Having goals in mind can help you evaluate each opportunity and then decide whether to say yes or no within the context of whether the opportunity helps to further your goals. Essentially, the graduate student ought to weigh the opportunity cost before agreeing to give one鈥檚 time.
鈥淎ction expresses priorities鈥 鈥 Mohandas Gandhi
Your goals define your priorities. The next step is to put into play your actions which express your priorities. For the average graduate student, a list of priorities can seem daunting and never-ending. If you follow a few simple steps, you can avoid being overwhelmed:
- List all projects, deadlines and priorities on a piece of paper. Include big and small things.
- Categorize in terms of time needed to complete: 1 month, by the end of the year or within the next 5 years. Cross off things that cannot be done within these time frames.
- Add them to your calendar. My favorite scheduling tool is Microsoft Outlook but you may prefer your cell phone or another device. Typically these devices allow color coding your input. Whatever the technology, use it! And stand by the principle that if it鈥檚 not on your schedule, it doesn鈥檛 exist.
In closing, if we are guided by our goals, then we can schedule everything that鈥檚 important and say 鈥榥o鈥 to the things that don鈥檛 help us achieve the end result we so desire as graduate students. Whether your goal is to draft a dissertation manuscript in the short term or keep up your weekly readings in the longer term, you can achieve what you set out to do academically. Figure out what planning tools work best for you and just get it done.
If you would like to learn strategies for managing your time,聽聽here to learn more about Scheduling and Time Management offered by Graduate Student Life and Learning Services. For more useful strategies, visit the聽
Learning Services offers additional resources to aid graduate students with goal setting and time management, including workshops, academic coaching, and online聽. Visit the聽聽for more information.
This blog post has been edited and updated to reflect current changes in information.
Edited by Sydney Glass, 09/24/2019
Edited by Nikita Thadani, 01/21/2022
聽Covey, Stephen R. 2004.聽The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Restoring the Character Ethic. New York: Free Press