Learning, Teaching and Leadership

This post is for my grad students, but may be of interest to others, too.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve started each year by setting goals for the year and sometimes even for multiple years. Call it a quest for independence, a desire for self-determination, or a way to keep myself from getting down in the dumps as the shininess of a new year wears off and the drudgery of February descends.

SMART Goals

Some years ago I learned about SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) goals. That has been a helpful framework for me, but I have also struggled to keep my thinking flexible when setting goals. Having a framework and being flexible with that framework, rather than adhering to it strictly, is ongoing goal.

Write Down the Goals

I write down my goals and I also keep To Do Lists. This helps me to keep track of what goals I set and their due dates. Now, due dates get shifted sometimes, but I am more likely to meet my goals and complete the tasks that help me achieve them if I give myself a deadline.

Some of my Favourite Tools

An alumnus from our school of education introduced me to Magic To Do Goblin Tools a while back. It’s an AI app that helps break down a big task into smaller tasks.

I also use Google sheets to create To Do lists. I used to use a word processor for this, but over time I have migrated to spreadsheets because I like being able to sort the columns by different categories such as due dates, tasks completed, and so on. One reason I use Google sheets is that I like being able to access it from any device, anywhere in the world.

Back during the pandemic, Phill Dawson and I were working on our respective books. He was writing Defending Assessment in a Digital World and I was writing Plagiarism in Higher Education: Tackling Tough Topics in Academic Integrity. He posted on Twitter that he was using WriteTrack ( to help him complete the book. I checked it out and immediately signed up. This has been one of the single most helpful tools to help me complete large writing projects that have a target word count. I recommend it to students who are writing a thesis or anyone tackling a big writing project.

Microgoals

For me, one of the things that I have found helpful, is to break down big goals into smaller ones. I break the smaller ones in to even smaller ones. I keep going until I have micro goals, which for me are small things I can do in half an hour or less.

My preference is to have big chunks of time (at least three or four hours of uninterrupted time) to work on projects. Most days I do not have that luxury, which is frustrating, but also outside of my control. Instead, I try to do micro tasks throughout the day that require less focus, so that when the opportunity comes to have an hour or more to work on a task, I am less preoccupied with other chores or deliverables that need to get done. Five minutes to fill out and submit a form for a graduate student’s progress. Ten minutes to load the dishwasher. Fifteen minutes to answer some e-mails.

Some days I do not have time to read an entire article or an entire chapter of a book, so my microgoal is to simply open the .pdf, scan the title and read the abstract. I might add the article to my EndNote library. That’s another micro task. Even if I cannot complete an entire task, I try to make some progress, however small it may seem.

Some microtasks are things that I don’t particularly enjoy doing, but they are responsibilities and I just need to get them done. Other micro tasks are things I really wish I could spend more time on. Either way, doing something rather than nothing means we are making progress.

Monitor Your Progress and Celebrate Small Wins

The point is to find tools that work for us to declare and then monitor our progress. Making some progress is better than making no progress at all. Things sometimes (often?) take longer than we anticipate, but the goal might still be worth working towards. Monitoring progress and celebrating the small steps is an important part of the process. We do what we can, and we can feel proud of that.

Expect the Unexpected

One of the things I struggle with is being interrupted. If I am focused on a task and I am interrupted, sometimes it can feel like the whole day is ruined. One of my daily challenges is dealing with abrupt or unexpected changes that can take me away from something I am working on. My reality is that most days are full of interruptions. It’s one of the reasons I often get up early to work on important projects. I often say that by the time 09:00 a.m. rolls around, I can’t get any more work done for the day. I say it in jest, but there’s a kernel of truth in there.

I have learned to expect the unexpected and assume that my day will include interruptions that I have no control over. For me this means bracing myself for incidents, e-mails, or the cat throwing up a hair ball that will demand my attention and throw me off balance. It’s not that learning to expect the unexpected means that I am suddenly able to regain my balance, but rather that I accept that I may be in a sustained state of internal imbalance due to factors outside my control. I practice breathing and just carrying on… however off kilter I may feel.

Anticipate the Need for Extra Time

One of the reasons I like to think I’m good at time management is because I often allow extra time for tasks. I block travel time in my calendar to get to work, for example. I tend to allow more time than I might need on an average day, so that if traffic is heavy or if there’s an accident on the road, I have built some buffer into my schedule. On days when I arrive to work a little bit early, I can spend a bit of extra time getting ready for my meetings or chatting with people I run into along the way.

For me, anticipating I may need more time than a task might require, helps me cope when unexpected things happen. It also helps me to limit the number of tasks I expect of myself in a day. Because I tend to over-schedule and over-plan, limiting the number of tasks in a day can actually be helpful for me.

Release the Day

Set daily goals that you can realistically achieve. If you do not achieve them by the end of the day, then release them… At the end of the day, say to yourself, “Today is over and I have done my best. Tomorrow is a new day.” Set concrete and small goals for the next day and when you wake up, review your list. Look at it throughout the day. Do what you can. Then, at the end of that day, accept that the day is over, you have done your best, release what you did not accomplish and if possible, move those goals to the next day.

I have too many things on my lists for me to accomplish them all. When I was younger, I would get very upset with myself for not achieving everything on my To Do List. One of the most powerful techniques I learned was to ‘release the day’. At the end of every day, I review what tasks I accomplished. (Sometimes I even book in relaxation as a goal and that one is always a challenge for me.)

At the end of the day, say to yourself, “Today is over and I have done my best. Tomorrow is a new day.” in my mind, I close the day and release myself from any guilt, sadness, or anger that I have not made as much progress on my To Do List. There are a limited number of hours in each day and I do what I can. 

I forgive myself for whatever didn’t get done and give myself permission to start tomorrow as a new day. Each day is its own little time capsule. Success happens from doing many small tasks over time to achieve a big goal.

Limit the Worrying

This can be easier said than done. For me at least, worry is like an evil monster that can block me from making any progress at all. Worrying can be normal, but worrying too much can prohibit us from making progress on small things we can do today. By anticipating the unexpected, anticipating the need for extra time, and releasing the day, I tend to worry less.

Little Steps Towards Big Goals

I often tell graduate students that I work with that we complete our academic programs as a result of doing many little tasks every day that help propel us towards their overall goal. Of course, there are big program milestones: completion of individual courses, followed by completion of all the required courses, writing the thesis proposal, the candidacy exam, the final oral defence, and then graduation. These big milestones are way points along the journey. Each and every step along the path matters though. No matter how small, even one step helps get us closer to our goals.

Ask for (and Accept) Help

Asking for help can be a challenge. I am not always great at asking for help, but whether I like it or not, there are a lot of things I am either not good at or just cannot do for one reason or another. As a supervisor, there are certain things I can help my students with, but there are other things that I can’t do. For example, if a student is experiencing high levels of anxiety, demand avoidance or task initiation paralysis, I can listen and be supportive, and I may recommend that the students seek additional support from a qualified therapist or counsellor. I am aware that my role as an academic supervisor has some constraints and I am not qualified to serve as a proxy therapist for a student who needs more support than I can give. In these cases, I see my role is one of helping students recognize that they may need extra support and provide referrals to the Student Wellness centre, were further diagnostics or support can be provided.

I might share that when I was a graduate student, I myself got help from counsellors along my journey who helped me manage my anxiety, sleep better, and helped me achieve my goals. Sometimes that disclosure helps and sometimes it doesn’t. If a student is resistant to seeking help, I recognize that ultimately, they own that resistance, not me. Everyone’s journey is personal.

Concluding remarks

A new year brings an opportunity for a re-set. We can acknowledge and celebrate what we achieved in the previous year as we look ahead to new challenges, new experiences, highs, lows, and everything in between. It’s not that the journey is always fun, because it’s not. The journey itself is difficult, with many twists and turns, with unexpected obstacles along the way. The point is to keep working towards our goals, little by little, while still taking time to rest and rejuvenate, so we have the energy to keep going.

Related posts (ones that might of special interest to students)

• 12 Phrases to avoid in your academic research papers
• What kind of sources to include in your literature review
• Self-Plagiarism: Publishing Works Based on a Thesis or Dissertation
• What’s the difference between a manuscript and an article?
• How to Get Your Academic Article Published in a High Quality Journal

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Sarah Elaine Eaton, PhD, is a Professor and Research Chair in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary, Canada. Opinions are my own and do not represent those of my employer.