{"id":1341,"date":"2016-09-02T15:50:01","date_gmt":"2016-09-02T15:50:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/waymaker-collegesuccess\/?post_type=chapter&p=1341"},"modified":"2017-03-17T21:52:19","modified_gmt":"2017-03-17T21:52:19","slug":"text-time-management-and-goal-setting","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-buffalo-wmopen-collegesuccess\/chapter\/text-time-management-and-goal-setting\/","title":{"raw":"Text: Time Management and Goal Setting","rendered":"Text: Time Management and Goal Setting"},"content":{"raw":"There is no doubt that doing well in college is a sizable challenge, especially for first-year students, who run the greatest risk of dropping out. You are faced with new physical surroundings, new social environments, new daily tasks and responsibilities, and most likely new financial obligations. Overall, you are swamped with new challenges! Do you feel confident that you can attend to all of them in a balanced, committed way? What will be your secret of success?\r\n

Success Begins with Goals<\/h2>\r\nGoals! A goal<\/em> is a desired result that you envision and then plan and commit to achieve. Goals can relate to family, education, career, wellness, spirituality, and many\u00a0other areas of your life. Generally, goals are associated with finite time expectations, even deadlines.\r\n\r\n\"Close-up<\/a>\r\n\r\nAs a college student, many of your goals are defined for you. For example, you must take certain courses, you must comply with certain\u00a0terms and schedules, and you must turn in\u00a0assignments at specified\u00a0times. These goals are mostly\u00a0set\u00a0for you by someone else.\r\n\r\nBut there are plenty of goals for you to define yourself. For example, you decide what you\u2019d like to major in. You decide how long you are going to be in college or what terms you want to enroll in. You largely plan how you\u2019d like your studies to relate to employment and your career.\r\n\r\nGoals can also be sidetracked. Consider the following\u00a0scenario in which a student makes a\u00a0discovery that challenges her to reexamine her goals, priorities, and timetables:\r\n
Janine had thought she would be an accountant, even though she knew little about what an accounting job might entail. Her math and organizational skills were strong, and she enjoyed taking economics courses and well as other courses in her accounting program. But when one of her courses required her to spend time in an accounting office working with taxes, she decided that accounting was not the right fit for her, due to the higher-stress environment and the late hours.\r\n\r\nAt first she was concerned that she invested time and money in a career path that did not match her disposition. She feared that changing her major would add to her graduation time. Nevertheless, she did decide to change her major and her career focus.\r\n\r\nJanine is now a statistician with a regional healthcare system. She is very happy with her work. Changing her major from accounting to statistics was the right decision for her.<\/blockquote>\r\nThis scenario represents some of the many opportunities we have, on an ongoing basis, to assess our relationship to our goals, reevaluate priorities, and adjust. Opportunities exist every day\u2014every moment, really!\r\n
\r\n\r\nBelow\u00a0is a set of questions we can ask ourselves at any turn to help focus on personal goals:\r\n
    \r\n \t
  1. What are my top-priority goals?<\/li>\r\n \t
  2. Which of my skills and interests make my goals realistic for me?<\/li>\r\n \t
  3. What makes my goals believable and possible?<\/li>\r\n \t
  4. Are my goals measurable? How long will it take me to reach them? How\u00a0will I know if I have achieved them?<\/li>\r\n \t
  5. Are my goals flexible? What will I do if I experience a setback?<\/li>\r\n \t
  6. Are my goal controllable? Can I achieve them on my own?<\/li>\r\n \t
  7. Are my goals in sync with my values?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\nAs you move through your college career, make a point to ask these questions regularly.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

    Aids to Successful Goal Setting<\/h2>\r\nThe following video examines five aids to help ensure that your goal setting will be effective and will \u201ctake hold\u201d and serve you in the short and long term.\r\n\r\n