Setting Effective Goals and Making the Most of Your Time
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Transcript of Setting Effective Goals and Making the Most of Your Time
Setting Effective Goals and Making the
Most of Your Time
Chapter 3
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Questions to Consider
• What does the research say about goals and success in college? Does having a goal lead to better grades? Make it more likely that you will stay in college?
• How can you know if you are on track with your goals?
• Does multitasking work?
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Questions to Consider
• How can you make more time for academic tasks?
• When you have several assignments, what should you do first?
• If you are a procrastinator, how can you change this habit?
• Do you focus on the past, present, or future? Is this linked to success?
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Morisano, Hirsch, Peterson, Pilh, & Shore (2010)
Research Question:
Does a goal setting intervention help
students stay in college and perform better
academically?
iQoncept/Shutterstock.com
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The Study
GPA, Survey questions about withdrawal rates
and emotions
GPA, Survey questions about withdrawal rates
and emotions
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The Findings
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The So What Factor
• Effective goal setting is linked to college success• Worth investment of time to learn how to set
effective goals
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Creating Effective Goals
Specific and
Measurable
Challenging yet
Realistic
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Long and Short Term Goals
Long Term Goals• Take time, 6 months or
more• Example: Graduate from
college with a 3.0 GPA
Short Term Goals• Targeting short period of
time• Specific and detailed
• Example: Earn a 85% or higher on the sociology presentation next week.
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Monitoring Progress: Establish a Timeline
See figure 3.1 in Chapter 3 of Student Success in College: Doing What Works!
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Self-regulation
• “Check up” on yourself
• Monitor progress made thus far
• Make adjustments as needed
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Time Management
See “Your Time” summary box in Chapter 3 of Student Success in College: Doing What Works!
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Time Traps
Activities that take up a lot of your time
To reduce time spent on time traps:
• Raise awareness• Self-impose time limits• Use fun time traps as
rewards for must-do activities
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Multi-tasking
• Multi-tasking is when we switch back and forth between tasks
• Many of us engage in multi-tasking, but it doesn’t work well
• Students who instant messaged while reading took 22-59% longer to read, not including IM time (Bowman et al., 2010)
David Davis/Shutterstock.com
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Single Task It!
See “Single-Task It Strategies” in Chapter 3 of Student Success in College: Doing What Works!
Stop
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George, Dixon, Stansal, Gelb, & Pheri (2008)
Time diary and questionnaire assessment of factors associated with
academic and personal success among university undergraduates.
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The Study
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The Findings
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The So What Factor!
• Creating effective goals is important• Managing time well is important
– Devote more time to studying– Decrease time spent on “time traps”– Consider getting up earlier in the morning
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Benefits of a Time Log or Diary
• Visually captures how you currently spend your time so you can see where improvements are needed
• Identify time traps• Knowing how long tasks,
particularly academic ones, take can help you plan better
• Look for consistency with your goals
Sample Time LogMonday8:30 a.m. Woke up, showered9:00 a.m. Ate breakfast, watched TV9:30 a.m. Drove to school10:15 a.m. Arrived on campus, hung
out in College Center11:00 a.m. Class12:30 p.m. Talked on phone1:30 p.m. Lunch with friends2:30 p.m. Went to library to study,
Read and took notes on pages 112- 129
4:30 p.m. Did math homework problems 1-4
5:15 p.m. Drove home6:00 p.m. Computer/internet7:00 p.m. Dinner with family7:45 p.m. Computer/internet9:00 p.m. Read notes from today’s
psychology lecture
9:15 p.m. Watched TV11:30 p.m. Went to bed
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Reading Time
See “Time for action 3.4” in Chapter 3 of Student Success in College: Doing What Works!
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To Do Lists
Not so effective• Do research paper for
psychology• Read textbook for
history• Study for biology exam
Effective• Go to library and locate at
least 5 sources for research paper
• Write an outline for psychology research paper
• Read and take notes on pages 55-75 in history text
• Create flashcards with terms for biology exam
• Complete practice quiz on the biology support site
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Organizational Tools
See Table 3.2 in Chapter 3 of Student Success in College: Doing What Works!
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Prioritizing Tasks
• Refer to your syllabus– Nature of assignment– Due date– How much it “counts”
• Task difficulty– Work on easy material if you have less than 1 hour– Start on difficult material if you have more time
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Taking Action and Avoiding Procrastination
1. Spaced practice- do a little bit each day
2. Convert big assignments into smaller more manageable ones
3. Reward yourselfHomeStudio/Shutterstock.com
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Time Perspective
• Past, present, and future time perspectives
• Future is most connected to academic success– Practice delaying gratification– Keep long term goals visible– Find connections between
actions today and future consequences
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Time and Your College Schedule
• Consider the demands on your time
• Think about being full time- students who take more courses are often more successful
• Consider course difficulty• Avoid too many courses
on the same dayTom Peterson, Middlesex County College