setting effective goals and making the most of your time chapter 3

Setting Effective Goals and Making the

Most of Your Time

Chapter 3

3 | 2Copyright 2013 Harrington © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

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?


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?


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


The Study

GPA, Survey questions about withdrawal rates

and emotions

GPA, Survey questions about withdrawal rates

and emotions


The Findings


The So What Factor

• Effective goal setting is linked to college success• Worth investment of time to learn how to set

effective goals


Creating Effective Goals

Specific and

Measurable

Challenging yet

Realistic


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.


Monitoring Progress: Establish a Timeline

See figure 3.1 in Chapter 3 of Student Success in College: Doing What Works!


Self-regulation

• “Check up” on yourself

• Monitor progress made thus far

• Make adjustments as needed

Mike McDonald/Shutterstock.com


Time Management

See “Your Time” summary box in Chapter 3 of Student Success in College: Doing What Works!


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

1000 Words/Shutterstock.com


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


Single Task It!

See “Single-Task It Strategies” in Chapter 3 of Student Success in College: Doing What Works!

Stop


George, Dixon, Stansal, Gelb, & Pheri (2008)

Time diary and questionnaire assessment of factors associated with

academic and personal success among university undergraduates.


The Study


The Findings


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


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


Reading Time

See “Time for action 3.4” in Chapter 3 of Student Success in College: Doing What Works!


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


Organizational Tools

See Table 3.2 in Chapter 3 of Student Success in College: Doing What Works!


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


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


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


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

setting effective goals and making the most of your time chapter 3

Documents

harrington cengage learning

time chapter

realistic slide

time limits

time management

time traps activities

fun time traps

time summary box