Success is a journey, not a destination. How to set SMART goals for your research project to successfully deliver your PhD and enjoy the process.
Have you ever missed a deadline or struggled to hand in your work on time?
Did you promise yourself that you were going to make it this time, yet it happened again? After all, you planned to complete the chapter of your thesis or send the paper for review to the journal.
Yet, regardless of your willingness to do so, you didn’t do it. Another week has passed, and you feel like you’re in the exact same place as a week ago? Uncertainty of research doesn’t make it easier, does it?
I feel for you! It happened to me, too – it was so frustrating when I had to pull an all-nighter to submit my work on time!
That’s why in this article, I’m going to teach you how to use SMART goals in your research project and adjust them to your needs.
I’m confident that this will help you manage your work better and meet your deadlines, especially those you set yourself!
Why do you even need goals in your research project (and life)?
We all need something to look up to in our lives. Having a purpose in your life can help you focus on what’s really important. We all have dreams that we wish came true, plans for the future, and hopes for better tomorrow.
But we sometimes get too focused on what is the final line, and we lose sight of happening in between. Remember:
success is a journey, not a destination.
Enjoy everything that’s between you now and you in the future when you’ll achieve your goals. If you want to finish your PhD – I encourage you to enjoy the process and experience as much as you can throughout your programme!
After you finish your doctorate, there’s more life to live!
For example:
If you want to lose weight, what do you do? You usually set the plan for what you’re going to eat and for your workout. You also set the timeline and regularly measure your progress (i.e. counting calories and completed workouts). There’s a lot of methods, even apps which might help you to achieve and track your goal.
If you want to travel in some nice, what do you do? You usually check your bank account and try to figure out how much money you need to save. Then you set the plan for how to get the money, when to buy the tickets, how to travel on the place you’re dreaming of visiting.
In short, to achieve something, you set yourself a goal that will make you happy. If you really want to travel, you’ll be motivated to put the effort to explore the travel routes and plan the perfect trip – regardless of the budget. If you really want it, you’ll always find a way to achieve your goal!
And you know what? This process works in your PhD too! There’s no difference if you want to finish your PhD, chapter, assignment or paper! All you need is the clearly defined goal that will help you answer the following questions: what, why, how, and when?
How to use SMART goals in your research project?
SMART goals it’s a kind of a mystery concept created by marketers.
When I heard about it for the first time, I was really curious how this concept works (and whether it works at all!).
Let me show you how does it work.
SMART is an acronym that can be expanded as:
Right, this all read great and it’s just another fancy concept you can use in your PhD.
But, what does it really mean to you?
SPECIFIC – analyse your project and identify the specific action that you want to complete. To “write a PhD” is a massive project you won’t finish in a week time. You may also be easily overwhelmed by how much work you’d need to put in to achieve such a goal. However, if you use “write a chapter” or “write 3 pages” as your goal, these are much more specific and much easier to swallow. Try to answer
– what do you want to accomplish?
– why it is important to you?
MEASURABLE – think about how you can measure your progress towards achieving your goal? It’s important to find the way to do so – even it is just simple “tick the box” list, number of pages/words per day and so on. Having a way of measuring your progress will keep you motivated to achieve your goal!
ACHIEVABLE/ASSIGNABLE – This is a crucial part of your success! It’s easy to set a very ambitious plan and then try to work as hard as you can only to let it go because the goal seems to be too big to achieve in the set timeframe. Instead, be realistic about what you can achieve. Don’t set the bar too low just to achieve something either. It’s always good to push yourself a little bit to grow, but not too hard. It’s easier to set your goals as steep, yet achievable steps and then just take one at a time to reach the peak