As I noted in my first post in this series, I noted that getting things done seems to be one of the most common things that early-career people tend to struggle with. I struggled with it myself, both in graduate school and early in my career post-graduation–and have known a lot of other early-career people who have had similar struggles. Anyway, in my first post, I discussed the importance of adaptation. In my experience, if one is having trouble getting things done–getting papers out for review, meeting deadlines, getting one's dissertation done, etc.–it is all too easy to think that you just need to do what you're already doing but just do it better. My sense is that this is usually not the case: that if one is having trouble getting things done, it may be more helpful to rethink one's entire approach to getting things done. That, at any rate, is what I ended up doing–and it worked wonders. I went from being someone (as a grad student) who never got anything done to (finally, after many years!) being able to get stuff done. My aim in this series is to share some of the things I've found helpful, and encourage you to share things you've found helpful as well. I don't suppose that my strategies will work for everyone–as we are all different. However, in some cases (including in today's post) I'll share some scientific evidence that certain things are known to work.
My topic today will be having and keeping a plan for getting things done. As it turns out, the importance of setting and keeping the right kinds of goals is known empirically to be vital for getting things done. As I've mentioned before, my spouse is a researcher in Industrial-Organizational Psychology–a discipline that scientifically studies individuals and organizations, including the science of hiring, leadership, motivation, work-life balance, productivity, and so on. One thing my spouse shared with me a while back is goal-setting theory: an empirically well-supported account of how goals figure into performance, and which kinds of goals work best. What does goal-setting theory say? Some interesting things–things that have worked well for me just as the theory holds.
I cannot give a "seminar" on goal-setting theory. I'm not that much of an expert on it. But what I do know is this. Goal-setting theory has demonstrated that having certain types of goals is conducive to greater productivity. What kinds of goals? The short answer is that vague goals–like "Getting my dissertation done" or "Writing a paper"–don't work well at all. Nor do specific goals that are too easy to meet and don't specify for any required outcome (e.g. "I am going to write for 2 hours today"). The problem with both types of goals is that they do not specify any clear way to achieve the end goal. Simply telling oneself, "I need to get my dissertation done" or "I'm going to write for 2 hours today", is not a plan–and, because they are not plans, it is all too easy to "follow them" yet hardly get anything done.
What kinds of goals does goal-setting theory indicate actually work? Here's the short answer as I understand it:
- Short-term and medium-term goals that have a clear target.
- Where the targets specified are achievable but demanding.
- Such that one can hold oneself to meeting them consistently, on a day-to-day, week-to-week basis.
Allow me to explain. An interesting thing is that after many years of fumbling about and never getting anything done, I actually started doing these three things before my spouse ever told me about goal-setting theory. Here is how I go about my days.
First, I know that I have certain long-term things to get done: right now, I have a book to revise and get feedback on, an encyclopedia entry to finish, and so on. I also know I have immediate things I need to get done: prep lectures, grade assignments, and so on.
What I do next is–bearing these long-term goals and immediate tasks in mind–is set up in my mind an achievable medium-term plan for what I need to get done over the next several months. So, for example, since my revised book manuscript is due this summer, my medium term plan is to get feedback from outside reader on a couple of chapters in the next month or so, send them the next finished chapter about a month from now, the next finished chapter about a month later, and so on.
What I do next is, bearing these medium-term plans, is set for myself a clear weekly schedule with a clear specification for what I am going to accomplish. For example, my schedule this week is to prep my lectures, grade assignments, and finish revising a particular book-chapter by the end of the week. This weekly schedule also has a day-by-day format: on Monday, I plan to work on revising the introduction to the book's chapter, on Tuesday, I plan to work on revising the chapter's first section, on Wednesday its second section, and so on. Having each day of the planned out in my head before the week begins enables me to hold myself to the plan. If I know that Tuesday is for working on section 1 of a chapter, then I know I can't push off what I have scheduled for Monday (revising the introduction) to Tuesday. Since I know that Wednesday is for working on section 2, I know I can't push off the introduction and section 1. In other words, I've found that having a clear weekly schedule–with each day planned in advance–is absolutely key to avoiding procrastination. We end up procrastinating, I've found, because in the back of our minds we think to ourselves, "Oh well, if I don't get the introduction revised today, I'll revise it tomorrow!" The way to avoid that, or so I've found, is to insist to oneself from the outset, "No, Monday is for the introduction. I'm going to make myself finish revising it, because Tuesday is for section 1."
Finally, each day I have a relatively clear plan in my head for what I am going to accomplish hour-by-hour for the day at hand. For example, a typical plan for my day may be something like this: "I am going to finish revising the introduction between 9am-noon. Then from 12:30-2pm I'm going to update my lectures for classes tomorrow. Then from 2-3pm I'm going to grade daily assignments. Then from 3-4pm I'm going to revise a bit of paper X or grade daily assignments (depending on what I have time for). Then from 4-5pm I'm going to write a post for the Cocoon." Then I head to the gym at 5pm and come home, cook dinner, and hang out the rest of the night with my spouse (I'll talk about the importance of downtime in a future post!).
Anyway, this is how I approach things: I have clear long-term goals, but also detailed medium-term (monthly) and short-term goals that specify clear outcomes for each day, and by extension, each week (i.e. I'm going to finish revising section 1 today, section 2 tomorrow, section 3 on Thursday, and finish revising the chapter on Friday). Finally–and I've found this is really important–I've found it is vital to "hold oneself" to each goals. On rare occasions, I'll have a day where I don't finish a goal I set (I'll give revising section 1 my best shot, but get stuck somehow)–but, on those occasions, I make myself catch up the next day (getting back to my original plan). "But what about what if I really get stuck", you might ask, "and I just can't find my way revising a paper." Good question! I'll give my answer in an upcoming post. The relevant point for now is that goal-setting theory in psychology says that setting the kinds of goals I've discussed here are important–that it tends to help people be more productive. That certainly coheres with my experience: it has worked wonders!
But these are just my thoughts. What are yours? How do you find "having/keeping a plan" (or not!) works for you?
Leave a Reply