Reprint of: 
Introduction to Time Management For University Students
Counseling and Development Center
York University, Toronto, Canada
Copyright (Permission Requested)

In this section:

By engaging in a program of study in a university you are embarking on a journey of discovery. But unlike a journey across distances your journey is through time. During the course of your journey you will be manufacturing your own reality. Your future depends on your decisions and actions of today more than anything else. That's why it is so important to clearly determine what you are trying to accomplish. The more clear and specific you are about your future plans and the activities of today that will get you there, the more likely it is that you will make them happen.

Short Term and Long Term Goals

So, to start yourself off with momentum, take a few minutes to write down your top three short term goals. These are goals that you should be able to accomplish within a year. While you consider these think about some of the things that you would have to change in your life to make them work. To help you in clarifying your goals we have provided a goal setting sheet for this exercise toward the end of this package. Once you have completed writing out your top three short term goals, write out your top three long term goals. While you write keep in mind that the more clear and detailed your goal statements are, the more likely it is that you'll succeed. Be warned that if you have not completed the goal setting exercise the remainder of the exercises will be much less effective. After all, how can you manage time when you don't know what you want to be doing?

Goal Breakdown

Now that you have taken the time to write out your short and long term goals, consider all of the component parts that the goals are made of. Quite often goals can be convergent problems; that is, they require you to work on a whole bunch of activities that eventually converge as you reach the goal. Consider for instance the goal of obtaining your degree. This goal can be broken down into four subgoals. Each subgoal is the successful completion of one year of your program. These subgoals can be further broken down into individual courses within each year. The courses can be broken down into tests, exams, term papers and such within the course, and finally down to your homework for tonight. There is an unbroken path between the homework that you do tonight and your convocation ceremony. The trick is to stay on the path.

Figure 1. Example Goal Breakdown

As an example of how to break goals down into their component parts consider yourself as a first year student in Introduction to Microeconomics. As part of your larger goal structure you want to achieve a B+ in this economics course. All of the work for the course has been completed except for the final examination and your current average is a B+. So, all you need to do is get a B+ on the final and you get a B+ in the course. How do you prepare for this final? Well, consider breaking down the work into logically separate units. Three possible components might be: completing a review of the first term's work completing a review of the first half of the second terms work complete the review problems and practice test that your professor distributed in class. The point here is not to prepare you for a microeconomics exam but to demonstrate the breakdown of a subgoal into smaller, more concrete activities. Generally speaking, the smaller and more clearly defined your activities are, the more easy and productive your planning will be.

Figure 2. Detailed Goal Breakdown

By now you are probably wondering what all of this breaking down of goals has to do with? Well, glad you asked! The purpose of the breaking down of goals into subgoals and their component parts is to be clear about what you should be doing. We are constantly bombarded by opportunities and options of what to do with our time. Most of our time believe it or not is spent in trying to decide what to do next! Vague goals are often at the heart of the most dreaded of time management no-no's - procrastination. But if you have clarified your purpose in advance you can get to it. The next section will describe in detail how we can get sidetracked into doing things that aren't really that important.