How to Write Short-Term Goals
- 1). Choose the appropriate time, method and place to write your short-term goals. Writing your goals after an unusually stressed out day at work may put a negative or overly lofty slant on your goals. Write your short-term goals at a location that is best suited for your personality. Some people are more inspired in nature while others like to stay focused in a coffee shop. Decide whether to write your goals in a notebook, an online journal, as a blog or even as a vision board. Those who want to remain accountable to others should start a blog, people who are online frequently should do an e-journal while visual people would be more successful with a vision board.
- 2). List your long-term goals. Think about where you would like your life to be settled at in five to 10 years. A list of your long-term goals provides direction and guidance for writing your short-term goals. You will be able to see what you value the most, which provides a clearer picture of daily steps to realize these long-term goals.
- 3). Break down your long-term goals into shorter-range steps. Record the steps that you will need to complete in order to achieve them. The time range to complete them should be within a day to a month. For example if you have a long-term goal of obtaining an entry-level position within a prestigious company after graduating college, the short-term goals would include going to networking events, applying to internships, reaching out to a career counselor, deciding on organizations related to your major with which you can get involved and calling alumni from that prestigious company.
- 4). Devise specific short-term goals. Detailed short-term goals helps narrow your focus and behavior. Designate how much time you will spend on your short-term goals, how you define success and a deadline. The student with a long-term goal of obtaining the entry level position could set specific goals such as the amount of networking events to attend monthly, plan the three niche organizations to join, find five alumni within the company to contact and apply to 10 internships.
- 5). Evaluate the barriers to your short-term goals. Be realistic about the obstacles that you may face when trying to reach them. The awareness helps you remove the obstacles, be prepared to overcome them or alter the short term goals to make them more feasible. For example, the student that is shy should practice speaking to strangers in addition to increasing the frequency of going to networking events.