From Resolution to Activation: Annual Goal-Setting for Academics
Happy New Year! On this first day of 2022, I thought it might be helpful to reflect on what we’ve learned and how we might move forward as we enter the third year of the pandemic. Although it sometimes feels like we’re at a standstill because we are literally still spending most of our time in a fixed space, I think it’s worth remembering all of the things that we’ve accomplished and, perhaps most importantly, what we’ve learned as part of the process.
I recognize that I went all in when the pandemic started about two years ago. I remember exactly when the decision was made to move all courses online. We had two weeks to convert our in-person courses to online teaching to get through the spring semester of 2020, and we haven’t looked back since. Of course, by now we know that there is no “return to normal,” but rather a “forging of a new reality.” Our focus continues to be driven by our concern for our students and the creation of meaningful educational opportunities in a challenging learning environment. Now that we’re embarking on the third year of the pandemic, we also need to refocus on our own work, including research and creative activity, professional development, and coping with two highly stressful and exhausting years. Self-care plays an important role and earlier this year, I offered a new VUCA framework for this purpose.
The end of the year is a time for reflection and many people set New Year’s resolutions of what they want to change in their lives. I’m not a fan of New Year’s resolutions. Why? They seem to be a good idea at the beginning of a new chapter, but we quickly abandon them and fall back into our old habits. For example, I know my gym will be packed starting January 1 but by the end of the month, it will be much easier to find parking, find the perfect spot for my yoga mat, and get on any machine I like without having to wait.
New Year’s resolutions can help us reflect on the year that’s ending, how we feel, and what we may want to change in our lives but they are not enough to help us create actual change. That is where goal-setting comes into play. Goals are different from resolutions because they are a series of carefully planned tasks that lead to a result. Resolutions, on the other hand, are merely decisions to do or not do something (Team Tony, 2021).
I have always been a planner and think about my professional and personal goals regularly. For people in higher education, it makes sense to review and revise goals in regular intervals, perhaps between semesters or quarters. There are different ways to approach goal-setting and planning and one method that has worked well for me, is Michael Hyatt’s Full Focus Planning system. It’s a quarterly planning system based on annual goal-setting and then breaking those goals into quarterly, weekly, and daily goals and tasks. The system comes with a very fancy, beautiful planner but you can use the principles with any kind of planner you’d like. I’ve used a bullet journal for this purpose for years and just recently started to subscribe to the Full Focus Planner (FFP). Without going through every simple step, I thought I’d highlight some of the steps that I find particularly helpful in my annual goal planning:
Start with a review of your biggest accomplishments from the previous year. Flip through your calendar and list all of the things you accomplished this past year. How many classes did you teach? How many of your students finished your classes and/or graduated? Did you learn any new skills from teaching more online? What kind of committee work did you engage in and what did the committee accomplish? Did you publish any articles or work on any manuscripts? What about your personal accomplishments? List everything! Pour yourself your favorite beverage and watch your list grow long. I bet you accomplished much more than you anticipated.
If you set any goals last year, how did you do? Which ones did you achieve? How did you celebrate? Consider sharing your wins and celebrations publicly on social media or quietly by reading a good book or by meditating. Which goals did you start? If you started, how far did you get (as a percentage)? Are they worth pursuing in 2022? Are there any that you didn’t accomplish? Maybe you didn’t even touch them at all or completely forgot about them? If so, that’s okay! Ask yourself whether those partially finished or even untouched goals are still worth pursuing in 2022. Do they still serve you in any way? If they do but you experience resistance, can you re-articulate them in a way that will help you make even the smallest amount of progress? If not, thank them for making it onto your list in 2021 and then gently let them go (Hello, Marie Kondo!).
Thinking about last year, which processes worked and which didn’t? A popular formative assessment technique that I use in my classroom is the “Start-Stop-Continue” exercise. I ask my students at the mid-point of the semester to reflect on the course so far using those three prompts. For my annual goal setting, I also use this technique to think about the processes that I want to start, stop, or continue using. I also added a fourth prompt based on Michael Hyatt’s FFP method, which is how processes can be improved. For example, I will keep using buffer time before and after class to get all of the technology set-up (COVID taught us to have multiple back-up plans), answer questions from students, and create a sense of calm for my students and myself in preparation for teaching and learning. I will improve this process by also building in buffer time in-between meetings and my own writing sessions. I will stop running a simultaneous livestream in my classes. Instead, I will record each session and work with students individually who need to make up the class. This will require significantly more management in my 250-seat classroom but emphasizes my students’ responsibility for their own learning. I will start planning my week thematically as much as possible to reduce cognitive overload. Some days are just for teaching-related tasks and others are for research and writing.
Declare and funnel your goals. Now that we’ve reflected on 2021, it’s time to do the actual planning:
Develop your annual goals. Keep the ones that you’ve started but didn’t finish, delete the ones that no longer serve you, and add any new ones that you want to accomplish (refer to step 1 above). Think BIG here and limit yourself to 8-10 annual goals.
Select 2-3 of your annual goals to focus on this coming semester or quarter. Break them down into smaller, weekly projects and tasks, and schedule them on your calendar.
Add 10-15 minutes of buffer time around your classes and non-negotiable meetings to create space for yourself. New for me this year: buffer time around different writing projects.
Refer to your list of goals every week. This is something that I didn’t do enough in previous years. Having your goals right in front of you makes an enormous difference. You could also print your list and tape it to your computer for easy reference.
New Year’s resolutions are a great way to start changing your life but they require careful planning to become reality. Reflecting honestly on the previous year – including goals that were accomplished and not accomplished, and processes that worked and didn’t work – provides a useful framework for moving forward. Engaging regularly with your goals and breaking them down into smaller weekly and even daily tasks will help you accomplish them. I have found that thinking more about processes as part of my annual goal planning has helped me to create space for rejuvenation and self-care, two critical ingredients that make goal achievement possible. So, take care of yourself, have fun and enjoy the process in 2022!
Sources:
Full Focus (2022). With the Full Focus System, You’ll Win Every Day. Retrieved January 1, 2022.
Team Tony (2021). Why New Year’s Resolutions Fail: 7 Ways To Turn Resolutions Into Lasting Change This Year. Retrieved December 31, 2021.
