Guide to goal setting

Sometimes the gulf between where we are and where we would like to be can appear large and insurmountable and can elicit a sense of disorientation. Setting goals can help to break a long journey into smaller, neater, more manageable parts. Thoughtfully considered goals can be particularly useful in an academic context and can help researchers overcome the unique challenges posed by a lack of externally imposed structure and demanding workloads.

The November Writing Challenge runs over a two week period. This means that the goal or goals that you set yourself should be modest and achievable. Short term goals like this represent the ‘how to get there’ in your research roadmap, and should logically address the larger, longer-term picture of ‘where you hope to eventually be’.

Imagining a result or an end product, whether it be a doctoral thesis, a book or something quite different, can be what inspires you to press through the inevitable ebbs and flows of academic life.

Importantly, the goals that you choose need to be challenging and personally worthwhile. As Narelle Lemon, a Senior Lecturer at La Trobe who successfully participated in the AcWriMo in 2011, writes,

Set your goal, not someone else’s, and go for it. Seems obvious but often the writing block and stumbles come from not writing what weare ready to write, what feels right and what is actually aligned with their research/publishing goals.