Chapter 2 Values, Goals, and Time Managing Yourself PDF

## Chapter 2: Values, Goals, and Time ### What Would You Do? Devonne Henley is a part-time college student who is struggling to find a balance between her studies, work, and family responsibilities. Her instructor, Ms. Cordoza, has assigned a group project focusing on the biggest problems the w...

## Chapter 2: Values, Goals, and Time ### What Would You Do? Devonne Henley is a part-time college student who is struggling to find a balance between her studies, work, and family responsibilities. Her instructor, Ms. Cordoza, has assigned a group project focusing on the biggest problems the world is facing today. Devonne is unable to attend meetings because she is taking care of her nephew and working weekends. Ms. Cordoza reminds Devonne of the importance of prioritizing her education and suggests that she attend the next group meeting on Friday at 1PM. ### STATUS Check **How developed are your self-management skills?** For each statement, circle the number that feels right to you, from 1 for "not at all true for me" to 5 for "very true for me." * I am aware of my values and beliefs. * I have a system for reminding myself of what my goals are. * I find ways to motivate myself when I am working toward a goal. * When I set a long-term goal, I break it down into a series of short-term goals. * I am aware of my time-related needs and preferences. * I understand my time traps and have ways to avoid them. * I know how to use the SMART approach to plan achievable goals. * When I procrastinate, I know ho to get back on track. * I record tasks, events, and responsibilities in a planner of some kind and refer to it regularly. * I understand how managing my time can help reduce my level of stress. **Remember**: No matter how effectively you set goals and manage time, you can improve with effort and practice. ### Why is it important to know what you value? Your personal values influence your choices and actions. It is important to be aware of what you value because this will help you to: * Understand what you want out of life. * Choose how to use your valuable time. * Build "rules for life." * Find people who inspire you. ### How values develop and change Your value system is complex, built piece by piece over time, and coming from many sources such as family, friends, culture, media, school, work, neighborhood, religious beliefs, and world events. It's important to evaluate your values to determine if they are based on your own personal values or external influences. To evaluate your values, ask yourself the following questions: * Where did the value come from? * Is this value something from my family or culture that I have accepted without questioning, or have I truly made it my own? * What other different values could I consider? * What might happen as a result of adopting this value? * Have I made a personal commitment to this choice? Have I told others about it? * Do my life goals and day-to-day actions reflect this value? Values are not set in stone any more than your thinking power is. Your values often shift as you grow. ### How values affect your life experience Your values affect your life choices and in turn shape your experiences. ### How do you set and achieve goals? When you set a goal, you focus on what you want to achieve and create a path that can get you there. * Long-term goals are broader objectives you want to achieve over a long period of time. * Short-term goals move you toward a long-term goal in manageable and achievable steps. ### Establish your personal mission Start with the biggest big picture: Defining your personal mission can help you anchor your values and goals in a comprehensive view of what you want out of life. Dr. Stephen Covey defines a mission statement as a philosophy outlining what you want to be (character), what you want to do (contributions and achievements), and the principles by which you live (your values). Your personal mission can be a road map for your personal journey, giving meaning to your daily activities, promoting responsibility, and inspiring action. ### Goals Reinforce One Another The following diagram illustrates how long-term goals can be broken down into short-term and medium-term goals. **Long-term:** * Yearlong * Semester * One Month * This Week **Short-term:** * Earn a Degree * Declare Major * Work with Study Groups * Plan Group Meetings * Call Friends from Class About Getting a Group Together * Explore Career Areas * Meet with Academic Advisor * Set Up Appointment * Cut Down on Late-Night Socializing * Study Weeknights and go out on Friday Nights * Pass Classes * Be in Class and On Time ### GET ANALYTICAL! **Explore Your Values** Rate each of the listed values on a scale from 1 to 5, 1 being least important to you and 5 being most important. * Knowing yourself * Self-improvement * Improving physical/mental health * Leadership and teamwork skills * Pursuing an education * Good relationships with family * Helping others * Being organized * Being liked by others * Taking risks * Time for fun/relaxation * Staying fit through exercise * Spiritual/religious life * Community involvement * Keeping up with the news * Financial stability * Reading * Time to yourself * Lifelong learning * Competing and winning * Making a lot of money * Creative/artistic pursuits * Getting a good job * Other **Now connect your values to educational goals.** Choose one top value that is a factor in an educational choice you have made. Explain the choice and how the value is involved. **Example**: A student who values helping others chooses to study nursing. ### Set long-term goals What do you want your life to look like in 5 or 10 years? ### Set short-term goals Lasting from an hour or less to as long as several months, short-term goals narrow your focus and encourage progress toward long-term goals. ### Set up a SMART goal-achievement plan At any given time, you are working toward goals of varying importance. To effectively plan your goals, use the SMART strategy, which means that your goals should be: * **S**pecific * **M**easurable * **A**chievable * **R**ealistic * **T**ime-Framed The following steps to planning will ensure that your goals meet the SMART qualities: 1. **Define an Achievable, Realistic Goal**: What do you want? Is it achievable - do you have the skill, ability, and drive to get there? Is it realistic - will the external factors (time available, weather, money, other people, and so on) help or hinder you? 2. **Define a Specific Path:** How will you get there? Brainstorm different paths. Choose one; then map out its specific steps. Focus on behaviors and events that are under your control. 3. **Link to a Time Frame:** When do you want to accomplish your goal? Schedule steps within a realistic time frame. Create specific deadlines for each step you defined in Step 1. 4. **Measure your progress**: What safeguards will keep you on track? Will you record your progress in a weekly journal? Report to a friend? Use an alarm system on your smartphone to remind you to do something? Create a system to measure how well you are moving along. 5. **Get unstuck**: What will you do if you hit a roadblock? The path to a goal is often rocky and stressful. Anticipate problems and define specific ways to alter your plans if you run into trouble (stress management strategies are presented later in the chapter). Reach out to friends, family, and college personnel who can help you. Remind yourself of the benefits of your goal. Be ready to brainstorm other ideas if your plans don't work. 6. **Action time**: Follow the steps in your plan until you achieve your goal. ### Work Smart Toward an Important Goal **Goal**: To decide on a major. **Specific**: Name exactly how you will achieve your goal. **Measurable**: Find ways to measure your progress over time. **Achievable**: A goal that your abilities and drive can handle. **Realistic**: Define a goal that is workable given the resources (time and money) and other circumstances. **Time Frame**: Set up a time frame for achieving your goal and the steps toward it. ### How Can You Effectively Manage Your Time? No matter how well you define the steps to your goals, you need to set those steps within a time frame to achieve them. **Time management** can be thought of as behavioral management-adjusting what you do so that you can meet your needs in the time you have available. **Tips to improve your time management:** * **Identify your time profile and preferences**: People have unique body rhythms and habits that affect how they deal with time. * **Build a schedule**: Schedules help you gain control of your life in two ways: They provide segments of time for goal-related tasks, and they remind you of tasks, events, due dates, responsibilities, and deadlines. * **Use a planner**: A planner is a tool for managing your time. Use it to keep track of events and commitments, schedule goal-related tasks, and rank tasks according to priority. * **Keep track of events and commitments**: Your planner is designed to help you schedule and remember events and commitments. * **Schedule tasks and activities that support your values and goals:** Linking day-to-day events in your planner to your values and broader goals will give meaning to your efforts, bring order to your schedule, and keep you motivated. * **Make to-do lists and prioritize**: Many people find it useful to create a daily or weekly to-do list and check off the items as they are completed. ### Time Wasters * **Television**: It's easy to just keep flipping the channels when you know you've got something due. * **Commute**: Though not often something you can control, the time spent commuting from one place to another can be staggering. * **Internet Browsing**: Internet misuse in the American workplace costs companies more than $178 billion per year in lost productivity. * **Fatigue**: Being tired can lead to below-quality work that may have to be redone and can make you feel ready to quit altogether. * **Confusion**: When you don't fully understand an assignment or problem, you may spend unintended time trying to figure it out. ### Change the Conversation Challenge yourself and your friends to ask-and-answer-tough questions: * What time management issues do you see others face? How do they handle them? * How do you handle similar situations? Do you think your approach is as good better, or not as good? Why? What is the result? ### Conquer Your Time Traps Different people get bogged down by different time traps. Think about what your time traps are. For each, come up with two ways to say no graciously—to someone else, or even to yourself. ### People Procrastinate For Various Reasons * **Perfectionism**: Habitual procrastinators often gauge their self-worth solely by their ability to achieve. * **Fear of Limitations**: Some people procrastinate in order to avoid the truth about what they can achieve. * **Being Unsure Of The Next Step**: If you get stuck and do t know what to do, sometimes it seems easier to procrastinate than to make the leap to the next level of your goal. * **Facing An Overwhelming Task**: Some big projects create fear, as Devonne feels about her group project. ### Manage Stress By Managing Time If you are feeling more stress in your everyday life as a student, you are not alone. Stress levels among college students have increased dramatically. Stress factors for college students include adjusting to a new environment with increased work and difficult decisions as well as juggling school, work, and personal responsibilities. **Tips to reduce stress**: * **Be realistic about time commitments**. * **Put sleep into your schedule**. Sleep-deprived bodies and minds have a hard time functioning, and research reports that one-quarter of all college students are chronically sleep deprived. * **Actively manage your schedule**. * **Focus on one assignment at a time**. * **Check things off**. ### Case Wrap-Up Devonne, with the help of her group, realized that although her own problems felt overwhelming, the effects of the lack of water, food shortages, people in need who tap into the resources of others, widespread pollution, could touch her life as well. She decided to stay fully committed to the project. ### What effects go beyond your world? Project yourself 10 years into the future. You are using some of your best talents and passions working in a field that is somehow involved in improving this same world problem. * What is your job, and what are you doing? * What does this imaginary self and job tell you about the academic and personal goals you are pursuing now? ### Successful Intelligence Wrap-Up **Here's how you have built skills in Chapter 2**: **Analytical Thinking:** * As you read the section on goals, you broke down the goal-setting process into parts. * In the Get Analytical exercise, you explored your values and connected them to your educational goals. * You thought about how who you are as a time manager affects your scheduling and procrastination habits. **Creative Thinking:** * You considered how to create a personal time profile. * In the Get Creative exercise, you thought of innovative ideas to move past your toughest obstacles * Exploring flexibility in time management showed you the role of creativity in the face of change. **Practical Thinking** * You explored the practical action of pursuing goals step by step. * In the Get Practical exercise, you identified your time traps and then thought of ways to say “no” in different situations. * At the end of the chapter, you gathered practical techniques for managing stress. ### Word for Thought The Spanish word paseo (pah-say'-oh) refers to a relaxed late afternoon walk outdoors. The relaxed pace of traditional life in many European countries holds a lesson for the overscheduled, harried student. Relaxation is crucial for stress management. Define your version of the paseo and make it a part of your life. ### Steps to Success **Discover How You Spend Your Time** Everyone has exactly 168 hours in a week. * Make an estimate of how much time you spend on the following each week: Studying, Sleeping, and Interacting with media and technology for nonstudy purposes. * Record how you spend your time for 7 days. * After a week , add up how many hours you spent on each activity, and then add the totals in that column to make sure that your grand total is approximately 168 hours. **Take It To The Next Level**: * What surprises you about how you spend your time? * Do you spend the most time on the activities representing your most important values? Or not. * Where do you waste the most time? What do you think that is costing you? * On which activities do you think you should spend more time? On which should you spend less time? ### Teamwork **Create Solutions Together** **Goal**: To utilize the SMART goal-setting system as a group. **Instructions**: As a group, brainstorm important academic goals that can be accomplished within one year at school. * Each group member takes 2 minutes alone to think about this goal in terms of the goal achievement step on page 37. * Each person writes down all of the paths they can think of. * The group then gathers for everyone to share strategies. * The group evaluates strategies and chooses one that seems achievable and realistic. * As a group, brainstorm the rest of the goal achievement process, based on the chosen strategy or path. ### Building Skills for College, Career, and Life ### Writing **Build Intrapersonal and Communication Skills** * **Emotional Intelligence Journal** * Record your thoughts about your feelings about how you spend time. * **Real-Life Writing** * Examine two areas of academic specialty. Use your course catalog to identify two academic areas that look interesting. * Write a short report comparing and contrasting the majors or concentrations in these areas. ### Personal Portfolio **Prepare for Career Success** **Explore Career Goals Through Personal Mission** **21st Century Learning Building Blocks** * Initiative and Self-Direction * Creativity and Innovation * Productivity and Accountability **Complete the following in your electronic portfolio or separately on paper**: No matter what employment goals you ultimately pursue, a successful career will be grounded in your personal mission in one or more ways. * Write a draft of your personal mission. * You are at your retirement dinner. You have had an esteemed career in your chosen field. Your best friend stands up and takes about the five aspects of your character that have taken you to the top. What do you think they are? * You are preparing for a late-in-life job change. Updating your résumé, you need to list your contributions and achievements. What would you like them to be? * You have been told that you have 1 year to live. With family or close friends, you talk about the values that mean the most to you. Based on that discussion, how do you want to spend your time in this last year? Which choices will reflect what is most important to you? After you have a personal mission statement to provide vision and motivation, take some time to think more specifically about your working life. * Spend 15 minutes brainstorming everything that you wish you could be, do, have, or experience in your career 10 years from now—the skills you want to have, money you want to earn, benefits, experiences, travel, anything you can think of. List your wishes, draw them, depict them using cutouts from magazines, or combine ideas—whatever you like best. * Now, group your wishes in order of priority. On paper or computer pages labeled Priority 1, Priority 2, and Priority 3, write each wish where it fits, with Priority 1 being the most important, Priority 2 the second most important, and Priority 3 the third. * Look at your priority lists. What do they tell you about what is most important to you? What fits into your personal mission, and what doesn’t’? Circle or highlight three high-priority wishes that mesh with your personal mission. For each, write down one action step you may have to take soon to make it come true. ### Social Networking **Identify Yourself** Sign in to your LinkedIn account and begin to build your profile. Click on “Edit My Profile” and then click on the Edit mark next to your name. Then fill in or edit this basic information: * First and last name * Display name: (how you want it to appear to others viewing your profile) * Professional “Headline”: (how you identify yourself now - If you are not currently working, you may choose to identify yourself as a student and perhaps include your area of study.) * Country and zip code * Industry (if you are working)