3 Goal Setting: Long-Term and Short-Term Goals
Broadly speaking, there are two types of goals: long-term and short-term.
Long-term goals
Long-term goals may take many months to accomplish and are made possible by the completion of many short-term goals. When planning, it is easiest to first set out what your long-term goals are, as they are often the most obvious to you. Included below are some examples of long-term goals a PhD student may consider:
- Complete thesis
- Coursework
- Comprehensive exams
- Proposal
- Achieve ABD status
- Fieldwork/data collection/research
- Literature review
- Writing and revisions
Short-term goals
Short-term goals are the smaller pieces that comprise long-term goals. Once you have laid out what you need to accomplish long-term, break these up into smaller and more manageable parts. It may be overwhelming to know how many things you need to do for your dissertation, but it also helps you to figure out what to do when.
