Think about ‘Systems’ when it comes to your goals!

Ok, so here at Semester we often talk about goals. We love setting goals and we see huge value in them. Goals give us a great sense of direction.

However, today we wanted to talk about something which is extremely important when it comes to achieving your goals. Building systems and processes.

As the line goes “A goal without a plan is just a daydream.”

In order to achieve our goals, we have to build a series of systems and processes. These include our habits and our actions.

Say for example your goal is to “get a first in your degree.” What habits do you need to start forming to get here? Putting the extra study hours in for example. Could you create a system that ensures that once a week you dedicate a set amount of time/hours to additional study? Could you make this part of your weekly habit tracker? This is included within the Semester Student Planner. Could you time block some time out in your daily schedule once per week which is dedicated solely to this time. If you start to create this as a system, it is something which you can replicate with other goals.

There are systems and processes included within the Semester Student Planner. For example, ‘The focused few’ is about choosing three tasks each day which are going to bring you closer to your goal. This creates a daily system of choosing the actions that are going to best serve you. Rather than focusing solely on the goal, it is about creating a system to move you closer to your desired destination.

As an easy example, if the goal is to “run a marathon”, today’s daily action could be to run 10k. The system essentially becomes part of the overall journey. If you build the habit of completing these tasks and get into this process it is going to make completing the goal easier over time.

When it comes to your studies.  Many students we speak to often say “we don’t know where to start” when it comes to completing an assignment portfolio. You need to start thinking about creating a system of how you approach your assignment portfolio. How you break it down. We explain to students to build a series of processes. Develop a plan. You can break this plan up into smaller parts (known as chunking). Then decide what actions and habits you need to take in order to move forward. You will find your own way of doing this, but when you start to create a process and system that works for you, you can then replicate this with each assignment.

Goals are great for setting a direction but creating systems is how you will make progress long term.

So although we hugely believe in goals (And why we have a full section dedicated to it in the Semester Student Planner), lots of the other tools we teach are all about helping you build systems which are going to move you closer to your goals and help you feel less overwhelmed in your studies!