Why do we set goals? Partly because academic research is full of things that require we plan ahead, whether submitting an abstract 3-11 months before a conference, or submitting a grant 1-5 years before we get funded (after multiple attempts). Partly because we’re testing out a potential future to see if we’d like to live there, or make it come to fruition.

Here are ways I approach setting goals, from big-picture mission to weekly goals with accountability methods. I’ve posted various versions of these in the past, but this is my latest thinking.

Big picture goals: Every few years I revisit the question of what problem in the world am I best suited to address - what is my larger mission? For example, right now it’s to build more compassionate systems - by changing care and policies to mitigate suffering and improve care for older adults living with, dying from, or grieving neurodegeneration - and also by teaching trainees some of the hidden curriculum of academia and supporting them. Then I create big benchmark goals, both related to mission and career activities 5, 10, 15 years from now. For example, in 5 years I want to have several R01s that I lead and that are related to my research mission. These get adjusted over time as I think of what is feasible in different life stages, and what I actually enjoy vs thought I’d enjoy in day-to-day work life.

Yearly goals: Next I figure out what I want to do during the next academic year as it relates to those longer-term goals. I think about setting goals for both products (e.g. papers) and career development (e.g. learn about a method). I also work on refining these goals to reflect things I have control over. In other words, I used to have goals about “publishing” manuscripts. But now my goals focus on “submitting” manuscripts because often I need to submit each manuscript to multiple journals as it gets rejected a few times, and every journal has a different timeline for reviews, revisions, publication after acceptance, etc.

A counterpart to yearly goal setting is evaluating current responsibilities. I’ve recently been experimenting with creating a chart of “whys” - what am I getting out of each of my current responsibilities (skills, resources, products), alignment between % effort reimbursed vs. perceived effort (important for soft money environment), what would make the responsibilities no longer worth it, and how I will know when it’s time to stop doing them. It’s particularly useful for evaluating service responsibilities.

Monthly goals: During fellowship training, I set monthly goals for 6-12 months to build to those overall yearly goals. This helped me keep an eye on due dates for conferences that may be 11 months before the presentation date, or benchmarks for finishing parts of grants enroute to the whole grant. Full disclosure: I really don’t do this anymore. There was a time where I made extensive gantt charts to map out timelines for one (read: a handful) of research projects/papers. I’ve moved away from this – it took me too much time and I was always way too optimistic and then spent too much time updating the gantt chart. If you’re adding a time estimate to your to-do list, triple whatever you’ve got so far unless you’ve spent a lot of time in your career tracking how long things take you.

Weekly goals: Right now, I’m spending time every week setting goals for the week - this is my “CEO time”. I keep a long to-do list of everything I am working on somewhere - so that I don’t rehearse it in my mind - but I try to keep it out of sight most of the time. From the overall list, I create a list of small goals to keep myself focused on what will make me feel like I’ve made acceptable progress at the end of the week. I make them small and accomplishable, for example, spend 30 minutes working on the image of conceptual model of a grant.

I list goals based on importance. To counteract my default to do things based on other people’s needs, and to “feed myself first”, I prioritize my wellness (e.g. exercise, meditation) and first-author papers and grants. If I don’t keep myself functional as a human and get the work done towards making sure I have a salary in the future, I have no business meeting other people’s needs. Granted, working on service activities and middle-author papers are always tempting, and often feel easier to address because someone else is holding you responsible for accomplishing them. That’s why I put them at the end of my to-do list. Ideally, I set 3 goals: 1 for wellness, 1 for first-author work, 1 for service.

Accountability: I reported my small goals in the weekly newsletter for the first year of the pandemic. These days I post goals on Monday in Microsoft Teams, the platform I use to stay in touch virtually with mentees & collaborators. On Fridays, I update the list with whether I got them done. In doing so, it helps me evaluate whether my goals were too big or too many, or whether I got distracted by other equally viable priorities. It helps me adjust the following week’s priorities to either be the more time-sensitive projects or smaller.

Caveats: This is what works for me right now. It doesn’t work for everyone, and it hasn’t always worked for me. I’ve tried time-blocking my calendar but find I put in the effort and then ignore what I’ve set out. I’ve learned to be more wary of spending time on organizing as a way to alleviate anxiety and feel productive without actually being productive. Yearly and weekly goal setting seems to be a good balance for me of identifying & reinforcing priorities without requiring too much effort & time.