Productivity and goal setting tutorial

[00:00:00] BCU Hi and welcome to the productivity and goal settting session. Today's session, we're going to cover how to set successful goals and achieve them and how to ensure you're spending your time productive. You may want to grab yourself something to take notes on and notes with as we're going to be giving you top tips. So you might want to write some of them down.
[00:00:20] BCU We're going to start today's session by looking at productivity and how to best organise our time, you may think that you're already a very productive person and that's great. This talk is going to give you some top tips of how to achieve. Master of procrastination, we've all been a victim in the past or the master of doing nothing, so literally doing anything we can to avoid upcoming tasks or deadlines that we don't want to do, and you become the furthest thing from productive. The famous phrase, I'll do it tomorrow, become something you end up saying most days. And the most important task, for example, revision keeps on being delayed or postponed. This can be for various reasons. Maybe you're feeling overwhelmed. There might be a lack of motivation or it could just be that the task you need to do is your least favourite thing to do so you don't want to spend your time doing it. We all have our reasons and everyone has procrastinated at some point in their life or being distracted. And that's OK. So whether it's scrolling through your phone, napping, snacking, we need to make sure that you're working to the best of your ability at all times and being as productive as you can, avoiding any procrastination and completing tasks on time. Not only will this ease worries that you may have but it means that you're going to finish each day feeling accomplished and successful.
[00:01:35] We by no means want you to work from the moment you wake up until the moment you close your eyes to sleep. And we always recommend putting your health and well-being first. It's all about finding a balance. So let's take a look at how you achieve that.
[00:01:49] How can we get to the end of each day and think I've been productive today and done everything I've needed to do, like we've said, we don't need to work full steam the whole day without any breaks and tire yourself out, in order to find the balance between rest and work. You need to work smarter, not harder. So what do we mean by this? You could be given one hundred percent something and still not able to complete it. There's nothing to say that you're not working hard enough and it does just leave you feeling really stressed and wasting your time when it could have been spent more productively. How can we work smarter then? Listed below are some of the ways that you can get started and achieve your goals without a deadline.
[00:02:27] Plan Before you start. This can be done at the start of every day or every week, depending on what works best for you. Set yourself some clear goals and realistic expectations of what can be achieved that week. We cover goals set in more detail later on. So please don't worry if you're a little bit unsure of how to do that. A productivity table. There's seven points in the day that will you work better and that's fact. It could be that you're a morning person or an evening person. It could just be that you work your best after you've just had something to eat. Everyone will have their own structure. Before you start each day, take into consideration when works best for you to complete specific tasks. For example, you don't want to be tackling math revision if you're not a morning person and maths isn't your strong point, aim to schedule it in somewhere late in the day, you could always fill out a productivity table timetable if you need help with how it works or if you want to write it down so you can have a look, you can just copy the one from the screen. Once you've done this and you have an idea of what you would like to achieve, you can make a checklist or a to do list, to do list and checklists are a great way to ensure you are acknowledging and completing everything you need to do. You can write down all tasks for the day, week or month and plan your time around this by writing everything down, it means you can look at the bigger picture, manage your time and see what needs to be completed right in front of you. It's also a great tool that you can use to look at how productive you've been. So when you start crossing or ticking items off, you can see what you've achieved, leaving you with a great sense of achievement at the end of any day. Always make sure you leave space for any new tasks that may have popped up. Having something written down in front of you means you're more likely to stick to it if you can see what needs to be done, avoiding any distractions, keeping your eye on the purpose and being productive. There is also another method of bullet journaling. If you want more support in this, please go online and watch any YouTube videos or any How-To guides. It's a slightly more complex way of doing it, but it's just a more detailed way. So once you get into the system, it would be easier. Now, those are just some of the ways that you can ensure you're being productive and completing any tasks and avoiding distractions. Listed below are some of the tips that BCU would advise you do to make sure you're working smarter, not harder.
[00:04:58] Take breaks and look after yourself. Be realistic and ensure that you're doing this. There's no point forcing yourself to concentrate if you're struggling or if you're in a lower mood, take regular breaks from your work and ensure you take this time into consideration when you're planning. Don't set yourself up to do a full eight hours of work and not consider food breaks, or rest breaks. We advise a break every twenty five minutes. But again, this is something for you to decide. You know how you work best. Tackle tough tasks at your best, remember to think about the productivity table and tackle any challenges when your attention's at its peak. This will help you avoid being distracted or put you off the work altogether. Say yes to saying no, whilst you may want to help other people with their studies, don't be afraid to say that you don't have the time to help them, you can support them from a distance or schedule it in at a later point when you do have the time if they still need your help. Distractions avoid being the master of procrastination, put that phone away if you can, and try and sit somewhere peaceful where you're not going to be distracted, share your daily plan with someone and use your phone as a reward in a break slot. Be mindful of multitasking, whilst multitasking is a great skill to have, it can also mean that you'd only given 50 percent to one task at time, as your mind might be elsewhere. Avoid this if you can.
[00:06:27] To develop a reward system, you're working hard, please make sure you reward yourself. This can be a snack break at the next break, or it could be a 50 minute phone time. When you've completed a task, give yourself something to work towards. Find out what works best for you, remember, everyone is different and has their own ways of working. Find what system and structure or techniques work best for you.
[00:06:53] Goal setting. Always set yourself a goal of what you want to achieve, this can be long term as well as short term, always work towards something so you can remind yourself of the purpose of why you're doing it in the first place.
[00:07:09] Now, we've touched on this at various points of the productivity section, but we're going to be taking a closer look at goal setting and how to set effective goals to maximise our success in achieving them.
[00:07:24] Firstly, let's look at why it's important to set goals, there are loads of different reasons of why it's important, but here are some of the key ones.
[00:07:32] It helps you focus and stay motivated. So you have a clear point in the end, it helps you stay away from distractions and keeps you on task. You can overcome procrastination. Now, we've already covered this. But setting goals keeps you accountable to finishing the task. The goal works as a reminder as why you're doing it.
[00:07:52] Sense of achievement. There are many things you achieve in a day without thinking about it, or it may even go unnoticed. If you set yourself goals, you can look back on the day and feel proud of what you've achieved, no matter how big or how small of an achievement it is.
[00:08:07] One of the biggest times in the year that people set themselves goals is New Year's, the classic New Year, new me, but unfortunately, statistics show that 92 percent of people don't stick to these or achieve them. So that brings us to the question, what do we need to do to make sure that we're not part of that 92 percent each year? Now, it is worth saying, the new year, the goal is normally quite a large scale one. But it is important to set yourself short term goals as well as long term goals, it could be that you need to set yourself shorter goals to achieve the end of year goal. Let's have a look at how we effectively set a goal.
[00:08:49] There are many different things to consider when setting a goal. Now, the whole way throughout this, we encourage you to take notes, pause or have a think to yourself about the goals that you want to achieve. It all starts with a dream. Now, this does sound quite dramatic, but if you think about it, you think of something you want to achieve, a dream or a goal that you've always thought about. And so you have a baseline of what you want to work towards. Have a think right now about what you want to achieve. It can be by the end of the week, month or year, for example,.
[00:09:21] Motivate. We need to have a look at why this goal is important to you and why you want to achieve it. Will it help you or will affect your life? Timeframe you must consider when you want to complete your goal by be realistic and try to make sure it's not a last minute dash and that you've got enough time to achieve it if needs be. You could always break the go down into smaller parts and add this to your to do list. For example, there's no point setting out that you want to learn a new language if you don't actually take any of the steps that you need to do to complete it, it's going to leave you feeling. Unmotivated and unproductive.
[00:10:03] How? So, just a bit of time frame setting them smaller goals, you need to work out how you're going to achieve it. So again, a to do list, check less, writing things down, maybe asking someone. And that brings us on to the who? Whilst it's good to be an independent person it is also OK to ask for help, sometimes so have a think about if you need help from someone, can someone support you is there someone you know who's achieve this goal before?
[00:10:31] So we've had a think about all the things that we need to consider, let's start putting these goals into action. We've looked at all the different elements and hopefully have a goal in mind. No worries if not, just as with productivity, there is a simple method you can use when setting a goal to ensure its success.
[00:10:54] Smart goals. Now, this might be something that you've already heard of, but as a template, just to set a goal if you haven't heard of it, so we have Specific making sure that your goal is not too broad or vague, making it really specific and concise,.
[00:11:08] Measurable. Your goal needs to be something that you can prove or see that you've achieved.
[00:11:13] Achievable. This is something that we need to make sure is within your reach and that you have all chances of achieving it. This is also where you'd say how you're going to achieve it. So what methods are you going to do.
[00:11:26] Relevant? They need to make sense and work towards a bigger picture in your life. Make sure they have purpose.
[00:11:32] and Timely. Give yourself realistic time frames of when you want to achieve this by. Remember, this can be used for both short term and long term goals. Let's look at an example. I want to do well in my GCSEs now. This is one that you might be working towards right now or something that you were working towards not that long ago, it's a perfectly good goal to set. But using the smart technique goals, how can we make this better?
[00:12:05] I want to well in biology GCSE. Now, this isn't specific enough, so we've changed it to I want to achieve a 6 in biology.
[00:12:17] Measurable, it can be measured by test results or exam results,
[00:12:21] Achievable, it is achievable as I have a 5 at the moment I will attend and how we're going to achieve it sort of listed. I will attend after school revision sessions, pass papers, listen in class and ask questions.
[00:12:32] It is relevant to my life as I want to be a primary school teacher. So as you can see, this is a great chance towards a larger goal. So this is a smart goal for smaller goal to work towards the larger goal.
[00:12:45] And timely. You're going to achieve it by GCSE results day. So this is just one example of achieving your goals. It's really important to us and to you, obviously. And makes your goals seem more within your reach and easier to achieve once you break it down. I also make sure that you're being clear about what you want and how you're going to do it. Think back to the goal that you thought of in the previous slide and see if you can properly set up in the Smart Goals template. The smart goals template is a great way to make sure you're successful in achieving your goals. Some of the tips that we thought of tell someone about your goal, you're more likely to step out of it and they can hold you accountable. Don't be afraid to revisit or revise your goals. Circumstances in life can change, so please don't be ashamed if you need to change up or maybe you need to change some of your deadlines know that everyone falls short sometimes it's only natural that sometimes you can't always achieve what we set out to do. If this keeps happening, change your methods. But if you fail on one occasion and you're unsuccessful, don't be disheartened. Everyone works differently with everything, remember, everyone works differently and has their own ways of working, trying not to compare yourself to others and never be afraid to ask for support.
[00:14:06] Thank you for listening to today's talk. A key point to remember is always to be proactive and productive. Set yourself clear goals you want to achieve both long term and short term and ensure you lay out clear steps and use your time effectively to make sure you achieve them. Have any questions? Please get in touch to the following email or head to our social media. Thank you. And have fun setting those goals and achieving them.