Setting SMART Goals in Academic Writing
Something you may hear a lot about in any kind of writing, including academic, is setting SMART goals. If you’re not familiar with SMART goals, SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. It’s a crucial acronym to remember for smarter academic writing, as adhering to this device can help you set better, more effective goals on your writing journey.
So, how exactly do you set SMART goals? First, you need to understand each step of the acronym.
Specific: Clearly define what you want to accomplish with your academic writing. Instead of a vague goal like ‘write my research paper’ or ‘finish my PhD’, make your goal more specific, such as ‘complete the literature review section of my research paper on [specific topic] by the end of the month’.
Measurable: Establish criteria to measure your progress and determine when you have achieved your goal. For instance, you could set a measurable goal like ‘write 500 words per day’ or ‘complete my first draft by the end of next week’. Make sure that you are not setting yourself too ambitious a goal, as defined in the next section.
Achievable: Ensure that your writing goals are realistic and attainable given your available resources, time constraints, and expertise. Setting overly ambitious goals can lead to frustration and burnout. Break down larger writing projects into smaller, manageable tasks to make them more achievable. You might consider breaking big chapters into smaller, more manageable sub-headings and writing each one of those first before combining them into a larger document.
Relevant: Align your writing goals with your broader academic and career objectives. Consider how each writing task contributes to your overall academic progress, research agenda, or professional development. Focus on writing projects that are relevant to your field of study or career aspirations. This is especially important if you are working on a PhD and trying to juggle conferences and publications at the same time. Ask yourself if the conference is really important to furthering your understanding of the field and networking or if you’re really applying for it because you just want a trip to the USA for a week. Cutting back on extra work for yourself will ultimately ease the process of completing your more important academic writing.
Time-bound: Set deadlines for completing each writing task or milestone to create a sense of accountability. Some people may tell you that having a sense of ‘urgency’ to complete the task is also helpful, but I often find that mentality a bit too stressful. Regardless, establishing specific timeframes helps you stay on track and prevents procrastination. For example, you could set a deadline to ‘submit the first draft of the introductory chapter for supervisory review by [specific date].’
The following is just a brief example of setting SMART goals in academic writing (this was for the final month of writing for my PhD). I would love to hear some of your SMART goals and whether you find this method effective for staying on top of your academic writing!
Goal: Complete the first draft of the introductory chapter of my thesis by the end of the month.
Specific: Write the first draft of my introduction chapter (a specific chapter of my thesis).
Measurable: Aim to write a minimum of 500 words per day until the first draft is complete.
Achievable: Break down the writing process into smaller tasks (such as literature review, methodology, etc.) and allocate sufficient time for each section.
Relevant: This chapter is integral to laying the foundation for the rest of my thesis.
Time-bound: Set a deadline to complete the first draft by the end of the month to allow time for revisions and feedback before final submission.
When you set SMART goals for your academic writing, you can enhance your productivity, track your progress effectively, and ultimately achieve success in your scholarly endeavours.