Managing Time: Short-Term

Short-term planning takes place in a month, three months or a year by coordinating tasks to reach a larger goal. Goals may include increasing members in a network, saving money for investment (home improvements, vacation or emergency fund) or get good grades in class. It is easier to compartmentalize short-term goals and organize each goal separately.

Look at each of these goals separately to establish an effective plan. A person wanting to expand their network decides talks to new people in person or on the internet. This goal is accomplished with time estimates. Make ten new contacts each month. As a student or working in an office a teacher or trainer places students or employees in teams creating a forum to learn each person's name and exchange contact information. Otherwise, a person makes each contact without assistance.

Saving money for an investment relies on earnings. The goal is $500. A person has other expenses so they work out a budget and find they can place $150 in a savings account for three months by making personal sacrifices like preparing a sack lunch or carpooling to achieve the goal by the due-date.

Getting good grades is complex. Class-times are scheduled after reviewing course requirements according to major. They may want to schedule all four classes for a half-week, such as: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; as opposed to, Tuesday and Thursday. Days between classes are free for studying. They may prefer going to two classes everyday in a work week followed by studying everyday. Either plan is fine.

After the schedule is established professors supply a syllabus. Usually a class is comprised of reading materials, assignments and tests. Some teachers add projects, demonstrations, or speeches. Buy or print a calendar with large boxes and create a visual reminder by assigning a unique color to each class. Each event has a short explanation: BADM 4312 Read Chapter 1, MATH 2301 Exam Chapters 1 – 5, or BIOL 2301 demonstration. For example BADM is highlighted in yellow; MATH is highlighted in green, and BIOL is highlighted in pink. Events with higher percentages towards the grade, midterm exam, circle in red.

The visual display is quickly reviewed to estimate how much time should be dedicated to each event before it happens. An exam is on Thursday so read chapters for other classes on the weekend so Wednesday is available to study for the exam. Knowing a demonstration is coming up in four weeks, flexible time is dedicated to work on the demonstration and fine-tune it before it is due.

It might be difficult to create a system at first; however, a person is less likely to miss important events and receive a zero on various assignments and projects. Keep the syllabus available. It includes additional information, such as: the percentage of each task toward the grade. Track performance based on current standings.

For example assignments and four exams are each 20% of the total grade equaling 100%. After taking two exams: they have 100% for assignments, 89% on the first exam and 93% on the second exam. Each grade was adjusted to a class average. Looking at the textbook each chapter has an assignment, they find approximately 50% of assignments are complete; therefore, 10 points of 100% are already secured. Now they find how many points are associated to exams: 89% of 20% is 17.8 and 93% of 20% is 18.6. Current points equal 46.4 out of 100. To receive 4.0 they must achieve 94% (94 points) of an overall grade.

This establishes the range of success. Since they received low test scores ((20-17.8) + (20-18.6) = 3.6) 96.4 points are achievable while 50 points are variable. Now a student identifies what they need to do in order to achieve the goal. Assignments are going well, so the other 10 will be secured soon. It is all down to exam 3 and the final. Each test is 20 points: (96.4-94-=2.4), (2.4/2=1.2)} 20-1.2=18.8 or 18.8*5=94% (100% is divisible by 20% five times) depending on the next grade the margin of success will increase or narrow. If gaining a 100% on exam 3, the full 2.4 points is available so only 88% is needed on the final exam. Reduce risk by asking for extra credit; if the lowest test score can be dropped, or to retake an exam.

That is what makes business fun, even if not achieving goals at the highest level possible there is always time to move a deadline as long as part of the goal is accomplished. A client wants to see a full demonstration of a product. They only completed 90% of the project, yet showing work makes requesting an extension reasonable. The goal was to make 10 new contacts each month. They only made 9 new contacts one month and then 8 the next month. Since establishing contacts they improved their method by making new contacts by talking to existing contacts. In the third month they made 15 new contacts. Now they will definitely achieve the goal when averaged over a few months. Short-term goals are moldable when fulfilling long-term goals.

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