You’ve done it before: you sat down on a Sunday evening and spent a solid hour writing out your goals for the week and ending your session motivated to try them out.
You try to fit exercise, work, school, self-care, eating healthy, family time, and other responsibilities into your goal setting, but by the end of the week, you feel defeated that you didn’t meet any of your goals.
This is me…in fact, it got so bad that I’ve stopped setting ‘goals’ altogether.
This isn’t another post about the SMART Goal method. Instead, you’ll find some unconventional tips I’ve found to successfully set realistic goals as a working student.
As a note: I’m going through the trenches of going back to college to level up my career while working full time, and I’m still figuring things out. These are harsh tips that I have found helpful for me as a busy student that I believe will help you minimize burnout and maximize peaceful progress.
Understand That You Have Less Capacity to Give Right Now
Normally, one might come home at 5pm, spend some time with family, eat dinner, watch TV, and go to bed.
But since you’re a working student working toward a career change, you’ve got extra on your plate: College Classes, homework, studying, networking and whatever else! Plus you’re still working to pay your bills and support your family.
I had to come to terms with the fact that certain chores or goals won’t be completed in this season, and that’s okay!
The main priority is maintenance… maintaining good- not necessarily excellent – standing at work, in your studies, and with your family.
We want you to keep your sanity. This means cutting out or delegating extra goals that you don’t have time or energy for right now.
Consider cutting out 1 goal that just doesn’t fit in your capacity in this season. Make a note to revisit it at a later time.
This will relieve a lot of the pressure that you feel, and make goal setting more realistic for your situation.
Stop Obsessing About One Goal. Diversify.
This is one of the biggest things I’ve had to learn to keep my sanity as a working student.
There is more to life than work and school.
I know it’s easy to ruminate on your goals, even when you’re not working on them. That’s why I have a new phrase I tell myself when I’m thinking too hard:
Stop obsessing.
If you feel like you can’t find rest or you’re constantly on the verge of burnout, this will change your life…it has changed mine.
Here’s how to stop obsessing over your grades and progress in your career change:
Make time for creating things and building skills that you enjoy.
For me, I blog my work and school journey with posts like these. I also started learning the drums! It’s super fun 🙂
I’ve also been teaching myself how to draw, and I find myself doodling a lot now. This helps take my mind off of screens and live in the present.
This is the best way I’ve found to rest my mind as someone who is always thinking about the next milestone. Let me know if you have other tips in the comments.
Switch mind gears when you’re ruminating too long and too hard about outcomes you can’t control right now.
Since you diversified your goals, you’re able to switch your mind to focus on something more relaxing that you still find interesting.
This method has made the days at my job more bearable, even in a field that I don’t aspire to be in long-term. This is because I’ve shown myself that I’m not living to work.
You have more to offer yourself than your job. Try creating diversity in your goal setting!
There is Little Honor for Making Things Harder for Yourself
I often find myself trying to complete a goal in the hardest way possible…even when it’s not necessary.
An example is with my first paper for my first semester after returning to school. I had to write a 2 page paper about Ancient Greek and Roman Civilization.
My initial goal for this class was to get perfect grades.
In order to do this, I overcomplicated my research process and made the paper 8 pages long. That’s right…8 pages.
What’s funny is all this effort led to this assignment being the lowest score I got for the class.
For my future assignments, I dialed back how much I ‘cared.’ As a result, I put in less effort trying to follow the directions absolutely perfectly.
My only goal was to follow the instructions and turn in an assignment. In other words, just be good enough. This meant shorter papers and lower word counts.
Ironically, I got higher scores and more positive feedback from my professor.
The moral of this story is to ration your mental energy to be just good enough at your goals. Chances are, you’re more skilled than you think, and your natural tendency is to be absolutely incredible without having to try as hard.
Experiment with reducing how much you care about making your process difficult.
It took me a while to learn that it isn’t worth it to stretch myself so thin to get the same results I could with less effort. I think you’ll find this helps you with realistically working towards your goals.
Conduct Goal-Setting Reviews
I want to implement this more into my schedule. I believe weekly or monthly reviews of your goals helps you to gauge what works and what doesn’t.
My biggest fear when reflecting is seeing that I failed to reach my goals. I’m currently working on my mindset with that.
If you have tips, please let me know in the comments.
When You Forget About Time, Growth Happens Faster
This is an interesting phenomenon I’ve noticed. Whenever I’m fixated on a goal too hard, I notice that time goes by slower.
This means that I don’t notice progress in the time frame I want to.
But, when I diversify my focus and start caring about goals related to other aspects of my life, it feels like time goes by faster!
In the first 2 months of working my current job, my days would drag. I was always checking the time for the day to end because I was trying to think about doing 100% hard effort work for the whole 8 hours. The key was that I didn’t really need to think about my job that intently for the entire time.
Instead, while working, I went down some rabbit holes to learn new things, for example, learning more about the jobs I was trying to staff for. I thought about ways I could create things I’m interested in.
The next few months flew by in comparison. As of this post, I’m over 6 months into my current job, and I’ve been more than maintaining my performance.
Honestly, I didn’t know that I’d last this long at my current role. But, learning to enjoy it in the midst of the struggle made it much easier.
In short, again, stop obsessing, and time will feel like it’s flying by. You’ll look up one day and finally see progress towards your goals…without having to grind unnecessarily.
Make Self-Care A Goal Setting Priority
Making it a priority to take care of myself, and even just doing the basics like brushing my teeth, showering, and even doing a short Bible Reading somehow makes me feel more in control of my life.
I’m not sure of the science behind it, but doing this helps me to relieve burnout.
Maybe it’s because I’m not thinking about my job or school when I’m taking care of myself.
One goal I have set is to increase my protein intake. So, in the mornings, it’s a ritual for me to blend a protein shake and take it with me to work to drink.
I even risk being late to work to make sure I have my shake.
Here’s why:
I notice that I’m not obsessing about lunch when I drink it, especially if I don’t have breakfast.
I feel like I’m doing something to take care of myself. Even if I don’t do anything else, I know that I consumed at least 24 grams of protein for the day.
It’s easy, fun, and takes me less than 30 seconds to make.
Whatever self care goals you have, make at least 1 of them an absolute priority to achieve. Make sure it’s easy and fun to keep it realistic for you to accomplish as a working student.
Doing this has helped add more joy to my life so far, and I’m sure it will do the same for you.
Mind your own Beeswax
I still struggle with this sometimes, but stop comparing yourself to other people. The only comparison you should be doing is with your own personal growth.
I’m specifically talking about social media. Your feed might be filled with videos with intense face moisturizing routines, 3 hour long gym sessions, and perfect ‘day in the lifes’.
I used to get jealous and confused. How did they have so much time and effort to spend on this every day and get these results?
It’s hard to conceptualize that each person has their own life and timeline. Even you.
And for all we know, the people we see could be lying or heavily embellishing their goal progress. We don’t see the editing.
The best tip I’ve learned is to stay off of social media when I don’t feel content with my progress. Comparison is the thief of joy.
Your goals must be realistic and sustainable for you, not anyone else. This is what has helped me to thrive and be comfortable with my progress in life with my job, schooling, and my family.
Give Yourself Grace, But Be Honest With Yourself
If you haven’t been sticking with a particular goal for a while, it might be time for you to modify it.
There is a fine line between flexibility and lack of structure when it comes to goal setting.
Sometimes you need to sacrifice fast progress for sustainability. This means making the goal easier.
For example, I tried cutting fast food out of my diet last month and, uh, that didn’t turn out too well.
My intention was to force myself to meal prep, eat healthier, and ultimately lose weight. Here’s my problem:
- I love the taste of fast food. Like, really. My cooking skills are not developed to rival the taste of Arby’s or Burger King.
- Fast food is so convenient. I don’t have to spend 3 hours in the kitchen to eat a decent lunch on my work break. That is too much mental, emotional, and physical energy for me to expend as a student working full-time.
Instead, I changed my goal. Instead of cutting out fast food, I choose protein friendly options. Instead of only Mozzarella Sticks at Arby’s, I get a Turkey Club as well.
This helps me feel more satiated and I also get closer to my protein intake goal.
Sometimes, you have to be honest with yourself. Sometimes you have to negotiate.
No, I probably won’t have a 6 pack in a month, but at least I’m adding something better to my diet.
This has been key for me to create realistic goals as a non-traditional student.
If something isn’t working for you, make the goal easier and see if you can stick to it.
You can always change it again later.
Make goals for your inputs and be okay with the outputs
No matter how much you try, you can’t create the perfect conditions for perfect outcomes.
This is sometimes still hard for me to comprehend.
Recently, I’ve made goals for my inputs so that I can influence the outcomes I want. And I’m learning to be okay with whatever outcome happens.
Here’s an example:
For my college papers, I answer the questions given in the instructions. I provide a source supporting my points. I format the paper according to the instructions given. Then all I can do is turn it in and wait.
I did what I could to influence a good grade on the paper. Now the outcome is up to the professor and what she thinks.
I’m okay with whatever outcome, because I’ve proven to myself that I can follow instructions. And following instructions is associated with higher grades. Even if the grade is lower than I expected, I know that I did what I could. I just do what I can to move on, and take whatever feedback I receive for next time.
Doing this will help you let go of the things you can’t control. Focusing on what you can control is what allows for sustainable goal setting as a busy adult.
Do a goal audit…modify your outcome based goals like ‘lose 10 pounds.’ Turn them into input based goals like ‘consume 70 grams of protein a day.’
Test this for a month, and see how you feel about yourself.
Conclusion
Wow, that was a deep dive! We covered 9 important tips for realistic goal setting as a working student:
- Understand That You Have Less Capacity to Give Right Now
- Stop Obsessing About One Goal. Diversify.
- There is Little Honor for Making Things Harder for Yourself
- Conduct Goal-Setting Reviews
- When You Forget About Time, Growth Happens Faster
- Make Self-Care A Goal-Setting Priority
- Mind your own Beeswax
- Give Yourself Grace, But Be Honest With Yourself
- Make goals for your inputs and be okay with the outputs
These tips have helped me find sustainable progress and reduce burnout, and I hope they do the same for you!
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