. . .

A C o m p a s s f o r C a m p u s™ MODULE II

KEYS TO WHAT MATTERS MOST™

Goals are a concrete expression of an individual’s hopes and dreams. They NOTES:

help you focus your efforts on what’s most important. This module
provides an introduction to goal setting and the actualization of goals into
concrete, achievable tasks. The module then focuses on assisting
students in identifying their long-range goals and translating these into
monthly and weekly goal setting and planning activities. The principles in
this second module will provide students with the information needed to
successfully plan their week.

MODULE OBJECTIVES

At the end of this module, students will:

• understand the Time Matrix and be able to distinguish between the
four quadrants.

• know in which quadrants of the Time Matrix they currently operate.

• know how to schedule their week with an emphasis on QII activities.
• be able to define their long-range goals.
• know how to translate their long-range goals into SMART goals.
• determine their monthly and weekly goals from their long-range
goals.

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1 INTRODUCTION

NOTES: In the previous module we discussed the Franklin Productivity

Process. We spent some time on the first step, Discover
What Matters Most™, and looked at your personal values,
your roles, and your mission.

We have now arrived at the middle layer of the pyramid: Plan What
Matters Most™. In this second section, we will discuss goal setting. In our
discussion we will distinguish between long-range goals, monthly goals,
and weekly planning.

Before we dive into goal setting and planning, let’s take a few minutes to
look at how you currently make decisions and spend your time.

2-1 2 THE TIME MATRIX URGENT

IMPORTANT


NOT URGENT
IMPORTANT
1 URGENT NOT URGENT 2

IMPORTANT
The Time Matrix ™
The Time Matrix categorizes
EXAMPLES
activities into four quadrants.
1
URGENT
IMPORTANT
URGENT
NOT URGENT
IMPORTANT
NOT URGENT 2
Activities are defined in terms of
urgent or not urgent, important or
I M P O R TA N T

• Exam tomorrow • Date with friend

NOT IMPORTANT NOT IMPORTANT

NOT IMPORTANT
• Pay phone bill
today
• Essay due in
30 days 3 URGENT NOT URGENT 4
• Project due • Call home

•
today
Roommate
becomes ill
• Visit with
academic advisor not important. Let’s take a look
3 NOT IMPORTANT NOT IMPORTANT
4 at each of the quadrants:
N O T I M P O R TA N T

URGENT NOT URGENT

• Ringing phone • Procrastination

• Unnecessary • Too much TV
work
• Excessive Web
• Trivial questions surfing
• Interruptions • Reading comic
strips

TIP: weekly Collegiate Planners-refer to page 6 of your planner.

TIP: daily Franklin Planner-refer to the fourth page under the Ready
References tab.

Quadrant I Quadrant I
the quadrant of necessity. Quadrant One is the quadrant of necessity. This category contains things
that are both urgent and important. Examples include problems and
crises, last-minute cramming for tests, and deadline-driven projects.
Quadrant II Quadrant II
the quadrant of quality and
Important things that are not urgent. These are the opportunities and
leadership.
activities you do ahead of time to prevent problems and crises. For
example, beginning an essay today that is not due until the end of the
semester. Included in this quadrant are relationship building and recre-
ational activities such as planning quality family time. Quadrant Two is
also known as the quadrant of quality and leadership.
Quadrant III Quadrant III
the quadrant of deception.
The third quadrant is often referred to as the quadrant of deception. It
consists of all those things that feel urgent without actually being
important. Items that fall within this category are usually immediate,
pressing and popular. Examples include unimportant phone calls, trivial
questions, and interruptions of your study time. Their false sense of
urgency often causes you to deal with these items first, taking valuable
time away from Quadrant II activities.

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Quadrant IV Quadrant IV
the quadrant of default.
Quadrant IV is the quadrant of things that are neither urgent nor
important. Examples of quad IV activities include watching too much TV,
excessive web surfing, or reading junkmail. Quadrant IV is also called the
quadrant of default; we often seem to default to this quadrant to avoid NOTES:
doing what’s important.

Practice being proactive! If you focus on Quadrant II activities, you will

minimize the amount of time spent in crisis mode (Quadrant I).
Operating in Quadrant II is the result of a conscious choice.

Some of the benefits of operating in Quadrant II:

• an increased ability to do;
• anticipating and preventing problems;
• an increase in planning skills;
• growing relationships;
• purposeful long-range planning;
• empowerment of others.

Activity - How Do You Spend Your Time? ACTIVITY

INSTRUCTIONS
Think about it! In which quadrant do you currently spend most of your time? (5 MIN)

What can you do to improve?

 
Group exercise
As a reminder, have
Where would you find the extra time to be proactive in Quadrant II?
students look back at the
list of things they defined
for the first activity
(page 6)
GOAL SETTING: LONG-RANGE GOALS 3
Now that you have made a start determining What Matters Most™, how A goal is a dream with
do you focus your daily efforts on the things that matter? In order to a deadline.
make your dreams come true, you need to set goals. Break down your
dreams into specific, achievable tasks. Give yourself a deadline; set some
goals.

Long-range goals are basic to planning. They are specific, values-based Long-range goals link
goals that link your daily actions to What Matters Most™ to you. your daily actions to
Long-range goals can be personal, academic, or work related. Whatever What Matters Most™.
it is, setting a goal can help you achieve it.

Remember these three guidelines when you set your personal long-range
goals:
NOTES:
A. Review What Matters Most™
B. Set SMART goals
C. Record your goals

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A REVIEW WHAT MATTERS MOST™

Developing long-range goals:
are they in accordance with
What Matters Most™?
Use your values, roles, and mission as a basis for developing personal
goals. Remember to reconsider earlier long-range goals and revise them
according to What Matters Most™. If you make a habit of applying this
process you will increase your personal effectiveness and set goals that
help you work towards your mission.

NOTES: Does this mean that you will no longer set goals that others encourage
you to set? Maybe, maybe not. Either way, you will only make them your
personal goals if they are in agreement with what’s most important to
you.

An example: you are relatively good at science and your parents expect
you to pursue a career in health or medical science. If this agrees with
your basic values, you can choose to make this a personal long-range
goal. However, you may decide you are more interested in your creative
arts classes and want to pursue a career in arts instead. If this is your
focus, science may not be a priority for you.

B SET SMART GOALS

Set Smart Goals: A SMART goal consists of the following:
Specific, Measurable,
Action-oriented, Realistic,
S Your goal must be Specific. It is difficult to know how to achieve a
and Timely.
vague goal like “I want to be happy”. Specific goals state exactly
what you want to accomplish. They are not ambiguous or confusing
but clear and concise!
2-2

S.M.A.R.T. Goals M Your goal must be Measurable. How will you know when you have
reached your goal? Measurable goals state what you want and when
S specific you want it. Put some milestones in place so you can measure your
M measurable progress along the way.
A achievable
R realistic
A Your goal must be Action-oriented. You need to take action(s) that
T timely
will bring you closer to your goals. Action-oriented goals indicate
how they will be achieved.

R Your goal needs to be Realistic. It must be attainable. Realistic goals

take the resources and constraints relative to your situation into
NOTES: consideration.

T Your goal must also be Timely. Allow reasonable time to complete

your goals, but not so much time that you lose focus and motivation.
Timely goals have a specific deadline attached to them.

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Activity - How SMART are you? (Worksheet 2-A)

ACTIVITY
Take a look at the goals on your handout. Are they SMART goals? If not, INSTRUCTIONS
how would you make them SMART? (10 MIN)
Examples:


Provide students with a
• Run a marathon - not SMART copy of Worksheet 2-A
• Compete in a 5K marathon September 15, 2000 - SMART


Can be done as either a
group or an individual
• Make the Dean’s list - not SMART exercise
• Make the Dean’s list at the end of my first semester - SMART

RECORD YOUR GOALS C

Use your planner to record your long-range goals. Having them actually Record your goals in your
written down helps you visualize your goals and makes them more con- planner.
crete.

Use the monthly planning pages of your Collegiate Planner (pages 33-55)
to record your personal and academic long-range plans and monthly
goals. Academic goals should also be recorded on the Project Planning
and Goal Setting pages (pages 14 - 21).
W
In the Franklin Planner-Collegiate Edition you can record your monthly
goals on the Master Task List for each month. For more detailed goal set-
ting, you may want to refer to the goal planning pages under the Values
and Goals tab. Academic goals can be recorded on the Project
D
Assignment and Planning pages following the School Information tab,
and the School Goals pages under Graduation Planning.

Activity - Write a Long-Range Goal ACTIVITY

INSTRUCTIONS
Review your answers to the exercise on What Matters Most™ in Module I (5 MIN)
(worksheet 1-C). Choose one of the dreams or ideas you recorded and
write a long-range goal. You can use the current month’s planning pages


Individual exercise
or the goal setting pages to record your goal. Whatever your goal is,
remember to make it a SMART goal.
NOTES:

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Formulating your long-range goals is one thing; actually achieving them

NOTES: is another. To make it easier, break down your goals into small,
intermediate tasks and work towards them one step at a time:

1. List and prioritize the intermediate steps required to achieve your

goals.
2. Assign a timeline to each of the intermediate steps.
3. Determine the tasks associated with the completion of each step
and the deadlines for each task.
4. Schedule each task on the appropriate planning pages of your
planner.

ACTIVITY Activity - Planning The Intermediate Steps

INSTRUCTIONS
(5 MIN) Follow the four steps above to fill in the intermediate steps for the long-
range goal you identified earlier.
 

Individual exercise
Time permitting, discuss
problems as a group and 4 W E E K LY P L A N N I N G
answer questions
Weekly planning is the next step on your way to actually making your
dreams come true and turning your goals into reality.
2-3 Start your week right: take 15 to 20 minutes at the beginning of each
week to complete your weekly plan. In addition, schedule 5 minutes each
Weekly Planning
day to review the daily pages plan and plan your day!
1 REVIEW WHAT
MATTERS MOST ™
Make the following weekly planning process your habit for success:
2 EVALUATE YOUR
CHOICES FROM LAST
WEEK
1.At the beginning of each week, review What Matters Most™. Base
3 REVIEW YOUR LONG
RANGE GOALS your weekly goals on your roles and values.
4 SCHEDULE YOUR WEEKLY 2.Evaluate your choices from last week. Were they in line with
GOALS IN YOUR
PLANNER What Matters Most™?
3.Check your monthly planning pages and review your long-range
goals.
4.Schedule your weekly goals in your planner.

In your Franklin Planner, schedule your weekly goals on the insertable

D Weekly Schedule Pagefinder as well as on the daily pages for the

upcoming week. The Weekly Pagefinder reminds you of your weekly goals
and enables you to quickly review your week.

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. . . A C o m p a s s f o r C a m p u s™ MODULE II

Remember. . . weekly goals are more than just a list of action items for a First plan the big rocks, then
particular week. Weekly goals are your priorities for the week. They are schedule the pebbles.
goals that are directly related to what matters most to you. Weekly goals
are usually Quadrant I or Quadrant II activities.

To understand the importance of properly scheduling your weekly goals,

you may want to refer to them as your Big Rocks™ for the upcoming week.

Activity - Big Rocks™ ACTIVITY

Imagine you have an empty bucket in front of you. Next to the bucket are INSTRUCTIONS
seven or eight big rocks and a whole bunch of pebbles. (5 MIN)

The bucket represents your week. Each of the rocks depicts one of your

 
Group exercise
weekly goals. One of the rocks is a family priority, another represents a Encourages discussion
project that is due, another shows a date with a good friend,the next a Note: if possible,
holiday, etc. The pebbles represent all the other minor tasks you want to illustrate yur point using
get done this week. an actual bucket with
rocks and pebbles
Now you need to fill the bucket with all the rocks and the pebbles. How
would you go about this? If you dump the pebbles in first and then the
rocks, not all the rocks may fit! 2-4

Big Rocks™
Try it the other way around! To effectively schedule your week, plan the
big rocks first, then organize the pebbles around the big rocks. You’ll be
amazed how much you can accomplish.
Plan wisely! Choose only a few Big Rocks™ for each week. Setting too
many weekly goals limits your ability to focus on the task at hand and
accomplish what you set out to do. First plan the big rocks,
then schedule the pebbles.

NOTES:


First plan the big rocks, then schedule the pebbles.

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ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES

NOTES: Activity 1 - How Do I Get There? (Worksheet 2-B)

Time permitting, ask students to do the activity on Worksheet 2-B. This
activity may help students make their hopes and dreams a reality.

Afterwards, have students break into groups and discuss the process that
they used and their feelings toward it. How can this process help them to
better achieve their goals?

Encourage students to apply this process to all of their dreams and priorities.

Activity 2 - Long-Range Goals to Intermediate Goals

Ask students to think of another long-range goal. Have them develop the
intermediate steps it will take to reach their goals. Remind them to use
SMART goals.

Students may work individually or in groups.

Activity 3 - The Urgency Index (Worksheet 2-C)

Sometimes it is difficult to determine how effective we are in working our
plans. The activity on Worksheet 2-C will help students identify how urgent
their activities are. Have students complete the worksheet and then
discuss it in groups or as a class. It may also help to have students
identify two or three areas where they could improve upon over the next
two weeks.

If a student’s score is
48 or higher = too much time in crisis situations
36 to 47 = need improvement
24 to 35 = good, but could improve
under 24 = doing well, keep up the good work

Activity 4 - Understanding How You Spend Your Time (Worksheet 2-D)

Once students have determined their Urgency Index, ask them to
determine where they spend most of their time by completing the Time
Matrix on Worksheet 2-D. If necessary, refer to the Time Matrix trans-
parency to ensure students understand the quadrants.

Ask students to go through the list at the bottom of the page and
determine to which quadrant each item belongs. Discuss in groups or as a
class how students currently spend the majority of their time.

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Activity 5 - Planning for Improvement (Worksheet 2-E) NOTES:

The activity on Worksheet 2-E is a great tool to help students understand
the importance of time management.

Have students record the actual time used presently in column A, and
total their scores. Students will most likely find their totals exceed 24
hours.

Ask students to discuss and help each other set time management goals.
Students can record their time management goals in the third column.

Activity 6 - The Value of Time (Worksheet 2-F)

To help students realize the value of time, copy Worksheet 2-F as a
handout. Read and discuss it together or in small groups.

Activity 7 - Long-Range Goals to Intermediate to Daily Steps

Once students have completed a number of long-term goal(s), have
them follow the process on worksheet 2-B for developing intermediate
and daily tasks. As a class, walk through the breakdown so students can
see how the process fits together. Then, have students work alone or in
pairs to break down one long-term goal.

© 2000 Franklin Covey

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