Setting goals is a proven method of achieving more in life. In this video, I'm going to
show you what are smart goals and how you can use this approach during your PhD studies
to get results. I will also show you some examples of smart goals as a PhD student which
you can set and then we will talk about how to divide a goal into tasks and how to achieve
those tasks. So all of this is coming up in this video and we are starting right after
this short break.
Hello, and welcome to my channel. My name is Tahir And if this is your first time, please
hit the subscribe button, and also the notification bell to get notified whenever I post a new
video on this channel every Tuesday and Friday. Most of the time we make weight goals. We
are not clear about our objectives. Let's say you set a goal that you will write a conference
paper A gentleman paper during your PhD No, this is your dream at this stage and this
dream will become your SMART goal when to attach certain attributes to this. So, let
me first explain what this smart stands for. So, in this smart S stands for specific M
for measurable, a4 attainable are for relevant and T for time Bob, no First I will briefly
explain this and then we will discuss it further. So, when we say specific specific means that
our goal must be detailed and clear. And when I give you the example, it will be more clear
to you know me is measurable and it means that someone should be able to determine whether
you have achieved your goal or not. So, you should attach some numbers to your goal. For
example, how many or how much is attainable and attainable means that you have the knowledge
skills and resources to attain that goal. And relevant means that that goal has some
meaning for you and you are willing to put some effort towards that goal, you are passionate
about that goal. And times bound simply means that you must put a deadline on that goal.
So my first example is let's say you have started your PhD. So your first SMART goal
could be something like this by 31st Of March 2020. I will complete my research proposal
and distribute it to my committee. Now, this is a SMART goal because it has a deadline,
it is very clear and detailed that you are going to write a research proposal and you
will distribute it to your committee. So all this is very detailed, very specific time
bound relevant to you so everything is perfect, which makes it a SMART goal. No setting a
SMART goal is not a big problem. Because as you can see, that you have to give a detailed
description. Then attach a deadline, what is the hardest part of s m AR t? No, you should
understand this that the hardest part is the a component of this attainable, although you
can easily estimate that this is attainable because other students have done this, your
university has the resources. But the major part is how to achieve this, how to attain
your goal. And this is the part which you have to learn. Let us talk about this research
proposal how to do a research proposal. This is the hardest part of this book. So what
happens is that once you have written your SMART goal that this is my goal. The next
thing is you have to understand how I'm going to achieve this goal and you divide that goal
into tasks. And these are the tasks where you have to learn a lot in order to make a
research proposal. There are certain steps and I had mentioned all these, you know One
of my videos, how to write a research proposal, you can look at my channel. Now, let us see
another example of a SMART goal. Let us assume that your research proposal has been approved.
Now your next goal is that you are going to do a literature review. If you simply say
that I'm going to do a literature review, this is not a smart board, you should say
something like this, that I am going to complete the literature review in this field, your
field of research by 31st of December 2020. So now this is a SMART goal. Once you have
written the research proposal, now your field of research should be clear to you. Otherwise,
you should talk to your supervisor. And at this stage, your broader field of research
should be clear to you which you should put in your literature review goal. This will
make this goal as your SMART Board. Now once you have done the literature review, your
next SMART goal could be that by The end of this month, I'm going to find top 10 researchers
in my narrow down field of research. And now you put your narrow down field of research,
not the broader area which you have put in your first mode. So that this is your SMART
goal for the next step that you are going to find the top researchers in your field.
And if you don't know how to do that, I have a video for this. I think the title is that
five things which every PhD students should do early in their early in their career. Now
let's talk about the most important goals, writing the conference paper or writing in
a journal paper. So if you simply set a goal like this, that I'm going to write a research
paper, it is not a SMART goal. The thing which will make this SMART goal is that for example,
you say that I'm going to write a conference paper in an IEEE conference. And I'm going
to finish this one month before the submission deadline. of the conference and the proposed
title of my paper is this. No, this is a SMART goal, because now you have a proposed title
in your mind. Now you have done the literature review, and you have some idea about the topic
or the title of your research paper. No, this is your SMART goal. And now you can start
working towards it. Now for a journal paper, your SMART goal will be a little bit different
because for general paper, you need some experimental results. And not the next step is once you
have set these goals, the most important part is as I mentioned earlier, you have to divide
your goal into tasks. And if you look at my videos, most of my videos address this problem,
how to break down a goal into tasks. So I have a video of a literature review and research
proposals all those videos are available. Now the deadline of every SMART goal needs
not to be a very long deadline. You can also set some time SMART goals on a weekly basis.
For example, you can set a goal like this that I will be writing 20,000 worth of scientific
material every week for next 12 weeks. So this could be a SMART goal, because it is
measurable. It is detailed, and it has a deadline. I hope that now you know how you can convert
your way goal into a SMART goal. And you understand that making a SMART goal is not enough. You
have to break down into tasks and then you have to learn how to do those tasks in order
to achieve your goal. And hopefully this will help you to transform your dreams into SMART
goals and your SMART goals into reality. So I hope you liked this video. If so, please
give it a thumbs up. Thanks for watching and see you next time.