Short term goals for career examples: Short-Term Professional Goals: How to Set Them

Опубликовано: June 19, 2023 в 1:06 am

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Short-Term Professional Goals: How to Set Them

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Why are short-term professional goals important?

How do long-term goals differ from short-term goals?

Identifying your short-term professional goals

Types of short-term professional goals for work

How to set short-term professional goals

9 examples of short-term professional goals

The bottom line

Picture this: you’re perfectly content with your current role. You have a solid work-life balance, and the work is the perfect challenge to be interesting without being a major stressor. 

But then, someone on your team gets a promotion. Now, you reflect on the fact that many of your colleagues have moved on or have even left the company for better positions. You’re still right where you started.

This might be the time to start career planning and kick your professional development up a notch by setting some short-term professional goals.

Even if it’s short-term, goal setting is crucial in your professional and personal life to reach the milestones you dream of. But it’s also difficult. How far into the future do goals stop being “short-term”? What’s aiming high, but not too high? What’s realistic but will feed your ambition?

It’s OK to feel a bit intimidated by goal setting. But we’re here to help explain everything you need to know about short-term professional goals and how to start setting them today.

Why are short-term professional goals important?

Setting short-term career goals will transform your whole mindset around how you work and what you’re working toward. Having goals increases your motivation and engagement, in turn increasing your job satisfaction and productivity. 

Development goals at work often seem too big, discouraging you from working on them. That’s the beautiful thing about short-term goals. They divide bigger goals into smaller, achievable steps. 

These steps serve as a starting point and a roadmap for goals that demand more time and effort. Your short-term goals could contribute to your ultimate goal that aligns with your long-term objectives. Remember that the effort you put in now will never be for anything. 

Here are some reasons why setting short-term goals are so important:

  • Help you understand your career aspirations
  • Teach you transferable skills 
  • Keep you motivated and focused on your work
  • Show you how to stay organized with your goals and tasks
  • Encourage a growth mindset (compared to a fixed mindset)

Do you know who else really loves short-term goals? Employers. They want to see that you’re focused on growing, that you’re thinking about the future. Research has found that worker performance improves by 12-15% for employees who set goals.

When your goals are measurable and achievable, it shows the employer that you know your abilities, but you’re also keen on improving them. This ambition then benefits your performance, which benefits — and potentially inspires — the entire team.  

How do long-term goals differ from short-term goals?

Before we explain how short-term goals differ from long-term goals, let’s acknowledge some similarities. Both types of professional goals help you with your career development. They both guide you along your career path, and neither are daily or truly immediate goals either. 

Knowing the difference between long-term and short-term goals will help you understand which goals you need to set to meet your needs. Perhaps right now, you need to think long-term because you have a lot on your plate, so short-term goals aren’t the way to go.

There’s also a chance that you’re uncertain about the future, and short-term goals are all you can focus on. Any goal is a great goal. 

Here are a few other ways these goals are different:

  • Long-term career goals might require more strategy and organization than short-term goals
  • You might work on more than one short-term goal at a time, but usually, you stick to one long-term goal at a time
  • Long-term goals require you to sustain your motivation for longer than short-term goals
  • Long-term goals give you more flexibility to figure out how to achieve them
  • Short-term goals can be the steps toward completing a long-term goal

Identifying your short-term professional goals

So what is a short-term goal? These goals are achieved within a day, week, or couple of months — or, in the near future. Short-term goals demand you to stay focused because you’re working in a specific, limited time frame. You don’t have time to take a break and come back later if you want to accomplish it in three months. 

Short-term professional goals, of course, focus on your career path. These goals help you professionally by gaining new skills to further your career success. Reaching these goals will likely benefit your personal life, too, but they make the biggest difference at work.

And you’d be surprised how many goals can relate to your career. If you want to learn to write code by the end of the quarter or learn how to limit distractions at work, you’re on the right track. 

But if you’re a new manager easily frustrated by the challenges of delegating, working on being more patient and less of a micromanager counts, too. Strengthening soft skills is difficult because progress is hard to track, but they’re always worth your effort. These are all valuable goals to set for your professional development and the good of your team.

Types of short-term professional goals for work

Your professional goals should be quite diverse. Short-term goals for work look different for everyone and hit different areas in your professional life. You could set 6-month goals for work that focus entirely on your professional network or a goal for just this week to limit your social media usage to one hour per day. 

Let’s review four different types of short-term goals:

1. Health goals: You’re not a robot. Taking care of your health while balancing your professional life is tricky. These goals aim to help your work-life balance and take care of your well-being, like setting boundaries about time spent at work, being purposeful with your vacation time, or focusing on fitness goals.

2. Educational goals: Have you ever thought about expanding your knowledge? Educational goals aim to grow your industry expertise. This may include taking online courses, attending workshops and conferences, or being more active on LinkedIn Learning. You might even consider going back to school.

3. Financial goals: Money talks. Perhaps you want to find a freelance side hustle to earn more money, or you want to earn a bonus from your job. Your financial goals could also focus on saving or investing instead of spending.

4. Direct goals: The title seems vague, but these goals relate to how you work. Will learning how to code earn you the pay raise you want? Could leadership training guarantee you’re next in line for a management position? These goals are usually things you can accomplish by making small but meaningful changes to your routine and work mindset.

How to set short-term professional goals

So you’re ready to begin your short-term goal setting. What’s your first move? There’s no need to rush — creating a clear action plan will help you better focus on your goals.

Here are four tips to keep in mind when you set your goals and begin to work on them:

1.

Take your time to create a plan

You need to have a short-term vision for these goals, so brainstorm what you want the outcomes of your goals to be. What do you want to accomplish in the next few months? Studies have found that people who follow a well-thought-out plan are more prepared, have greater self-efficacy, and are more organized with their approach.

Consider what resources you need, how you’ll organize your time, and what to do if you encounter challenges. Do research, network with people in positions you want to be in, and reflect on what’s reasonable to expect from yourself. 

2. Hold yourself accountable

Nobody else is as concerned with your goals as you. Holding yourself accountable will keep you on track. Try to set reminders for yourself or have daily check-ins to see how much progress you’re making. And be honest with yourself if you find yourself neglecting your goals.

If something seems unsurmountable or unmotivating, it might be too ambitious a goal for right now.  

3. Create goals that inspire you

This is a big one. Your goals should align with your purpose. Take a moment to get in touch with your needs and consider why you’re devoting time and energy toward these goals. What would achieving this mean to you? How will they positively impact your personal development? Make sure that these are goals that’ll fill you with pride and a sense of accomplishment.

4. Set SMART goals

SMART goals provide a template for goal setting. It’s an acronym for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. Having a template to follow as you set your goals helps you stay organized.

9 examples of short-term professional goals

It’s time to see some examples of short-term goals. It’s helpful to see what some of these short-term career goals look like and how they differ. Some work goals target how you work with your team members, while others will take you out of the office and somewhere new. 

Here are nine short-term goal examples to review:

1. Improve your communication skills with your coworkers

2. Take an online course to earn a professional certificate

3. Expand your professional network 

4. Plan out your future career change

5. Create a portfolio that shows off your work

6. Become more familiar with apps that help with organization

7. Find a mentor to learn from

8. Read five books about leadership and management 

9. Create a better work-life balance for yourself 

The bottom line

You could go your whole career without setting short-term professional goals — but you’ll enjoy it more with ambitions and dreams. They help you achieve career success and show you that grit and determination make a huge difference. 

Don’t be afraid to dig deep with your self-awareness and set out some new professional goals. Even if they’re short-term, they have the power to change your life.

Short-Term Career Goals: Definition and Examples

Short-term career goals are professional goals set to be achieved in the near future, like within the next day, week or month. They are often used to help advance your career and move you toward a long-term career goal.

Short-Term Goal Definition

Short-term career goals are intended to be accomplished at a point in the near future, such as a day, week or month. Good short-term career goals advance your career and put you along the right path to achieve your long-term goals.

“A short-term goal should impact your day-to-day work and be easy to track and measure success,” said An Vu, chief marketing officer of Zynga’s Small Giant Games. 

For example, your short-term career goal could be to cut the average number of bugs in a software update by half. That goal is measurable and can be tracked. It would also positively affect your daily work.

Another might be to learn a new professional skill, which you can measure by taking a course and receiving a completion certificate.

In any case, short-term goals serve as the roadmap that takes you from where you are to where you want to be.

Short-Term Career Goal Examples

  1. Determine what you want out of your career
  2. Expand your professional network
  3. Find a mentor
  4. Take a step toward improving writing and speaking
  5. Take on an extra project
  6. Gain cross-functional experience
  7. Learn a new concept
  8. Improve industry knowledge 
  9. Update resume and LinkedIn profile
  10. Transition to a new industry or field
  11. Get promoted
  12. Find a new job

 

Why Are Short-Term Career Goals Important?

Setting short-term goals is crucial even if you are not sure of which direction you want your career to move toward, said Iteeah Pounds, internship and co-op program and operations manager at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Short-term goals help guard against getting passed over for the opportunities you want, said B.J. Engelhardt, senior director of career services at Illinois Institute of Technology. Short-term career goals also help determine which skill sets to build upon and get you to where you want to be, he added.

Career goals are also far-reaching and should be reflected as you create your annual goals and discuss them with your manager during your one-on-one sessions, said Aliza Carpio, technical evangelist director at Autodesk. By taking this step, you declare for yourself and for your team where you want to be in the not-so-distant future. 

“The more you achieve your short-term goals, the closer you are to your long-term goals,” Carpio said. “The more you declare your long-term goals, the easier it is for you to determine your short-term goals.”

 

How to Set Short-Term Career Goals

There’s no one right way to set a short-term career goal.

“I think people can often run into decision paralysis in trying to define,  prioritize [and set] the right goals,” Vu said. “What’s more important is to actually begin putting your intentions into action — any short-term goal that moves you in the general direction of where you want to be is a viable step in your roadmap.

Taking action not only builds personal momentum — it also unlocks new opportunities and routes that will ultimately lead to your intended destination, or perhaps even toward an option you hadn’t previously seen for yourself, she added.

Here are some actions you can take when setting short-term career goals:
 

Find Accountability

Accountability is key, according to Gail Matthews, a psychologist and adjunct professor at the Dominican University of California.

In Matthews’ research, based on a survey of 149 participants who set various goals, it was the participants who shared their action plans with friends and updated them with weekly progress reports who accomplished the most.

“The positive effect of accountability was supported,” Matthews wrote. “Those who sent weekly progress reports to their friend accomplished significantly more than those who had unwritten goals, wrote their goals, formulated action commitments or sent those action commitments to a friend.

 

Use the SMART Goals Template

Consider using a SMART goal format to set up your short-term goals. SMART goals are ones that are:

  • Specific
  • Measurable
  • Achievable
  • Relevant
  • Time-Based

 

Visualize Your Short-Term Career Goal Set-Up

Organizing and prioritizing a number of short-term goals all at once may seem challenging, but Vu uses a workflow visualization kanban tool to map out her weekly, monthly and yearly goals.

“It helps to visualize everything,” Vu said. “Prioritizing from easiest to hardest often helps with deciding what to tackle first, unless there are deadlines, then you can plan your tasks according to schedule.”

 

Set Career Goals Through Journaling 

Frequently recording your thoughts in a journal is one way to set career goals, said Amber Roberson, vice president of sales at 3D printing manufacturer Carbon.  

Every year, Roberson takes a moment to reflect on the past year’s events. She reads through her journal to understand what happened and uses that information to make sure she’s still on track with her short-term goals, which in turn will help her to the next level.

When journaling, note if you’re having fun while you’re chasing your goals. Two months after setting goals, people who enjoyed pursuing their goal were more apt to continue that pursuit, reports the Harvard Business Review

Overall, as you set short-term goals, remember that life is unpredictable, said Sarah Sikowitz, director of career education and coaching at Harvard Business School’s Career and Professional Development department.

“We often get asked by our students and alumni, ‘I want to be X in 25 years, what are the exact steps that I should take to get there?’ It’s impossible to reverse engineer your career,” Sikowitz said. “You can’t know where life will take you.”

 

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Short Term Goals Definition and Examples | Video: Doing Life Today

12 Examples of Short-Term Career Goals

Wondering where to start? Below, university career experts and executives, hiring managers and team leads from half a dozen tech companies offer advice for developing short-term career goals.
 

1. Determine What You Want Out of Your Career

“Your first goal might be just to figure out what it is that you want to do for your career. You should reflect on what you’ve done up until this point, what are your likes and dislikes and you should talk to other people who are in the roles or industries you are interested in.”

Iteeah Pounds, internship and co-op program and operations manager at the Georgia Institute of Technology

 

2. Expand Your Professional Network

“Networking builds up your connections, which in turn may yield a resource for potential mentors, and people who you can job shadow or do informational interviews with to explore career options, as well as to bounce ideas off of to formulate short term goals. Joining professional trade groups can help you expand your network, as well as committing to meeting six new people within the next six months.”

Pounds

 

3. Find a Mentor

“Identify two or three people who exhibit exactly the thing that your long-term goal represents who could be your mentor. When you talk to that person, it’s really important to ask them for very tactical tips. You can say ‘I’m specifically interested in your expertise or skill in X,Y or Z. Can you tell me when you were starting out on this journey, what were a couple of things that you did early on that helped you get where you are today?’ Make your questions really tactical and specific so the person can give you the right tips.”

Yasmin Kothari, product lead at Asana

 

4. Take a Step Toward Improving Writing and Speaking

“When I was an engineer, I realized that delivering my work product on time wasn’t enough to get to the next level. I saw that having a good command of the written and spoken word was something I had to practice and master. English is not my first or second language and in college, when you major in a STEM field, practicing communication skills wasn’t what got you the ‘A.’ But, once you are working with business partners and peers, having awesome communication skills differentiates you from others. In the beginning, I watched a lot of TED talks and tutorials on YouTube. I created a framework for how good storytellers and online instructors communicated, which I use today and share with others.”

Aliza Carpio, technical evangelist director at Autodesk

 

5. Take on an Extra Project

“I worked at a mobile game startup where I quickly moved up from intern to marketing manager. During my three years at this startup, I took on as many responsibilities as I could manage and made the effort to become proficient until I could build my professional capacity. Establishing my ability to accomplish basic tasks inspired confidence in others to provide more opportunities for me to engage meaningfully in the work. The short-term goals were learning experiences that built my capacity and established my credibility among peers which led to greater opportunities.”

An Vu, chief marketing officer of Zynga’s Small Giant Games

 

6. Gain Cross-Functional Experience

“During the first five years of my career, I had great responsibilities as an individual contributor but no leadership experience. So as a way to gain that, I took on small projects that had touchpoints cross-functionally. You start to build a coalition of people around you who will support your ideas and promote them and also lend their skills and time to advance the goals that you have laid out.”

— Julie Lemieux, vice president of product experience at Sigma

 

7. Learn a New Concept

“Shifting from engineering to product was a big deal because I didn’t have the traditional business or finance background or competency like so many other product managers. I had to invest time and effort in learning about business models, financial mechanics and metrics, stakeholder management and research methodologies. I took online business courses and went to a local community college to learn basic finance. I also immersed myself in design thinking practice, which allowed me to become a design thinking coach for startups and use this practice in my daily work.”

Carpio

 

8. Improve Industry Knowledge

“When I started at Asana, I knew that I really wanted to become an expert in the productivity tools space and an expert in the problems our enterprise users face. My teams are ultimately responsible for a lot of the retention and engagement of enterprise users. So, in the first few months, I made a short-term career goal to listen to at least one customer call in this space per week and at least one enterprise customer call per week. I also made it a goal to read through 10 random Net Promoter Score survey responses a week. Making that measurable and doable goal very early on was really helpful for me to understand the user and be very attuned to their needs and hear it from their own mouths. These short-term goals help my longer-term goal to become one of the world’s foremost experts and thinkers on how we can solve productivity problems for enterprise clients, organizations and teams.”

Kothari

  

9. Update Resume and LinkedIn Profile

“Make sure your resume and LinkedIn profile are updated and ready to go. This way, when you want to connect with people who are in an area that you want to further explore they will want to connect with you. They can see that you know what you’re looking for.”

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10. Transition to a New Industry Or Field 

“I was in G.E. Healthcare and I wanted to make the transition to G.E. Aviation. I was really interested in some of the technologies that were coming out of aviation and was doing a lot of interesting things in digital aviation and 3D printing. I started networking with people in that particular business unit who were in my area of sales. Lo and behold, the networking that initially was self-serving actually ended up being very beneficial to my current business unit and we found all these amazing synergies that we weren’t exploring.

Amber Roberson, vice president of sales at Carbon

 

11. Get Promoted

“Getting a promotion is a very common short-term goal, where you say I want to be promoted into the role above me. If that’s your short-term goal, you need to figure out what you need to do to get promoted into that role, whether it’s through an annual performance review, your own volition, and set goals for yourself to achieve that promotion and record what you’re doing to service those goals you’ve set for yourself.”

Sarah Sikowitz, director of career education and coaching at Harvard Business School’s Career and Professional Development department

 

12. Find a New Job

“If your short-term career goal is to do a major jump in your role, more times than not it’s actually easier to leave a company and go somewhere else to do that. If you think about it, if you’re doing very well where you are working, sometimes you’re kind of typecast and thought of for a certain level. I was a director at one company and wanted to be a vice president of engineering. Sometimes it’s easier to sell yourself somewhere else. A recruiter contacted me on behalf of the CEO at Interleaf and I became a VP of development.”

Steph Bacon, senior director of portfolio strategy at Red Hat

How to set career goals for the year and achieve them

First, let’s define what a career goal is. Do you want to work in company X in position Y and receive N thousand? This is the career goal. It differs from a dream in more clear parameters and deadlines. In addition, one of the main attributes of a goal is the presence of a plan. It won’t be easy to do without it. A plan is like a roadmap, without which it is difficult to move.

Career goals are not necessarily related to a change in specialty or career advancement. For example, if you have a horizontal type of career, you can set yourself tasks such as training in special programs, increasing sales, participating in new projects.

Even if the job is completely satisfactory and you are not going to change it in the near future, you need to set career goals. At a minimum, this will allow you to maintain the proper professional level and remain a sought-after specialist and valuable employee. As a maximum, it will open the doors to a world of endless possibilities that you could not even imagine yesterday.

Arguments for having career goals:

  • they help keep you excited and enthusiastic at work;
  • give energy to achieve something more;
  • help you become a real master of your craft;
  • give a feeling of satisfaction with life and profession;
  • their achievement increases personal and professional self-esteem.

In addition, the systematic fulfillment of the set tasks develops self-discipline and the habit of getting things done.

What are career goals? For example:

  1. Improve your skills.
  2. Get a new profession.
  3. Change jobs.
  4. Take a leadership position.
  5. Start your own business.

Just be as specific as possible: not just “open your own business”, but, let’s say, “open a household appliance repair shop”. The more precise the goal is, the clearer your plan for achieving it will be.

By the way
If you want to change your profession, but don’t know what to choose, take our Career Guidance Online test.

Take the test

So, we found out what career goals are, determined why they are important, and looked at examples. Now let’s move on to the main stage – their setting. Here a simple three-step algorithm will come to the rescue.

Arm yourself with a notebook and pen and write down in a column all the goals, desires and intentions associated with work. At the first stage, you do not need to try to compose the correct wording or filter something, just fix everything that comes to mind. This task does not have to be done in one go. You can carry a notebook with you for two or three days and write down new items in it.

At the second stage, the list needs to be “thinned out” a little, filtering out the excess. To do this, looking at each of the goals in turn, ask yourself the question: “Do I really want this?” Because often the list includes external targets imposed by society or the environment. If one or another item does not find an internal response from you, feel free to cross it out.

Remember: there are no good or bad goals. There are yours and not yours.

In the third step, go through each item and make it more specific if necessary. SMART technology will help you with this. If the goals remain vague or too broad, it is more difficult for us to plan the specific steps needed to achieve the result. If we express our intentions more clearly and accurately, then further actions become clear by themselves.

By the way
Our Career Vector service will help you formulate a goal and set the right direction.

A career goal, even a well-formulated one, does not guarantee success. For its successful implementation, you need a plan.

Take a list of goals and divide them into long term and short term. Then, for each, determine the time interval, starting with the nearest. At the final stage, break all goals into simple, understandable actions and add them to your daily schedule.

Example

You want to learn copywriting and become certified. What specific actions might look like:

  • find a suitable course;
  • sign up for training;
  • make a payment;
  • unlearn the first week of the course;
  • complete the second (third, fourth, etc.) week of training;
  • pass the final test;
  • get a certificate.

Such detail gives clarity of the process and understanding of each next step.

It is not big plans that work, but small actions. If you do not understand the specific next steps or they are too complex, ambitious, large-scale, you will forget about your career plan by the end of February.

Important
On the one hand, a career plan is the actions that will take you from one point to another. On the other hand, life is unpredictable and this is more of a guide than a rigid list of milestones with deadlines. Therefore, when following a given route, do not forget to look around: you may find a shorter path or even want to change direction to a more promising one.

When driving on the highway, we follow the rules of the road. This allows you to make your trip safer. Also, when moving towards a career goal, it is important to follow certain rules.

1. Take a time out

When we set a goal, we feel like creators of life: energy overflows, eyes burn. By scheduling 20 daily tasks, we get a chance to burn out quickly. Therefore, even if you have Napoleonic plans, let them rest a little. Objectively evaluate your strengths, and systematically approach the implementation of your plan.

2. Realistically evaluate your abilities

Imagine that you have never been involved in athletics and suddenly decided to run a marathon. What will happen to you after a couple of kilometers? Most likely, you will go the distance. The same thing happens in a career (and in any area of ​​life) when we set the bar too high for ourselves. As a result, without achieving the desired result, we lose motivation and quit. Big and global goals are good in the long run. For the short term, it is better to set yourself smaller and simpler tasks.

Example
It’s easy to imagine being the CEO in two years. And it is much more difficult to do something to achieve this goal today. For example, listen to a training webinar or read a couple of professional articles.

3. Be patient

If you don’t get immediate results, sometimes you want to quit. In this case, remember: the larger your goal, the more time and self-discipline it will require.

4. Track progress

Every day write down in a notebook the steps you have taken towards your goal. Also, do not forget to record big and small victories and successes. Reread your notes at the end of each week. Such “documentation” of one’s own actions makes it possible to track the dynamics and, if necessary, adjust the plan.

5. Keep a balance

Favorite work and the desire to reach new heights in it is wonderful. But life should not consist of only one job. Family, friends, hobbies, health, leisure are also important. Therefore, when storming new career heights, do not forget about other areas. After all, what’s the point if, having reached the top, you find yourself there alone, sick and completely “burned out”?

You come up with a beautiful career goal, hang the printed action plan in a prominent place, and every day you promise yourself to start tomorrow. But… you don’t do anything.

This is a common story. In situations where it is impossible to foresee the success or failure of a new undertaking in advance, we unconsciously begin to sabotage actions. Thus, our psyche protects us from negative emotions in case of a potential failure. How to act in such a situation?

Be prepared for any outcome
It is impossible to predict the success or failure of a business in advance. You take some action, which means that in any case you grow, regardless of the result.

Set deadlines
Deadlines motivate. Make sure you set realistic time frames and change them if necessary. This will help you avoid endless procrastination.

Reward Yourself
Reward yourself every time you succeed in achieving your goals. For example, take a day off to do something you love, treat yourself to a delicious dinner or buy something new.

So, after spending several months (or maybe even years), you have achieved the desired result. Congratulations on this wonderful event! Don’t forget to praise yourself and celebrate, and then… set yourself new challenges. We are all in constant development, therefore, having reached one peak, take a break and start moving to the next one.

But even if the plan doesn’t work and your career goal isn’t 100% achieved, don’t get discouraged: things often go wrong in life. The most important thing is that you act, which means that sooner or later you will achieve your goal.

The opinion of the authors and experts may not coincide with the position of the editors hh.ru

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14 short-term goals to improve your career today • BUOM

February 22, 2021

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Short-term work goals can improve your career prospects by helping you set goals for a specific period of time. Regardless of your line of work and rank in the organization, setting realistic milestones for the foreseeable future will likely make you more productive. Setting short-term goals at work is an important step, but achieving them requires determination and dedication. In this article, we will discuss several types of short-term goals for work and why they are important for career development.

Why are short-term goals for work important?

Short-term professional goals are usually small goals that you set for yourself with the ultimate goal of achieving your long-term career goals. In addition to breaking down a complex goal into smaller ones and making it more achievable, short-term goals also motivate you on your path to long-term success. Creating small milestones means you are always focused on your next goal.

Types of short-term goals for work

There are various types of short-term work goals that can directly or indirectly improve your career prospects. They can be:

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  • Academic short-term goals

  • Short-term health goals

  • Short term career goals

    These goals will have a direct positive impact on your professional life and usually consist of small changes and adjustments to help you be more productive. They can be as simple as making sure you arrive 10 minutes early each day or keeping your desk clean and tidy. Other immediate short-term goals for the job could be the ability to communicate better with colleagues and clients, network more, or gain additional professional specialization.

    Short-term financial goals

    While not necessarily related to work goals, setting short-term financial goals will likely improve your long-term professional prospects by giving you more control over your income. Goals such as reducing or eliminating credit card debt, placing a certain percentage of your monthly income in a savings account, tracking your budget more effectively, or learning to invest can lead to long-term gains.

    Academic short-term goals

    Improving your education can lead to many personal and professional improvements. From a career perspective, academic achievement can open up new opportunities to help you reach your long-term goals at work. Deciding to take a work-related course and set mini milestones to help you track your progress will likely improve your professional long-term prospects.

    Short-term health goals

    Being healthy and energetic is usually a very important factor in professional success. Therefore, improving overall health and fitness can be an important goal in both personal and professional life. Simply going to the gym regularly, getting more sleep, or reducing junk food in your diet can give you the energy and confidence you need to reach your long-term goals.

    14 examples of short-term goals for work

    Here are some examples of some of the most important professional short-term goals:

    1. Get a new certificate or degree.

    2. Improve performance.

    3. Improve your networking and communication skills.

    4. Change jobs.

    5. Improve your work-life balance.

    6. Spend less time during work hours.

    7. Make a website for yourself.

    8. Communicate more with colleagues.

    9. Get to work early.

    10. Organize your workplace.

    11. Read more.

    12. Meet the new technology.

    13. Start a personal project.

    14. Watch your colleagues.

    1. Get a New Certificate or Degree

    Almost all professional fields are gradually changing with new technologies and new ways of doing business. This is why continuous learning is an important short-term goal. A graduate degree or any other relevant education will likely improve your career prospects and give you an edge over your competitors.

    2. Improve your performance

    The goal of improving your performance, such as the quality, quantity, and efficiency of your work, is probably the simplest professional short-term goal because it directly helps you to excel at what you do. Your performance metrics depend on your profession and the organization hiring you, but are usually related to improving customer satisfaction, completing all projects on time, and reducing company costs. By working on these metrics every day, you will be in a good position to achieve a long-term goal such as a promotion.

    3. Improve your networking and communication skills

    Learning how to connect with and reach out to the right people in your field can potentially help you reach your long-term career goals. The network can provide you with valuable industry contacts that can open up new opportunities. To take full advantage of networking opportunities, you will have to improve your communication skills, which will help you communicate successfully with the right people. In addition to improving your networking efficiency, improving your communication skills will likely help you coordinate better with colleagues and be more of a team player.

    4. Change jobs

    Finding a new job can also be considered a short-term professional goal. There are times when a certain job or organization cannot help you further your career. Changing jobs will keep you motivated and willing to improve, which will ultimately benefit your career prospects.

    5. Improve your work-life balance

    Finding the right balance between working too much and too little is important to your quality of life, and if done right, it will have a positive impact on your health, well-being and work productivity. Thus, planning to find a work-life balance that will give you enough time to achieve your professional goals without compromising your health and mental well-being is an important short-term work goal.

    6. Spend less time during work hours

    The time you spend and the results you get during work time can add up over time and set you on the path to achieving your long-term goals. Planning to reduce time-consuming habits at work, such as browsing the Internet or chatting with friends and family, will help you become more productive and achieve more in your time at work.

    7. Make yourself a website

    Creating a personal website is a quick and effective way to showcase your work experience and skills. This can be useful in many situations, such as when you’re applying for a new position or want to get more recognition at work.

    8. Connect more with colleagues

    Most professional positions and roles are part of a larger team effort, so good communication and interaction with colleagues is likely to increase your chances of success in your career. Try to communicate and interact with them whenever possible, such as during lunch breaks or at corporate events.

    9. Get to work early

    Showing up to work or work-related events just 15 minutes early each day is a short-term goal that has the potential to improve your long-term career prospects. When there are fewer people around, it is not only easier to focus and organize your day, but also to create an image of a hardworking and purposeful person.

    10. Organize your workspace

    Keeping your desk or any other workplace clean and tidy can greatly increase your productivity and morale. It will also show others that you are a highly organized person.

    11. Learn more

    Regardless of the industry you are in and the role you are in, things are likely to get better all the time.