Setting personal goals for yourself is a very importantthing in order to progress further in life. Whether it be goals orientedtowards your career, family, or any personal matters. A key factor in reachingthese goals that you set for yourself is having a good ability to manage yourtime. Benjamin Franklin said “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail”(Wallen) To better prepare yourself and your ability to manage your time it canbe very helpful to break down your personal goals into long-term goals andshort-term goals.I have three of my own personal long-term goals that I wouldlike to achieve in the next five years.

These long-term goals are: (1) reachinghigher levels of education, (2) progressing to more advanced careeropportunities, and (3) being able to live comfortably and financially stablewhile also being able to travel. Breaking down each of my long-term goals intoindividual short-term goals can be an effective way to accomplish them. Benjamin Franklin alsosaid “an Investment in Knowledge Paysthe Best Interest” (Marcus) In order to accomplish my firstlong-term goal of enhancing my education I can complete the followingshort-term goals: (1a) complete my computer information technology degreerequirements and graduate, (1b) earn IT industry related certifications, and(1c) spend time getting hands-on experience with different areas of the ITindustry.

For my second goal of progressing to higher levels in my careerI’ve broken it down into the following short-term goals: (2a) complete mycomputer information technology degree and graduate which will progress myfirst long-term goal also, (2b) apply for my employer-provided  financial assistance benefits to help me sustainmy living expenses while enhancing my education, and (2c) also I will spendmore time studying and learning about areas in the IT industry that I have lessexperience & knowledge with.St. Augustine said “The world is a book and those who do nottravel read only a page” (Donovan) My third long-term goal of living comfortablywhile being able to afford to travel can be accomplished by completing thefollowing short-term goals: (3a) Eliminate any unnecessary expenses that areessentially just throwing money away in the long run, (3b) save money, asidefrom my primary savings, to put into travel expenses, and (3c) budget my day-to-dayexpenses & monthly bills into a bracket that is actually affordable for mylevel of income.A good way to start improving your time management is bylooking at how you spend each hour of your time on a daily basis and tocategorize each of those hours. In the morning I spend almost two hours wakingup, starting my day, and going to the gym. I spend another hour makingbreakfast, eating, and getting ready for work. I spend about an hour andfifteen minutes every day commuting to and from work on top of the 9 hours thatI spend at the workplace. Once I get home I spend the remaining two to threehours studying and doing homework.

The remaining seven to eight hours I spendsleeping. I would consider these hours as productive hours because there isn’tany unnecessary or wasted “fun” time here. For the other two days of the week Iusually spend about nine hours sleeping. I could cut out the extra hour ofsleep, as that hour could be considered “wasted” time. I spend the next threehours on physical fitness because I don’t have to leave for work, which givesme more time to execute a good targeted workout with some cardio.

The nexteight hours I spend running errands, doing meal prep for my meals for the week,car maintenance/cleaning, and doing laundry for the week. I would consider thistime to be productive time because I do everything efficiently and there isn’tany time that I could shave off here. Meal prep takes quite a bit of time, butI consider it to be productive as it helps me live a much healthier lifestyleas opposed to eating fast food type of meals and also helps me save a lot ofmoney. The next five hours I usually spend on relaxing, socializing, or playingvideo games.

This time is obviously categorized as personal enjoyment, whichcould be cut down to more study/research time. I like to spend this time enjoyingmyself as I’m usually doing things that I “require” myself to do during theother days.There are a few things that I could change during my week tomanage my time better and reach my goals faster. To help myself complete mygoal (2) and further my education I could cut down some of the “wasted” time Icould cut out the extra two hours of sleep that I spend on the weekends andspend that time studying. I could also cut out an hour of the time that’s spendon personal enjoyment and use that time to help complete my goal (3c) and helpmyself budget my expenses and see where I can save money. A third thing that Icould do to help myself which speed up the completion of my goal of (1b)earning IT certifications would be to cut out an extra hour of the “enjoyed”time and spend that time studying for the certification tests.