Re-Balancing with SMART Goals

By Heather Johnston

Work-life balance has taken on a whole new meaning now that we’ve shifted online. For many of us, the commute is 100x shorter and we sport blazers with pyjama pants as work attire.

Initially, teaching from home sounded great (and temporary). However, as months went by, I found myself in circle of bad habits resulting in increased stress, anxiety, and loss of productivity. Initially, I set out embracing the online yoga classes, making more time for family dinners, but now it’s 10pm and I’m still staring at eClass and my Outlook account just anticipating the next email.

Sound familiar?

Balancing work and life is challenging. So, I invite you to try a little exercise with me to regain your time and control over your habits.

SMART Goals

You’ve probably heard this before, but be honest with yourself, how often do you truly set goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely? Simply stating “I’m going to be physically active” or “I’m going to reduce screen-time” are pretty ambiguous goals. Outside of ensuring the SMART characteristics of a goal, it is also equally important to breakdown the small sub-components or tasks of your goal and identify potential barriers and solutions to those barriers.

Non-Negotiables (Good Habits)

I call my good habits “non-negotiables”. By definition, they are not up for discussion or modification. Running, uninterrupted family dinner, and reading for leisure are my top 3 non-negotiables. Friends and family are well aware of these activities and they know to either come on board or stay out of the way when they’re happening. What makes them non-negotiable is the fact that they occur regularly, are cued by a situation or time (morning after my coffee, dinner time, and 30 minutes before bed, respectively), and they occur without putting much thought into it. To form a habit, it is essential to have a cue, an action, and a reward (Lally & Gardner, 2013). Reflecting on your current work-life (un)balance I invite you to challenge yourself to this exercise by creating a new goal, a non-negotiable, or reducing a negative habit you’ve adopted along the way.

1. Define your SMART goal.
2. Create environmental triggers.
3. Connect habits to activities you already do.
4. Find and use small, consistent, intrinsic rewards. Don’t simply motivate yourself with rewards, use them to help you enjoy your habits.
5. Identify barriers and develop potential solutions. Write these on a list or sticky note so that when you find yourself losing track you can look back to what solutions or options you created for yourself. 

A practical example:

Goal: I will set aside one hour a day to check and respond to emails to improve my productivity while teaching and reduce before-bed email browsing.

Specific – In this goal we have answered who, what, when, where, and why.

Measurable – I could count the number of days I successfully perform this goal.

Attainable – I can accomplish this as students don’t need immediate email feedback. That’s what the synchronous lectures and office hours are for.

Relevant – My email checking at night isn’t going away anytime soon, and my time and health is a priority.

Timely – I can make this change immediately and sustain this over the course or the new semester.

Subtasks:

• Determine the time you will set aside only for emails. I’m a morning coffee girl, most days I will wake up set aside 1 hour, enjoy the caffeine, and then close the email app. 
• Ensure notifications are off and/or blocked from your devices.
• Inform your frequent emailers of your new habit. For example, you could direct emails pertaining to course content to a discussion board forum on eClass and outline this in an email policy on your syllabus. My email policy states: “I check my email once a day from 7-8 am. I will respond to your email within 48 hours of receipt non-inclusive of weekends or holidays. Emails sent less than 48hours before an exam time will not be responded to.” Similarly, it might be helpful to let colleagues know about your new process. The more people on board the easier it becomes to create the change and who knows maybe you will help them change too!
• Set up folders on your Outlook Account. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/working-with-message-folders-in-outlook-com-6bb0723a-f39f-4a8d-bb3f-fab5dcc2510a Jumping between multiple classes or administrative emails disrupts our information processing and cognitive demands reducing our productivity.

Barriers:

• I have other administrative or personal emails to send out at other points in the day. Solution: Use those folders in Outlook, inform your students that to get a response they must always email with the course code in the subject line, that way you can create folders that can find and collect these emails for you.
• I care about my students’ wellbeing, they are stressed and need answers ASAP. Solution: You care and that’s what makes you an excellent teacher. However, you have to remember that without your own health you can’t support those around you. Suggest the students engage in a similar goal setting exercise with writing emails. Also, remind yourself the emails will always be there and there should not be any consequences of not responding to an email immediately. 

Best of luck on the goal setting journey and if you’re finding it difficult to get started don’t hesitate to reach out @ haj18@yorku.ca keep in mind that I’ll be online during my morning coffee & email time 🙂

Reference: Lally, P., & Gardner, B. (2013). Promoting habit formation. Health psychology review, 7, S137-S158.

About the Author

Heather is a Tutor with the Teaching Commons and a PhD Candidate in the School of Kinesiology & Health Science here at York. With an interest in work and health research, she bridges the disciplines of biomechanics, ergonomics, and adult education. In addition, she has completed a certificate in health psychology and uses SMART goals and behaviour change principles in her teaching roles as a course instructor, teaching assistant, and community running instructor.