SMART Step-by-step plan

SMART

Competence

Supporting questions

Tips for developing

Specific

Communicating in writing

What would you like to achieve concretely with written communication?

What result do you want to achieve?

What do you want to achieve with written communication?

Pay attention to your sentence structures and avoid subordinate clauses.

Use examples in a text to clarify something.

Provide a clear structure (for example: introduction, elaboration and conclusion).

Read through the texts of other students. What do you think are good and less good texts and why?

Ask for feedback on the writing style in your study assignment.

Measurable

Taking initiative

How many times would you have to master the competency in the above way before you have reached your goal?

How can you measure taking initiative ?

Find out what prevents you from taking initiatives and what would encourage you to take more initiatives.

Keep track of the initiatives you have taken each week. Try to increase this 'score'.

Set concrete goals that are sufficiently challenging and achievable.

Don't wait, but look for opportunities and possibilities yourself.

Contribute credit to workgroups or study groups.

Acceptable

Accuracy

Is working accurately in this way challenging enough for you?

Do you think this goal can be achieved?

Make a list of everything you need to do for a study assignment and finish it one by one.

Focus on one task at a time and finish this task before starting a new one.

Keep track of your calendar and schedules.

Clean up study material so that you can always find it quickly.

Check your own work for errors. Plan time for this.

Result-oriented

Reflecting

In what way is reflection important for your study success?

How can reflecting help you with your study assignments?

Think about which qualities you would like to develop further for your studies and how you could do that.

Describe a situation during the study that you would handle differently now.

Regularly ask others for feedback on your contribution to study assignments.

If someone gives you feedback, show appreciation for the person giving the feedback and ask for concrete examples.

Be realistic in how you see yourself. Everyone has good and less good sides.

Time oriented

Planning and organizing

Within what period do you want to have achieved the goals about planning and organizing ?

How do you want to check how the progress is in the meantime?

Write down deadlines and indicate in a timetable who in the study group will perform which task.

In the meantime, check with your group members whether the progress of the study assignment is in line with the planning.

At the beginning of the day, go through what you want to do. List all activities and set priorities.

Cross off an activity (in your schedule) as soon as you have done it. Put what hasn't been done on the list for the next day.

Schedule set times to check your email. Also note the activities that have already been determined: lectures, tutorials, exam periods.

Keep room in your schedule for unexpected things.