Quick Tips for Grad School: How to Craft a Backwards Plan

In the last post, I wrote about the what’s and why’s of planning backwards. The next logical question, of course is, “how?” This post will answer that question.

Walter, of course, has his hat on backwards to illustrate the fact that this post is about backwards planning.

Five Steps to Creating a Backwards Plan

Step one: Start with your goal and deadline. Make sure you have all the details of what the finished project should look like. The more concrete the goal, the more motivational it will be.

Step two: Think through the steps needed to reach the goal. Ask yourself: What do I need to complete to reach my goal?

Step three: Arrange the steps in backwards order, starting with the step closest in time to your goal. Make sure that everything necessary for completing each step is part of a previous step.

Step four: Put the steps on your calendar, with a mini-deadline for each one. Remember that the very fact of having a deadline can provide motivation to complete a task (Zhu, Bagchi, & Hock, 2019). Adding in more deadlines gives you both manageable chunks and interim goals.

Step five: Move forwards, always keeping the end goal in mind!

References

Zhu, M., Bagchi, R., and Hock, S.J. (2019). Mere deadline effect: Why more time might sabotage goal pursuit. Journal of Consumer Research 45(5): 1068–84. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucy030.

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