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Student Insights

6 simple steps to achieving your goals

Author: ICAEW Insights

Published: 07 Jan 2025

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Goals can quickly become daunting and stressful. By following our steps, you can ensure you’re setting manageable and realistic goals on your way to ACA success.

1. Prioritise your goals

The first step to meeting your goals is to identify the ones that matter most to you. Ask yourself why you want to achieve a particular goal, and how it will feel when you do. This will help with identifying the two or three goals that are most important. Setting lots of goals can soon begin to feel overwhelming, so stick to the ones that make you feel most positive. 

2. Make your goals SMART

The next step to goal-setting is creating an action plan. The ‘SMART’ mnemonic is a great way to keep you on track.

  • Specific: Make sure your goals are clear and well-defined.
  • Measurable: Passing a particular exam is specific, but how are you going to achieve it? Think about the commitment required for study and revision.
  • Attainable: Even though goals should be challenging, they should still be realistic.
  • Relevant: Your goals should be aligned to the overall direction you want your career or life to take.
  • Time-bound: Adding deadlines to your goals will create a sense of purpose and help with measurability.

For instance, if your original goal was to pass the Case Study exam, your SMART goal might be: ‘to pass the July exam sitting, I will study for at least two hours for five days a week from when the advance information is released.’ Then, you can begin adding the study sessions into your diary and keeping yourself accountable. You can treat each session like a smaller goal along the way, too. 

3. Make better use of your time

We’ve only got 24 hours in the day - so think about how you can make those hours work harder. Whether it’s tried-and-tested methods like timeboxing or the Pomodoro Technique, or simply locking your phone away for a given time, try experimenting with different ways to get your tasks completed without distraction. Don’t forget to make the most of your downtime, too. Physical activity can give the body and brain a much-needed break when spending many hours at a desk. And getting a proper night’s sleep is scientifically proven to improve your wellbeing.

Read our top 10 productivity hacks.

4. Celebrate success…

As well as keeping an eye on your goals, make sure to celebrate the small wins. Maybe you had a particularly productive study session or applied your new knowledge successfully at work. The small things will help keep you motivated while working towards something bigger. You might find that scheduling rewards across the year will keep you motivated. Having something to look forward to - whether it’s a big holiday or a catch-up with friends - is better than a looming deadline. 

5. And reframe failure as a learning experience 

If you do fail to meet a goal, or any step along the way, it’s how you approach the experience that determines whether it is ultimately a positive or negative one. Take some time to reflect, then pick yourself up and move on. Be careful how you talk to yourself about failure and the inner language you use – too often we’re much more critical of ourselves than we would be of a friend in the same situation. Finally, make sure to adjust your SMART goal in light of what you’ve learned - for example, maybe you found study sessions with friends to be more productive than those alone with a textbook.

Listen to the ICAEW Student Insights podcast Bouncing back from exam failure for top tips from students and recently qualified accountants.

6. Don’t compare yourself to others

Finally, recognise that everyone has their own path to achieving their goals. We’re surrounded by stories of other people’s success, especially on social media, which inevitably leads us to compare ourselves unfavourably. This is your journey, so resist the temptation to see how well other people are doing, and stay focused on the steps laid out in your SMART plan.

Support is available for ACA students from caba. Visit caba.org.uk for guidance on managing your physical and mental health, as well as resources on financial health and career advice.

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