Set Some Personal Goals

Explanation

Design is a big field, and you’re aiming to learn the fundamentals in a short space of time. Depending on your schedule, you might even be trying to do it in spare hours here or there, between your other commitments.

At every turn in your learning, there will be opportunities to go down “rabbit holes” — hours spent Googling, researching fonts, digging designers on Instagram, you name it. It’s most likely to happen when you discover a topic that you’re particularly excited by (did we mention fonts?)

There’s nothing wrong with going down a rabbit hole every now and then, but if you allow it to happen too often, it can really knock your overall progress off track. That can be demotivating, because you lose the feeling of momentum that comes with completing assignments.

It’s therefore important to set your goals early in the course, and to keep those goals visible. We recommend opening the PDF linked below — print it out, fill it in, and stick it up next the progress tracker you downloaded earlier.

Instructions

Note down your reasons for learning design

 Set your timer: 20 minutes

Step away from the computer again. Grab your notepad, and complete two quick mind-maps — one with the reasons you’ve chosen to learn design, and another with the learning goals you have about design.

Set some personal goals

 Set your timer: 10 minutes

Next, review your mind-maps, and highlight a few goals that are particularly important to you. Then, download and print this goal-setting template  . Fill it out, and display it somewhere prominent!

In conclusion...

The purpose of setting these goals is so that you a clear reminder of the big picture when things get difficult — or when you’re tempted to disappear down another rabbit hole.

You might find that your goals shift as you move through the course. This can be a great sign, because it means that you’re learning, and developing clearer, more sophisticated goals.

So feel free to repeat this assignment any time, and fill out a new template with your updated goals.

In the next assignment, let’s talk about how to start building your own library of design resources!

Assignment version 1.0
Last updated 7 June 2021