Effective planning

Planning and organising are important skills. Effective planning means being able to use time, energy and resources to help you achieve your goals.

Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the US, believed that the better the planning, the less likelihood of failure to achieve the intended outcome.

If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.

— Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the US

Aims and objectives

Setting aims and objectives are essential in the planning and organising process.

Aims

An aim is the intended outcome that you hope to achieve. It is a general statement concerning the overall goals, ends or .

Objectives

Objectives are the separate or individual stages that must be achieved to reach these goals. Objectives are precise as they need to be practical, do-able and achievable. There is usually more than one objective.

Bar chart labelled as Aim. A line follows the gradient of the bars with a figure walking up it. Below, a chart labelled Objective has a target above the tallest bar and a ladder leading to the target

Aims and objectives are usually written as an – this means they begin with ‘to’, eg:

to develop
to design
to create

Example

Aim - to volunteer in a local animal shelter and actively raise awareness and donations to help the shelter’s future .

Objective one - to research local animal shelters to find a placement
Objective two - to learn how to care for the animals
Objective three - to research and plan a fundraising event

Question

Look at the following examples and select the aim and the objectives:

to conduct weekly French lessons at lunchtime for year seven students
to discover which class is available for the lessons
to organise a meeting with the French teacher to discuss possible content for the lessons

Question

Look at the following examples and select the aim and the objectives:

to organise a meeting with the caretaker to discuss options
to identify how much money is available to do the work
to outline how we can improve the outside communal area
to collect information about the kinds of things students would like to see

Question

Look at the following examples and select the aim and the objectives:

to organise a meeting with my tutor to share ideas
to select a volunteering activity within my local area
to explore the volunteering options available online

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Planning and organisationEffective planning