Your Learning Plan #
Having overly ambitious goals is a classic pitfall in the Go community. It’s not uncommon to meet 6 or 7 kyu players whose goal is to become 1 dan. In absolute terms, having a very ambitious long-term goal isn’t necessarily a bad idea, but to avoid discouragement, you need to break it down into smaller, quickly achievable objectives.
Define your Objectives #
Behind the somewhat pompous name SMART lies a method that has existed since the 1980s and is widely recognized and approved. Several variations exist; here is the one chosen for this guide (with the original terms in English):
- Specific: define precise and framed objectives.
- Measurable: you should be able to quantify your objectives.
- Achievable: the objectives should not be too difficult to reach.
- Relevant: the objectives are consistent with what you are trying to improve.
- Time-bound: there is a deadline for each objective.
By preparing with this method, you will have precise, realistic, and relevant objectives, whose results you can measure over time. This might be a bit too abstract for now, so here are some examples:
| Specific | Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|---|
| Do problems from Cho Chikun’s Life & Death encyclopedia | Do 100 problems with a success rate of 80% or more | Every Friday for a month |
| Learn a set of 10 specific variations of the 3-3 invasion | Be able to replay at least 7 out of 10 variations from memory | Before June 5th |
| Solve medium-level problems under time pressure | Find the solution in less than 45 seconds for at least 14 out of 20 problems | Twice a week for a month |
| Play slow games on my favorite Go server | At least 20 games | During the next 3 months |
| Complete my joseki repertoire | Add 10 josekis that I know | Thursday evening at 8 pm |
| Play serious league or tournament games | Play at least 2 games | This month |
| Analyze serious games with my teacher | Analyze 2 games | Make an appointment with my teacher this week |
| Practice a joseki to learn it | Play this joseki at least 5 times in a game | Before the end of the month |
| Solve problems that are difficult for me | Manage to solve at least 2 out of 3 problems in less than 10 minutes each | Tomorrow |
| Read a book | Read at least 4 chapters per week | Finish in 20 days |
Some examples of SMART goals applied to Go training.
You might notice that there are no measures of the number of wins, nor specifics like “win X games”. This is intentional because this type of goal actually makes little sense: as long as you play against opponents of your level, you will have about 50% wins and 50% losses. Variations in these measures are too slight to be interesting and can even be discouraging. A lost game is at least as interesting for training as a won game, so focus on the number of games played rather than their results. Similarly, you might notice that there is no rank increase in the objectives, such as “Reach 7 kyu”. This type of goal can also be demoralizing if it doesn’t happen quickly enough, and it’s better to focus on smaller, realistic tasks which, once accumulated, will naturally lead to rank improvement.
SMARTER #
After a few days or weeks of trying to achieve your goals, you might notice some issues. Is it too difficult? Or, on the contrary, is the challenge missing? Will you have less time for Go for a few weeks? The SMARTER method complements the SMART approach by adding 2 criteria that allow for better management of objectives over time:
- Evaluate: look at where you are with your objectives.
- Readjust: modify the objectives.
It’s simply a matter of scheduling regular time to review your progress towards your goals and adjust them if necessary. This is more important than it might seem, as having unsatisfactory goals can lead to discouragement. So, remember to schedule this brief moment in your agenda every week or two to see where you are and make the necessary adjustments.
In Practice #
It’s now up to you to find objectives that suit you! The time you can dedicate to Go will be one of the determining factors for the number and difficulty of your objectives. In any case, it is preferable to start with modest objectives and gradually increase the difficulty rather than the other way around. Furthermore, failing to achieve an objective is not a disaster, far from it. However, it is interesting to understand why you didn’t manage to reach that goal. Was it too ambitious? Did you not have enough time? Or was motivation lacking? Answering these questions will help you adjust your learning plan.
If you are receptive to it, you can plan rewards for achieving certain objectives. The reward should be appropriate to the difficulty of the task. It’s entirely up to you to decide which rewards to choose; it could range from treating yourself to your favorite meal at a restaurant to buying yourself a magnificent new goban!