You won’t meet many of your goals unless you assign a completion date to them.

For example, if you want to get your a professional certification, decide by what date you will earn it. This will help you create a reverse calendar that covers taking the final exam, creating any written materials you need to submit, studying for it, taking any in-person sessions, applying for certification and paying your fees (test fee, application fee, books or study guides, prep courses, airfares, hotels, etc.).

This means you will actually need several dates, or a career calendar.

If you want to get your professional certification, decide by what date you will earn it. This will help you create a reverse calendar that covers taking the final exam, creating any written materials you need to submit, studying for it, taking any in-person sessions, applying for certification, paying membership dues and paying your test fee.

Steve’s article on How to Create an Actionable Career Plan for Cafe Quill provides more information on how to do this.

Here’s an example of setting up a calendar to earn a certification:

• Join American XYZ Association – January 2, 2021 (two-week approval process)
• Register for certification program – January 17, 2021
• Purchase books – January 17, 2021
• Take module 1 certification webinar – April 3, 2021
• Attend Georgia Chapter, ABC Society annual meeting – April 28, 2021
• Take module 2 certification webinar – July 8, 2021
• Attend American XYZ Association annual conference – September 22, 2021
• Take module 3 certification webinar – October 12, 2021
• Take certification test – February 15 – 2022
• Complete XYZ certification – March 1, 2022