Coming up to a half year and it’s time to review my (personal) professional development plan. The professional development plan is a document just for me. Something ‘on paper’ that guides decision making and charts my progress.
I review my professional development plan every six months. And my professional development plan, particularly at this still early stage, span over two years. This will probably grow to three or four years for my next professional development plan.
The professional development plan is headed up with a purpose, timeframe (life) for the plan and a review schedule. Then, this is followed by three components:
- goals
- action plan – focus areas, projects and timeframes
- method for keeping track
For each component, here are some questions I asked myself and share here to prompt your thinking.
Goals
- Do I still want this?
- Am I on track? Why? Why not?
- What have I achieved so far?
- What’s holding me back?
Action plan and PD activities
- Am I doing enough?
- Am I doing too much?
- What can I let go of?
- What is absolutely critical to moving forward?
- Reflecting on my current circumstances and what I want to achieve, is my plan realistic?
- Does this plan match my current needs?
- Where have I lost focus?
- Has anything I planned slipped off the radar lately? If so, is it still worth pursuing?
Keeping track
- Are my current methods and tools working?
- What do I need to do to make my tools more useful, efficient and/or convenient for tracking PD?
Next steps
Make a note of:
- What can I start doing this week?
- What do I need to look into or clarify?
Other things I do when I review my professional development plan:
- create a duplicate document to work with so you can track your reviews (and versions).
- input notes – thoughts, reflections, actions, sort of like giving yourself an appraisal, to summarise any changes and/or progress.
- use a different colour for mark ups or use ‘track changes’.
This thinking process and making adjustments took me about an hour, tops.
I’ve written about professional development over the years here at Flight Path. I made a presentation at TAFE Brisbane Library a couple of years ago and I’ve also compiled some blog posts for the new information professionals.
If you’re interested in a template or more details about my method for professional development planning, please let me know in the comments. 🙂
What method do you have to keep track of your professional development plans?
