Rather than having broad, overwhelming, non-specific objectives on your list, try making all of your goals "SMART."

That stands for:

SMART goals
Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic Timely

An example:

Specific: Find and read journal articles for my dissertation

Measurable: Find and read at least three journal articles

Achieveable: I know I will have access to Findit@bham and a printer this afternoon, so I have the necessary materials to achieve this goal

Realistic: Reading and taking notes on three articles in an afternoon is challenging but realistic

Timely: I want to begin writing my dissertation at the end of next week, so doing the reading this week is appropriate and timely