What Are SMART Goals and How to Write Them

Goal setting is challenging for most people. Plus, it’s easy to lose motivation after failing once or twice. Usually, goals fail because they are too vague and not sufficiently planned.

Using a goal-setting method can decrease the chances of continually experiencing failure. For example, crafting goals according to the SMART method increases the likelihood of personal and professional goals succeeding.

If you’re going to make a real impact for yourself, your team and your company as a whole, this outline is for you on how to write SMART goals so that you can start increasing your performance at work.

The SMART goals acronym stands for:

Ask yourself these questions when writing SMART goals, and you will be well on your way to reaching your objective:

This pertains to the language being used in your goal. Describe the goal in as much detail as possible. So long as all of the information is relevant to the goal, there can never be too much detail. Don’t forget to include answers to all of the questions below:

Goals have to be measurable so that you can easily track their progress. If not, there will be no definite way of determining whether you are succeeding or not. Measuring progress might be difficult to face at times, especially when you are not where you want to be, but it’s important that you stay honest with yourself if you want to make real progress. The questions below will help you come up with a measurable goal:

Goals must be realistic for yourself or your team. It’s important to reach high, but setting goals that are not feasible defeats the purpose of setting goals at all since they will no longer hold any real value as a helpful tool. Ask yourself the following questions to reveal if your goal is in fact attainable:

The goal you decide on should relate to your other work. If it doesn’t, it is not a goal that should be your responsibility for completing. For example, if you’re a software developer, you should not be expected to set a goal for making sales. Likewise, if you are a salesperson, you should not be expected to write code. These questions can help you decide if the goal is relevant to your company’s objective:

Goals need to have a timeframe and a deadline to get carried out effectively. A goal will never get prioritized without a deadline. As a result, that goal will likely never be seen through to completion. A healthy dose of pressure is necessary for you and your teammates to get your tasks done. The following questions will help you come up with an appropriate deadline:

SMART goals are the simplest way for your team to achieve goals. While the method is by no means foolproof, it is preferable to setting empty goals without direction, timeframe or measurables. Plus, SMART is a simple acronym that is easy to remember and can be applied to other areas of your life outside of the workplace. Now that you are familiar with SMART goals and you know which questions to ask to start writing them, you can move forward with your team to put the above information into practice.

You can apply this knowledge to measure the progress of your SMART goal. All team members can benefit from using actiTIME to track all their goal-related tasks.

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