How to use Smart Goals

Many people and organizations realized that success is impossible without a right and clear goal. Smart - a technique that allows you to quickly and specifically put the task or divide them into important and irrelevant. The name of the system is an abbreviation.

Smart: objectives should be clear (Specific)

Write a list of goals. Each paragraph should be clear and indicate a specific result. In case there are words "before", "more", "less", etc., it is necessary to specify - how much exactly. In the form of measurement, you can use money, time, interest, etc.

If it turns out that any actions do not lead to a result, this item should be discarded.

Smart: goals must be justified (Assignable)

Evaluate the significance of each item for your activities. Justify each goal and prioritize. To do this, you can use different criteria. For example, determine the importance of each item for your activity on a ten-point scale. Priority is given to goals that are vital for the organization or individual. Each position should not be accidental, but justified and proven. Not very significant items are discarded at this stage.

Smart: goals must be realistic

Predict and assess the degree of attainability of each item. To do this, you can apply various parameters. For example, the attainability coefficients. You can also use a 10-point scale. Each goal must, in principle, be achievable, i. E. Realistic. You must have the resources (internal and external) necessary to implement the plan or to be able to obtain these resources.

This does not mean that the goal can not be ambitious. If any item seems unrealistic to you, break it down into several achievable subitems. And the goal should not contradict your other priorities.

Goals that require significant resource costs and have a high level of possible risk should be weed out at this stage.

Smart: targets must be measurable (Measurable)

For each item, select from three to five criteria according to which you will measure and control your achievements. It is important that the criteria for evaluating the intermediate results are sufficiently convenient. Usually, financial indicators are used for this. They are quite specific and are easiest to evaluate.

If the goal is difficult or impossible to control, it should be abandoned at this stage.

Smart: goals must be defined in time (Time related)

Usually at the time of moving to this point there are about five to seven most significant and suitable goals. In fact, at this stage, there is a shift from long-term strategic planning to operational short-term planning.

For each item, exact deadlines should be provided, as well as specific dates for monitoring the achievement of milestones.

Make a detailed plan, in which you write down all the stages of the implementation of the plan.

Setting goals Smart

Usually, the system is used for an excessive number of purposes. At each stage, insufficiently relevant and important items are discarded, which received low scores. This is a great way to control the existing goals and to set new ones.