SMART Goals

As discussed in some of my previous post, goal-setting can sometimes be a daunting task. Here’s a technique that I find helpful for setting goals. Always keep in mind that a good or clearly defined goal should be SMART.

SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound.

Specific. A specific goal has a greater chance of being accomplished than a general goal. Specific goals help us focus our efforts by clearly defining what we are going to do. For example, a general goal would be, “Maintain server uptime.” A specific goal would be, “Ensure that the mail server’s POP3 email service has 99.97% uptime per month.” It should generally be able to answer questions like: Who? What? Where? When? Which? Why?

Measurable. Here’s a helpful phrase to remember: “What you cannot measure, you cannot manage.” There should be a way to measure or determine, at any given time, if there has been any progress towards achieving the goal. On the email server POP3 service uptime example given above, you can measure its status by using a 3rd-party service monitoring and reporting tool or application.

Attainable. There should be a balance as to how achievable a certain goal has to be set. Good goals should not be impossible to attain, yet it should not be as easy as eating pie. Goals that are too far out of reach often causes a person to lose focus or commitment to achieving it. It should be able to stretch you slightly and it will need a real commitment from you. And being attainable means that the goal has yet to be achieved, and not one that has already been done. The POP3 service example given above can fit into this criteria.

Realistic. A realistic goal is means that you are sure that it can be accomplished. This means that you are willing and able to work towards achieving it. One way to determine if a goal is realistic is if you were able to accomplish something similar in the past.

Timely. Or Time-bound. A good goal generally has a timeframe in mind. Putting an endpoint gives you a clear target to work towards. A clear timeframe also encourages you to commit and not put it off at a later date.

Some people have different meanings for the SMART acronyms. R can mean Relevant, and T can mean Tangible. You can swap these meanings depending on the context of the goal that you want to achieve.