SMART Goals

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When you set a goal, you’re motivated to kick down all barriers and have your eye on the prize. Then, life happens. The goal loses its charm. Your previous zeal is like a soda without the fizz.

The good news: it happens to most of us. Everyone’s ghosted a fair share of goals when the inspiration dried up.

The even better news: SMART goals might be the solution to staying on track and actually accomplishing your goals. It’s no magic pill, but it works for a lot of people and definitely is a nudge in the right direction.

SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. It’s a method for converting vague objectives into actionable habits.

The SMART goals method might be the perfect match if you…

• Love cheeky productivity acronyms

• Create well-made plans that often fall off track

• Need an easy way to stay on top of your goals

• Get overwhelmed about how you’ll finish big projects

• Struggle with identifying whether you’ve made progress toward your objectives

• Lose your motivation for working toward a goal after the fresh start effect wears off

In this guide, you’ll learn what SMART goals are and how to implement them in your life.

The anatomy of a SMART goal

Over the years, the SMART acronym has seen some shifts. Some articles say “A” stands for “Actionable” while “R” stands for “Realistic.”

The crux of the concept remains the same regardless of which acronym you think is correct: SMART goals help you transform nebulous, fancy-sounding goals into practical, measurable tasks.

Let’s break down the SMART acronym in more detail.

1. Specific

“Specific” means turning an ambiguous, far-off objective into something more concrete. To make your goals more specific, you need to answer the following questions:

• What exactly needs to be done?

• How will this goal be accomplished?

• Who will achieve this? (Relevant if you’re working in a team)

How does specificity help in goal setting? Nailing down the specifics help you in:

• Reflecting on precisely what you want

• Creating an action plan

• Getting more focused

Trying to accomplish a goal without making it as specific as possible is like driving with no destination in mind. You might enjoy the ride, but ultimately you’ll end up nowhere.

2: Measurable

“Measurable” helps you quantify your goals so you understand what success looks like. By assigning tangible metric(s), you define what counts as victory. To make your goals more measurable, ask yourself the following questions:

• How will I know whether I’ve accomplished this goal?

• What benchmarks can I track to ensure I’m achieving my objectives?

• Are there any milestones I can mark to ensure I’m progressing toward my desired result?

The way to “measure” your progress can be anything — a percentage change, a number you want to reach, or even a habit chain you don’t want to break. In the corporate world, objectives and key results (OKRs) are often the way to make goals more measurable.

How does quantifying your goals help you in achieving them? Measurable targets are effective because they:

• Help you track your progress

• Give you more clarity on what success looks like

• Keep you motivated because you can see the finish line

How would you know whether or not you’ve achieved your goal if you have no tangible measure of success?

3: Achievable

“Achievable” is the stage of SMART goal setting where you introduce a dose of reality. We all have unrealistic optimism when setting goals. But it’s a kick in the teeth when we can’t meet our own wild standards.

SMART goals help eradicate that disappointment altogether by embedding a humbling step to tone down your goals to what’s truly attainable.

To make your goals more achievable, ask yourself:

• Can I and my team realistically accomplish this within the timelines I’ve set?

• Do I have the necessary skills and experience to achieve this right now?

• Are the goals I’m setting ambitious but realistic?

Putting a modesty test toward your goals can be really helpful in:

• Ensuring you don’t burn yourself out

• Elevating anxiety around a big, scary project

• Removing productivity shame throughout your goal-accomplishment journey

Keeping your goals achievable isn’t about staying in your comfort zone. You definitely want to wriggle out of your cocoon — but at a sustainable pace.

4: Relevant

“Relevant” is the part where you zoom out and think about the big picture. Ask yourself:

• Why do I need to achieve this objective right now?

• How does accomplishing this goal contribute to my overall growth?

• Does this goal move my life in the direction I want in the long-term?

Goals don’t exist in a silo. That’s why ensuring your goals are relevant in the context of your life or company is essential to see improvement in the bottom line. Relevancy also aids in:

• Making sure you use the resources you’ve got effectively

• Witnessing a holisitic improvement that goes beyond your immediate goal

• Keeping you excited because you’re able to see your contributions toward the big picture

Relevance is the most significant factor in motivation. If you have a strong ‘why’ to achieve your goals, all your efforts will be in the right direction — which will also make it easier to maintain your enthusiasm.

5: Time-bound

So many goals you want to accomplish don’t come with a deadline. SMART goals urge you to set one. Even if it’s arbitrary, having a timeline will serve as an extra motivating factor. Ask yourself:

• When will I want to accomplish this goal?

• When will I start working toward this objective?

• What are the various deadlines for each stage in my progress?

Putting a deadline to your goals is more helpful than you think. It helps in:

• Creating a sense of urgency

• Tracking how fast or slow you’re progressing

• Assuring you actually work toward your goals (and don’t stretch into never-ending tasks)

But while you’re setting up your timelines, be wary of the planning fallacy. You likely need more time than you think to achieve your goal. Build in some buffer for the unexpected, too.

How to convert a vague goal into a SMART goal in 5 steps (using Todoist)

Knowing the theoretical significance and practice of SMART goals is the easy bit. What’s challenging is converting a vague goal into a SMART one. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to accomplish this:

Step 1: Write down your goal without the SMART criteria

The first step is figuring out what your goal is. Write the general idea without worrying about embedding the SMART acronym. Some examples:

• “I want to read more.”

• “I want to save money.”

• “I want to get more done.”

• “I want to earn a promotion.”

• “I want to generate more leads for my business.”

Step 2: Convert your performance goals into mastery goals

Performance goals are outcome-oriented, while mastery goals focus on acing one particular action, task, or habit.

Research has shown performance goals are less effective than mastery goals. Why? Performance goals involve judgment. Since they rely on external validation, it’s demotivating if you don’t reach your objective. On the other hand, mastery goals ensure your satisfaction is dependent on your own habits — you’re in full control. Your comparison is only with your past self and not reliant on any outside metrics.

If you’ve set a performance goal in step one, change it to a mastery goal.

Step 3: Use this template to make your goal SMART

The third step is making your goal SMART. The questions in the first section will help you do just that. Here’s a template you can use. Just start answering the questions to convert your vague goal to a SMART goal:

Once you’ve completed this step, you will have turned your mastery goal — however ambiguous — into a SMART goal.

But the job doesn’t end here.

Step 4: Break down your SMART goals into SMART habits

Sometimes, your SMART goals are simple — like reading 20 pages daily. To add these into Todoist, use recurring tasks. Just type your goal and the ideal frequency you want. The task will then show up in your Today view when you expect to complete it.

But if your goal requires more than one step, it needs either:

a) A project

b) A parent task with various sub-tasks

Why? Because goals often have an “out of sight, out of mind” problem. You need to break down goals into tasks and habits to ensure you work each day to accomplish them bit by bit.

How do you do this? Convert your SMART goal into one or multiple SMART habits. In Todoist, you can create a new project for every SMART goal you set and assign various tasks inside it.

And good news: There are various project templates within Todoist that are immensely helpful, so you never have to start from scratch. Whether you need to plan your meals or your complex projects, the template library has got you covered.

And remember that your tasks should also be written in the SMART format. Instead of writing “customer tickets,” write, “close all Zendesk customer tickets by Friday.”

Step 5: Reflect on your progress regularly

When you have a big SMART goal, it’s easy to prepare for it and then ghost it — sometimes, even if you break down the individual tasks on Todoist. The solution? Schedule regular check-ins with yourself to monitor your progress.

How often you should make time to reflect depends on how big your goal is and how much time you have for this activity. You can do a weekly review or a monthly check-in with your teammates. What matters is making time to evaluate how far you’ve come.

During these sessions, ask yourself:

• Is your progress as far along as you’d like? Since your goals are measurable, you can track exactly how far or near you are to achieving them.

• Do you need to make any changes to accomplish this goal in time? You may need to switch strategies, add new tasks, or shift the timeline.

• What can you do better to make the process easier and more enjoyable for everyone involved? If you’re working with teammates, ask for their feedback. Work on fixing recurring issues and tweak your goal or strategy based on the critique you receive.

Reflection is an easy task to miss when you have the eye of the tiger. But it’s a non-negotiable step for big projects to ensure you aren’t working toward a fruitless strategy.

How to create a SMART goal workflow in Todoist

SMART goal alternatives

If you’ve got this far and feel excited to try SMART goals, awesome! Use the above template and get started.

But if you feel less enthused about the strategy or wonder if your goals can be simplified enough for the SMART acronym, that’s okay, too. SMART goals aren’t for every project.

Here are some alternative methods you can explore: 5 Unconventional Goal Setting Methods to Try.