Smart Goals are a goal-setting framework coined by George T. Doran In 1981. George published a paper called, “There’s a SMART Way to Write Management’s Goals and Objectives.” In the document, he introduced SMART goals as a framework to help improve the chances of succeeding in accomplishing a goal.

A SMART goal should be:

1. Specific
2. Measurable
3. Attainable
4. Realistic
5. Time-related

SMART goals are more of a guideline than a framework. They are ‘what’ focused, rather than ‘how’ focused.

Setting SMART objectives ensures that your goals hit the key criteria to keep them moving forward and make progress.

1. Specific - Ensures that everyone understands what the goal is
2. Measurable - Everyone understands how progress towards this will be measured
3. Attainable - This goal relates to me and my specific circumstances
4. Realistic - This goal isn’t out of reach and can be achieved
5. Time-related - There’s a dedicated time frame so this goal isn’t open-ended

To set SMART goals, you need to ensure that any goal you draft hits the 5 criteria of a SMART goal. An example of the construction of a SMART goal is:

V1 Goal: Better typing

Make it Specific: Increase typing speed.

Now make it Measurable: Increase typing speed to 100 wpm

How do we make this Attainable: Increase my typing speed to 100 wpm

Hmm.. now actually Realistic: Increase my typing speed from 50 to 75 wpm

And how long will we give this (time-based): Increase my typing speed from 50 to 75 wpm in 3 months