SMART Goals Update

by smallbizbee · 0 comments

Last week I wrote about the importance of having SMART goals, and used this blog as an example of how a SMART Goal could be set.

Here was my goal:

I will post at least once a day this week, and increase my RSS feeds 10% by Sunday September 14, 2008. This will be accomplished by doing nightly research for post topics, writing at least 1 hour each day, and promoting the blog on blog community sites such as MyBlogLog.com. Also I will be adding a RSS sign up button to the bottom of each post I make encouraging people to sign up. This will help drive traffic to my site and make sponsorships I am offering more valuable, and get more visibility into my consulting services.

Specific: I am spelling out what I want to achieve, when I want to achieve it, and why.
Measureable: There are clear metrics. One post per day, and 10% increase in RSS Readers
Attainable: Writing one post a day is certainly attainable. However I do have a busy weekend planned, so I will need to make sure I have content for Sat/Sun. The 10% gain in RSS is a stretch, but I believe it’s attainable.
Realistic: I have set as a goal is out of my skill set or so over the top I have no chance at success
Timely or Time Sensitive: I have a deadline of September 13, 2008

Outcome:

Unfortunately I have to say that I failed this goal. I was unable to get a post together for Saturday and Sunday of this week due to other commitments. I knew I had a busy week, and the stretch goal was to post every day including the weekend. I was hoping I could write some content to have queued up for the weekend, and when that didn’t happen I knew I was in trouble!

Funny enough though I was able to increase my RSS readership by nearly 15% which exceeded my goal on that objective.

Next Steps:

I am going to set the same goal for myself in this coming week. I believe I can hit all the metrics, and meet my SMART goals. One nice thing about having goals is that you are usually better off for trying to meet them and failing than never setting a goal at all. This is evidenced with this blog increasing RSS readership 15% even though I didn’t meet my posting goal…without a goal I am not sure I would have seen that increase.

I’ll keep you posted!

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