SMART Goals – Time Sensitive

This is part five in our five part series looking at setting SMART goals. If you’ve missed part one , two, three, or four, you may want to take a moment to read through them.

The final step in the SMART goal process seems easy enough on the surface, but it should not be dismissed as such. 

Deciding upon a time frame for each one of your SMART goals is not something to take lightly, and not all your goals will have the same time frames.  

Depending on how aggressive or passive you are in setting the time parameters for each goal could be the defining factor in whether you achieve your goal, and how much impact it has on you, your company, or organization.

SMART Goals: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic & Time Sensitive

Today’s Focus: Time Sensitive

The “T” in the SMART goal process is described as many things. Timely, time sensitive, time dependent, or time frame. What you’re asking yourself is “By when do I need to meet my objective to consider my goal achieved?”

Why Set A Time Frame?

Without a specific time frame by which to complete your goal it becomes much too easy to “get to it tomorrow”. If you don’t know exactly when something will need to get done, your goals will lack a sense of urgency, and I don’t think I need to tell you how that will end. Without a deadline procrastination is liable to rear it’s ugly head and keep you from achieving success.

How to Set a Time Frame

Some goals come prepackaged with natural time frames. Growing your sales, for example, lends itself well for a yearly time frame. Other goals are a little less straightforward.

 Take for example a goal of attending 5 networking events in 2009.  While you could put a yearly time frame on this, it still could lead to procrastination.

Goals such as this one work better if you give yourself deadlines to shoot for throughout the year. So your networking goal could have a time frame such as:

I will have attended 

• 1 networking event by Feb 28
• 2 by April 31
• 3 by July 31
• 4 by Oct 31
• 5 by Dec 31

Be Realistic

Setting a timeline for completion of your goal also needs to be realistic given the nature of your goal and your personal circumstances. 

Remember: Even the best and most attainable goals can be undermined by an unrealistic time frame!

You’ll want to set a time frame that keeps you moving down the path to successfully completing the goal, while giving you adequate time to achieve it . This is a balancing act much like making sure your goals are realistic and attainable. You’ll want to push yourself with an aggressive timeline, but not so much that you sabotage any chance you have of successfully completing the goal. 

Tips for Success

• Look for the natural time frames associated with your goals and use them first

 

• Break down larger goals into smaller time frames to ensure you keep yourself moving towards completing your overall goal

 

• Be realistic about what you can and can’t accomplish in a given time frame

 

• Don’t be afraid to renegotiate a time frame for completion if you find that you were unrealistic in setting your deadline – BUT do not do this at the expense of your overall goal!

Summary

Hopefully you’ve found this refresher course helpful in your goal setting process. Remember your goals aren’t SMART unless they are: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time Sensitive.

By using the SMART process you will be setting goals that are clear, concise, and well thought out.  Above all, I think you will find that by using SMART goals your follow through and completion rate will increase and what you once thought of as a dream you’ll find yourself achieving.

Here’s to a happy, healthy and successful 2009! 

Photo Credit:  mag3737

SMART Goals – Attainable and Realistic

This is part three and four in our five part series looking at setting SMART goals. If you’ve missed part one , or  two, you may want to take a moment to read through them.

If you’ve been following along thus far in the process you should now have goals that are specific and detailed as well as ones that you can quantify and measure so you know if you’re making progress or not. Now it’s time to take a look at your goal and ask yourself “Is this really attainable?”

SMART Goals: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic & Time Sensitive

Today’s Focus: Attainable and Realistic

These two go hand in hand when using the SMART formula for goal setting.

What you’re asking yourself is “Are my goals stretching me enough, while being realistic in what I can accomplish?”.  This is the hardest step in the goal setting process.

Set your goal too high (unrealistic) and you will be kicking yourself on a daily basis for being a failure. Set a goal that is too low and you may reach it, but at what opportunity cost? You’ll be constantly wondering if you could have done more.

Assessing Yourself is Difficult

What makes this step even more difficult is that it takes looking objectively and honestly at your own skill set and abilities.

You may want to grow your sales by 50% this year, but are you lacking the necessary skills to grow at such a high rate? Only you can answer that question.

Piggy Back Your Goals

I have found that when it comes time to look inward and decide if I have set a goal that is attainable and realistic given my situation, I usually find a couple more goals.  So I may say I want to grow sales by 50%, but I know that just isn’t realistic for me at this time because I need more direct sales training…BINGO, another goal that I CAN accomplish…Attending XX classes on sales training in the coming year.

Can you see how this process of “piggy backing” your goals on top of each other can work to your long term benefit? Go ahead and make goals dependent on each other. If you believe that growing 50% is what you really want to do, and you can if you get more sales training, maybe write a SMART goal like the following:

I will grow my sales by 50% in 2009, if I complete 5 sales training classes in the same time frame

You’re basically saying if you can accomplish one goal, you believe you can accomplish the other. This is a good way to keep your current limitations from hampering your long term goals.

Questions to Ask Yourself

Attainable

Are you setting a goal that is enough of a stretch to actually act as a goal?  It needs to be far enough out of your comfort zone to push you, but not so far that it becomes a discouragement.

Realistic

Given your knowledge, skills, and abilities have you set a goal that is realistic?  If it isn’t realistic, can you set another goal to get the additional skills/resources/training so that it becomes realistic?

Tips for Success

• Try to find a balance between pushing yourself and overestimating what you are able to do

 

• If you find your goal to be unrealistic, ask yourself why and then see if you can fashion a SMART goal around the issue that is holding you back

 

• The more accurately you assess your own skills and abilities the more chance you will have of setting a goal that is both attainable and realistic given your circumstances.

 

• Personal Preference: Lean towards pushing yourself a little farther than you think possible as opposed to underestimating what you can do. Why? I would much rather make it 95% of the way to a big stretch goal, than 100% of the way to a goal 25% under what I could have done.

Up Next: Time Sensitive

Photo Credit:  Markus_76

Are Your SMART Goals Measurable?

This is part two in our five part series looking at setting SMART goals. If you’ve missed part one, you may want to take a moment to read through it.

Once you’ve built a strong base for your SMART goals, by being specific about what it is you want to accomplish, the next step is to set up the goal in such a way that it is measurable.

SMART Goals: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic & Time Sensitive

Today’s Focus: Measurable

For you to have any chance at meeting and exceeding your goals in 2009, they have to be measurable.  Think about what it is you want to accomplish with each goal you set, and then come up with a quantifiable metric that will tell you if you have met or exceeded the goal. Let’s look at some good and bad examples of measurable goals so you can get a sense of what this looks like.

Examples

Bad Examples:

• I want to grow sales
• I want happy customers
• I want to network more

Good Examples:

• I want to grow sales by 25% year over year
• I want to increase my customer satisfaction score by 5 points
• I want to attend 5 networking events in 2009

Your focus here is to establish criteria so you can easily tell if you have, or have not, met your goal. The criteria should be concrete and quantifiable, as well as clear cut so you know how far you need to go in order to meet your goal. Again, non-committal language has no place here. If you want “more” of something, you need to directly answer the question “How much more?”.

If you are able to measure your progress towards a goal you are more likely to stay on track.

Tips for Success

• When you are done setting your goal, you should be able to answer questions like “How much?”, “How often?”, or “How many?”. If you cannot answer such quantifying questions after you’ve set your goal, you need to rework it until you can.
• Keep track of your progress at regular intervals
• Think first about what you want to achieve, then ask yourself what metric lets you know you have achieved it.

Up Next: Attaussiegallainable

Photo Credit: aussiegall