A planning method

SMART Goal

Write one goal five ways: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.

Peter Druckerm.

Peter Drucker. Photo by Jeff McNeill (cropped). CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The SMART Goal module as it prints, once, at the front of the book. The dots are the page’s quarter-inch grid.

Where it comes from

SMART comes from a short article by George T. Doran in the November 1981 issue of Management Review, about how managers should write their objectives. It grew out of management by objectives, the approach Peter Drucker set out in the 1950s.

In Doran's version, the A stood for assignable, meaning someone is named to do it, and the R for realistic. Most versions since use achievable and relevant, as this module does.

Why it helps

A wish becomes a goal when you could tell, on a given date, whether it happened. Get fit is a wish. Run five kilometers without stopping by June 1 is a goal. The five questions are a way to turn the first into the second.

How the module works

Five prompts with a line each, once at the front of the book: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound. Write the goal in the heading, then a line under each.

If a line will not fill, the goal needs more thought, and that is worth knowing early.

Sources

George T. Doran, "There's a S.M.A.R.T. Way to Write Management's Goals and Objectives," Management Review 70, no. 11 (November 1981).

Put it in your planner

Start your planner

Find SMART Goal in the module drawer, under Growth. Free, and no account needed to try it.