How to set SMART goals
More often than not we tend to postpone major tasks, because we simply don’t have a clue where to begin. We see them as enormous mountains we need to climb, so we tend to go around them. However, there’s a truth in the old joke on how to eat an elephant: piece by piece!
The SMART-method will help you to break down a complex task into a tangible job. It is all about splitting your task up into smaller concrete goals.
Research at Harvard and Stanford looked into the number of students with concrete goals in life after they finished their studies. It turned out that only 15% had set goals for themselves. A mere 3% of them noted them down on a sheet of paper.
It turned out that after 20 years, those 15% were doing twice as well on a financial level than average, the 3% who had put their goals down in writing were even 10 times better off. Lesson learned: make your goals as concrete as possible.
Too many people have goals that are too vague.
Example: on New Year’s Day you tell yourself: I want to lose weight. That is too vague. You will never get started. As a result, many people abandon their good resolutions before they’ve even started.
Translated into the SMART-method, you can go about it like this:
More info: Time Management
