Creating SMART Objectives and Action Plans

SPECIFIC

• Ensure you describe exactly what you are going to do
• Avoid vague words or phases like "understand" or "find out what they need"
• Use specific action words e.g. agree, list, set, qualify, report, write

MEASURABLE

• Define actual measures so that you can track how you are doing against your plan
• Wherever possible, attach figures to your objective or action plan e.g. increase sales by 5% or reduce costs by £15,000
• Make sure that you can easily access the information that you need to do the measuring e.g. try to avoid measures where it is complex or time consuming to access the data

AGREED

• Make sure you have the support of the right people e.g. your boss, coach, mentor, family etc.
• In a current job setting, get your manager or other appropriate person to agree to what you are aiming for and how you plan to get there – if you have a regular performance appraisal you could link your objectives to your appraisal

REALISTIC

• Ensure that you can achieve what you want to, given the time and resources available to you. If not you will need to either change your plans or increase your resources
• Check regularly that your objective or plan is still realistic, especially if circumstances change

TIME-BASED

• Attach timescales (actual dates if possible) to your objective or plan, e.g. complete report by 25th January 2012
• Breakdown bigger objectives or plans into 'chunks' and attach a time limit to each chunk
• Review progress on a regular basis and make changes to timings as needed