There is so much smart out there of late. Smart TVs, Smart Watches, Smart Homes, and more! But this one is different. SMART, regarding goals stands for:
Specific (create a detailed work plan) Measurable (how you’ll quantify success) Achievable (reality check about abilities, resources, etc.) Relevant (importance with broader prospects) Time-bound (process timeline with a definite schedule)
This helps keep us on track to achieve a reasonable goal within a realistic time frame by deploying the necessary resources. This is a great textbook definition that looks excellent on paper. Alas! Real-life is different and asks for more. And that’s precisely why we have this article at Geekflare telling you how one can apply this practically. We’ll focus on the main course with some applications for tracking goals kept for the last.
SMART Goal Examples for Work
This section will highlight this renowned technique for a few common objectives. Starting with…
Increasing Website Traffic
This is the first and the best example we could give. At Geekflare, we’ve been doing this for quite some time and with notable success. Check out our website traffic since inception in 2015, right out of the founder’s presentation: And in March 2022, we hit a resounding close to 4 million page views a month. Conclusively, we know what we are talking about 😎. So let’s take a look at how the SMART goals thing works out here: Specific: The primary aim is to increase the audience’s footprint. Measurable: Not keeping it too high, we have set a recurring target for +5% page views every month. And we have the famous Google Analytics at our disposal to monitor the progress. Achievable: Given our history, this should be doable with proper planning and execution. We need to target high-volume keywords, publish more articles than we already do, and update the oldies. Additionally, we’ll augment social media promotions of Geekflare tools and Geekflare APIs and let the audience involve more in our ever-expanding library of Geekflare Articles by perfecting SEO. Relevant: This fits the Geekflare mission of building an ecosystem that delivers high-quality content, tools, and APIs to help individuals and SMEs. Additionally, this also gels with the vision of being the trusted source for technology resources. Time-bound: Since this is a monthly aim, we’ll check the output at the end of every month and prepare a brief report. The report will highlight what’s working and what isn’t. Besides, the report will suggest remedial measures for the next month. So, this was a business-oriented SMART goals examples for work, and the upcoming one is more personal:
Losing Excess Weight
Losing excess weight is the gateway to a fit and happy life. And it’s not a random quote by some fitness specialist. Check this out: So technically, it’s a disease, and people are dying out of it. Besides, the USA confirms that the medical cost of obese people is $1429 higher than their healthy counterparts. Therefore, it’s time to chalk out a SMART goal example for a random burger-loving guy (let’s call him James) 6 feet 4 inches tall, weighing 300 pounds. With these parameters, the BMI (Body Mass Index) is 36.5, which James has to bring down to 25 to call himself healthy. This means a maximum of 205 pounds in weight, needing a reduction of approximately 100 pounds. SMART Goals for James would be: Specific: Cutting extra weight. Measurable: Keeping it under the prescribed limits, James targets to bring it down 8 pounds every month. So by the course of a year, he would cut 96 pounds to weigh in the healthy range. Achievable: This is a personal goal involving routine exercise and fewer burgers going inside his belly. It should be attainable with little conviction. Relevant: It perfectly fits his greater goal of living a healthy life. Time-Bound: This has a monthly timeline and monitoring schedule. He would note the output and adjust the workout time and the diet accordingly. He can also consult a certified dietitian to control his food intake better and search for a partner to avoid workout absenteeism. So, this was James trying to lose some extra pounds. But, I’m not James and hardly overweight, let alone obese. So, let me try to make it genuinely personal by drawing a SMART goal example for (my real) work…
Writing More
I started as a tech writer at the beginning of 2021, mostly because I could not bear the trajectory of my conventional career. I started working as a freelance writer for some great clients, including Geekflare. After a few months, the founder offered me a full-time position as a senior writer. I was delighted, to say the least. But, a full-time job would mean a considerable compromise for my personal blog, which I started just a few months back to the offer, and I envision making myself financially independent somewhere down the line. So the SMART goal plan for a person in boots similar to mine would be: Specific: Publish consistently on the personal blog. Measurable: I have made a goal to publish at least three posts fortnightly. One during the weekdays and two on the weekends. Achievable: I invest roughly one-hour early morning before starting my day job. Depending upon the length of an article (1000-2000 words generally), I have 10 hours for an article during weekdays which is sufficient. In addition, an article per weekend has roughly the same words to hours ratio if I work for 1.5 days out of the two-day weekend. Relevant: Absolutely. More articles will increase pageviews. Finally, this will provide for greater ad revenue and affiliate income. At some point in time, this should solely support my finances. Time-Bound: Yes, three articles per 15 days. In addition, the occasional holidays in between should increase this frequency or at least help manage the deviations, if any. This was the real-life scenario for a writer trying to start his own little profitable blog. But while setting SMART goals is good, it’s the progress tracking where most fail, ultimately giving up on their objectives. So, here are some applications (free and paid) that can help you stay in line until you achieve what you have set in the first place.
ClickUp
ClickUp can be your perfect companion with a free forever plan and superb collaboration features that can assist in monitoring your SMART goals. You can set the goals, and the timelines, share them with various stakeholders and track progress automatically. In addition, this gives you a bird view of your team’s performance as well. But the best part is the ability to manage all of your aims on a single dashboard. Moreover, ClickUp has an in-built chat, email, video recording, and much more for fully-fledged teamwork.
GoalsOnTrack
GoalOnTrack is an all-around goal and habit-tracking utility that you can benefit from in your personal and professional life. This has progress tracking, reporting, and a journal section to keep relevant notes. In addition, you can break down your major goals into small activities for better monitoring. Its team version permits goal sharing, checking members’ progress, and allows in-app conversations. However, there is no free subscription. Still, you can try it with the 30-day money-back guarantee.
Lifetick
Lifetick is a similar application based on setting SMART goals for work. This begins with setting your core life values, followed by goals with financial targets. Lifetick also supports the breakdown of major activities into small tasks. Besides, you get email reminders and a journal area to maintain important notes. One can also set custom trackers to monitor the progress with graphical reports. In addition, Lifetick can boost your business productivity with its team subscription. It works similarly to the personal version but on a larger scale with goal sharing, conversations, and access-based control for the members.
Goalscape
If charts and tables are not your things, Goalscape might be. Founded by Marcus Baur, a two-time Olympian, Goalscape is all about visualization. Goalscape makes you divide your goals into different sectors forming a circle. The size of each sector represents its overall importance, with the shades tracking the progress. You can assign tasks to your team members, filter the goals by date & importance, and divide primary goals into smaller sub-goals. Unfortunately, Goalscape doesn’t have any free subscriptions. Still, you can try it for 14 days with all its mighty features to see its worth.
Conclusion
So this was our round-up of SMART goal examples for work with some helpful utilities. This will certainly help as research states that goal-setters have a greater chance at success than people “trying their best.” However, we also have something special for just your financial goals. Here are some personal budgeting software that’ll aid in keeping your personal economy functioning at best.
