In the busy and goal-oriented society that we live in, I feel like the concept of SMART goals is not new anymore. However, I feel like not as many people utilize them as they should.

First, let’s jump into what SMART goals are. They are goals that are:

Specific: What are you trying to achieve?

Measurable: How will you know when you’ve acheived it?

Achieveable: Is it attainable and within your ability?

Relevant: Is it working towards the things you want it to?

Timed: When do you want to acheive this by?

Even if this may seem like overkill for a lot of the smaller goals we set in a day, you might just find that using this structure can help you to organize your thoughts and prioritize your actions.

So, how do we use them? I generally set SMART goals for work, school, or long-term personal projects. Not for my to-do list. I would say the generally larger goals you have that can be broken down. however, you can absolutely practice this with household projects like laundry. It would look like this:

I want to do 2 loads of laundry before dinnertime today.

or if I have a project due in a month, I could say:

I want to spend 1 hour researching this topic each night, take notes on what I learned as I go. And then compile everything after each week.

How do they help us? This format helps us to achieve the results that are working towards without the generalization of to-dos. While this isn’t the only way to help you get things done, I find that it is a great way to manage expectations, and your own ability.

Give it a try and let me know how it goes!