Goals fail because they are vague, not because of weak willpower. SMART fixes the vagueness: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. "Revise more" is unmeasurable; "two past papers a week until May" can be checked. Achievable matters most - going from no revision to six hours a day collapses within days, so set the version you will still be doing in three weeks.
Why do we always fail to meet our goals?
Well, because we are bad goal setters.
Not bad in the sense that it’s not a good thing to want to get healthier, or more studious, but that our goal was way too vague.
So, today I want to teach you guys how you can set goals which you will actually complete.
To do so, we need to start setting SMART targets.
Well, duh, of course we need to be intelligent when setting goals Usman.
No, that's not what I mean. You need to set SMART goals:
SMART
Specific.
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Time bound
Specific
Whenever you set a goal you need to be specific about what exactly needs to be accomplished. By no means do you have to be comprehensive in your approach, but you should think about some key areas to keep in mind when goal setting. Generally speaking, the 5 Ws are a good place to start.
Who - who is involved?
What - what steps do I need to take to achieve my goal?
When - when am I going to start?
Why - why have I set this target?
Where - where will I carry out the tasks I need to accomplish?
So if we want to get better grades, who is going to be involved in that? Just you, or do you need support from a teacher or classmate?
Where are you going to carry out the studying needed to achieve your goal? At home, in the library etc.
What is measurable?
Being specific with your goal is a good foundation, but on top of that goals need to be measurable. You need to be able to collect some sort of quantitative data from your goal. We love doing this at Ucademy with our students.
We have a benchmarking file for all students. This allows us to collect data and measure progress as often as we can.
Why do we need measurable goals?
Because then at the end of the month you can look back and see how close you were to achieving your goal.
If our goal was to become healthier, then how often did we manage to go the gym this month?
Did you go 18/20 times, what stopped you from going 20/20 times?
A small caveat I would like to add is that achieving goals isn’t a binary measurement, it occurs on a scale.
If our goal was to study more often and we only managed to study 10 extra hours this month, that's still a whole lot better than nothing.
Success is a gradient because you will inevitably fail at fully accomplishing what you set out to achieve because hiccups always happen. But, being able to reflect on those events can help you set out safeguards for the next time you try to make the same shot. You can read more about this here.
What is achievable?
Saying that you are going to go from studying 0 hours a day to 6+ hours is completely unrealistic. Don’t even try to do it in the 1st place.
Baby steps! Otherwise, we will repeatedly end up failing and end up getting disheartened in the process.
What is relevant?
It is important to ensure that your goals are relevant. Before you start working, make sure that you are going in the right direction. If you are working towards achieving a particular set of grades, make sure that you have a target which is actually going to aid with improvement in your exam results.
What is time bound?
Finally, the last criterion you should keep in mind while setting your goals is how long do I have to achieve this goal? Deadlines are essential. In an unlimited time frame, weeks and months will pass you by and you will have no progress to show for it.
We are master procrastinators so making sure we set good deadlines is key. I have written a piece on effective planning and time setting previously, which you can read here.
So, if we wanted to get better grades, we would deconstruct our goal like this:
S - I will do this by studying more often
M - I will study an extra hour every day
A - With my current schedule this should be possible
R - If I study more often, I will be able to learn more content, and complete more exam papers, therefore my grades should go up
T - I will do this over the period of a month and then review how successful I was in achieving this goal
Using these 5 criteria, you should be much better equipped in achieving and meeting targets in general.
What else is worth reading?
- The Motivation Rainbow
- Mastering Organization Skills: A Key to Enhancing Productivity and…
- Mastering Organization Skills for Enhanced Productivity and Success
- Mastering the Balancing Act: Work and Study in London
- Mastering Time Management in Year 7: A Guide for Students
What are the honest limits of this advice?
The evidence behind study methods is measured as an average across many students, not a promise about one. The EEF toolkit reports months of additional progress on average, with real variation underneath. What works also depends on the subject and where the gaps are.
Officially, this is what a pass is worth — the government lists it as a Level 2 qualification:
“GCSE — grades 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4 or grades A*, A, B, C.” — gov.uk, What qualification levels mean
Where can you check this at source?
How much a study method is actually worth has been measured. These are the sources that measure it:
- EEF — Teaching and Learning Toolkit — what the evidence says each intervention is worth, in months of progress
- DfE — Key stage 2 attainment — how many pupils meet the expected standard, by year
- gov.uk — Qualification results in England — the headline GCSE and A-Level figures for the current series