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SMART Goals – Practical Example
ConnyConfused and her problems with formulating goals
“I have set myself the following goals for my second year in the Bachelor's programme:
- get admission to a Master's programme
- apply for a semester abroad
- get good marks, always at least > 9 points.
But now when I think about what I should do more concretely in a week to achieve these goals, I'm quite at a loss.”
If you now have the logic of SMART goal formulation in mind, you have surely noticed that Conny's goals correspond to this logic only partially.
Let's take a closer look:
First, Conny's goals are not very specific.
It might be helpful for her to divide the process of setting goals into several smaller steps. Then it is often easier to formulate specific goals. What intermediate goals would be necessary to get admission to a Master's programme?
She should analyse her other goals in the same way: What steps would she need to take to get good marks in the exams?
Sometimes it is also helpful to “think outside the box” here: What factors prevent Conny from achieving her goal of getting good marks? Here we could mention her nervousness before exams and the fact that she often tries to learn everything in an uncoordinated and haphazard way.
Therefore, an intermediate goal would be to be calmer and more confident in the exams. In addition, her exam preparation should also be more efficient and systematic.
Michael Ende’s book MOMO describes thinking in partial steps as well. You can listen to it here if you like:
You can print out the flash card Partial Steps here.
Furthermore, Conny’s goals differ in whether they are measurable or not.
The next step, however, would be to formulate measurable goals for the intermediate steps as well.
Attractiveness is a criterion that Conny meets with her goals. She really wants to achieve all three goals.
At first glance, Conny’s goals seem quite realistic.
However, a closer look reveals the problem that Conny’s influence on achieving her goal of getting at least 9 points in every exam is rather limited, because a lecturer can always design an examination in such a way that no matter how well prepared the students are, they will not get good marks.
Therefore, it is better to formulate goals in such a way that you can really influence them yourself.
For example, the number of days or the hours you want to study per day are suitable here.
The goals of getting admission to a Master's programme and applying for a semester abroad lack a precise deadline. Both are rather distant goals, which are then often so far away that achieving them can hardly motivate you now.
It is therefore helpful to set an intermediate goal for a fixed period of time: If I want to get admission to a Master's programme, what is my goal for this semester/the next 3 months? In the next step, a further intermediate goal can be set for an even shorter period of time (my goal for the next 4 weeks?).
How can Conny's goals be formulated SMARTly now?
For her exam preparation, Conny formulates the following goal for this semester (the next 12 weeks):
Learn strategies to be calmer and more confident in exams (specific):
Start learning in good time, take sufficient breaks, learn relaxation exercises
She notices whether she has reached the goal by the fact that she can eat something and sleep in the days before the exam (measurable).
Unfortunately, she suffers from nervousness and desperately wants to change something (attractive).
Conny still has 10 weeks until the exams, so it is realistic to acquire new strategies by then.
The goals are to be achieved by the end of the semester (time-bound).
In addition, Conny thinks about what intermediate steps she should take in order to achieve these goals:
- attend the lectures regularly
- take good notes during the lectures
- revise the teaching content regularly
- Start preparation 3 weeks before the exam
- reserve the last week before the exam for revision