ENGAGE: Life Skills: Goal Setting

SMART Goals

Specific: Detailed and clearly defines what you plan to do and how it will happen.

Measurable: Clearly defined criteria that will indicate evidence that you have accomplished your goal.

Attainable: Actionable items, slightly challenging, but realistic enough to be able to achieve.

Relevant: Results-focused on relevant, measurable outcomes, not activities.

Timely: Time-bound and linked to specific times to help produce a sense of urgency.

How long will it take?

Using SMART to plan time management:

• Identify a specific task
• Record the start and stop time
• Quantify the work (example: record the number of words written or pages read)

Now you've got your baseline. Continue recording information for a few days/weeks (depending on the intensity of the task). Variation in times will help to create an overall estimate:

• Optimistic Estimate – your best recorded time (To)
• Most Likely Estimate – your most commonly recorded time (Tm)
• Pessimistic Estimate – your worst recorded time (Tp)

Using the formula below, plug in your estimates:

• (To + 4Tm + Tp) / 6 =  time estimate

Always allow for a buffer, like an extra hour set aside at the end of the day. Unexpected things happen--a buffer can help lessen the impact of unexpected disruptions. 

Adapted from University of Cambridge Wolfson College Academic Skills: Time Management