You Can Also Use “SMART” Goals for Studying
If you work in the corporate world, you may have heard of what are called SMART goals , which help you work better with your team and be more productive. But the SMART system is also useful for solving any problems outside the professional world, including if you are a student. Here are some tips for using SMART goals while studying.
What are SMART goals?
SMART goals aren’t just good ideas, they’re actually a good acronym. This word means “specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.” The idea came from business consultant George T. Doran in 1981, when he wrote for Management Review criticizing the poor goal setting he encountered in many companies. (In its original description, the letter “A” meant “assignable”, but over time “reachable” became the main designation.)
When using the SMART system, all of your goals must fit into one of the five elements of the acronym.
How to Use SMART Goals to Learn More Effectively
There’s a bit of a start here, as at some point you may want to learn about SMART goals (and how they apply to your chosen field). This week I had a lesson on SMART goals in my own Program Planning and Evaluation course. But you can and should start using them now to learn everything that is taught to you.
It all starts with writing a goal statement that takes into account all the elements of the SMART acronym. Here’s an example: Let’s say you have a statistics test next week, and you got a C on the last one. You might write, “My goal is to score a B+ or better on the exam by studying for an hour every evening from now until the exam date.” It’s specific because you’re setting not only the exact score you want to get, but also the steps you need to take to get there. It’s measurable because you’ll be able to see if you’ve achieved your goal once your test is scored. This is achievable because this grade is only one letter higher than the one you received last time, so it is not as high as aiming for an A+. This is relevant because it is an upcoming test, not a vague goal for your end-of-semester grade. Finally, it is time-limited because you base it on an upcoming date and plan for all the days between now and then.
SMART goals are like a personal mission statement, and they force you to get specific and specific about what you’re trying to achieve. A vague statement that you want to score well on a test is not as helpful as describing the steps and time frames required to achieve a specific score. By writing it down somewhere, you can visualize not only the specific goal, but also the steps you need to take to achieve it.