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Sometimes people find that they are spending a lot of their time in repetitive and uninspiring tasks when their real talents aren’t being used to the full by the organisation. Or that their time is continually wasted by others. 

Whatever your situation, if you want to make changes, then you need to set objectives!

You may well be familiar with the concept of setting SMART objectives but how often do you actually do it? We cover setting SMART objectives in detail on our Time Management training course, but this short summary should prove useful as a reminder.

Remember: Before you set yourself an objective ask yourself the question:

Is this a SMART objective?

• S Specific (and stated in non-ambiguous terms)
• M Measurable (by the person who has to achieve it)
• A Achievable (and aligned with the objectives of the organisation)
• R Realistic (but challenging)
• T Time-bound (and defined in time)

An example of a normal (non-SMART) objective would be:

Our goal is to improve the way we handle customer complaints

An example of a SMART (that is, effective) objective would be:

Our goal is to handle all customer complaints efficiently and courteously within 72 hours of receiving them starting from January 2005

If your objectives are not clear, then they cannot be measured and if they cannot be measured, you will never know when you have reached them! Neither can interim monitoring and assessment take place, nor really useful follow-up action. You will end up wasting time yet again!!

Consider the objectives of your job. Invest some of your precious time in checking to see if they are SMART or rewriting them if they are not.

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guide, Objective Setting, repetitive tasks, Setting SMART objectives, SMART objectives, Time Management, Time Management Training, What is a SMART objective

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This entry was posted by Faye Binfield on Friday, October 26th, 2007 at 1:47 pm and is filed under Time Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.