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Time Management Home
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Use smart goals to help you get where you want
Is there really such a system for creating smart goals and getting to them easily? The answer is yes. The process for setting smart goals is called reverse planning. Most goal setting starts from where you are and then attempts to go forward to a specified objective. Reverse planning, on the other hand, starts with a realized goal (the end-state you want) and works backwards. You plan your path backwards from the goal. What's so great about this? For one thing, it allows you to see exactly what you need to do to get to your goal. You end up with a precisely laid out path (to the extent possible at the present moment.) Smart goals using reverse planning is best illustrated with an example. Let's say you want to travel. Now, 'travel' is not even a goal. It's just a vague intention. Let's redefine it to say you want to travel to Switzerland in May next year. You will need money to do this as well as time off from work. Let's say the latter is already taken care of. To bring out the contrast this method offers with traditional goal setting, take a look at how you would approach this normally. You would say "I'll go to Switzerland when I have saved up enough money to go there." And you start setting aside some money this week. Come the next weekend, there's a big sale at the department store and you dip into the money you saved to buy some "bargains". You continue saving money, but a few months later, you decide you want a new car and you again dip into your savings for the down payment. And so on it goes. When will you ever get to Switzerland? "Someday", when you have saved up enough. Sounds familiar? This is how most people approach many tasks. No wonder they don't realize their goals. Instead, let's look at how reverse planning and smart goals work. What do you need to get to Switzerland? Let's say you need $6000. Next question - how can you best get hold of that $6000? Should you dip into your retirement funds? Should you borrow it? Should you earn extra and save the amount? While all these are options, let's say you've decided on the last one - you will earn extra and save more so that you can get up to $6000. Let's say the trip is 12 months away. So you need to put aside $500 a month to get to go. Now the question is, how can you make an additional $500 a month? Take the example of a salesperson who earns commissions on sales. This salesperson earns $100 commission (over and above his salary) with each sale. So he needs 5 additional sales each month to get to his goal. He knows, from previous records, that he must make 4 presentations / meetings on average to close one sale. He also knows that to get to meet one prospect to make a presentation to, he must phone 3 people. To achieve 5 additional sales, he must do 20 additional presentations each month. To get there, he must call 60 additional prospects each month. Assuming 20 working days a month, he must phone 3 additional prospects each day to get to his goal. This is of course, over and above what he is already doing. If this salesperson is willing to commit the time and energy to do the additional tasks, he has a high probability of earning the extra $500 each month and saving up the $6000 he needs for the trip to Switzerland. Do you see how this process differs from traditional goal setting? Traditional approaches are often based on vague wishes, not concrete goals. There is no real planning process to support it, no system in place to make it happen. This is how you set smart goals. And this is how you get results...better results than you dreamed possible.
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