Reviewing and Revising Your Goals

06:03 A Brief Review of S.M.A.R.T. Goals

Specific

This is the who, what, when, where, etc of your goals. General goals are good for long term but need to be broken down into specific goals.

Measurable

Define specific criteria for each goal to be able to track it. Be able to qualify your progress.

Attainable

You must be able to reach your goals, if not they are just lofty ideals. Attainable doesn’t mean easy, though. Make them challenging but realistic.

Relevant

Goals require time and commitment and when it gets tough will they still matter. Ask yourself if the goal is worthwhile and does the outcome match the effort.

Time-Bound

Set a start date and a target date to achieve goal. Without a time limit there is no urgency to take action.

07:22 Why Review Your Goals

Reviewing goals helps to know where you are in the processes of attaining them. Know what you’ve accomplished so far and what is left to accomplish.

“I find that I don’t hit goals if I don’t do this on a pretty regular basis.”

It also allows you to create a plan. When you know what is already done and what needs to be done you can plan how to do what is left. Reviewing helps track what works and what doesn’t work. Plan around known impediments like kids being out of school in the summer or holidays coming up.

Regular review lets you change your goals to meet new circumstances. Don’t stick to a goal that is no long achievable or realistic. Avoid changing them too frequently, though.

11:37 Review Intervals

This is the point where planning and goal setting blend. You need to plan out how to reach your goals. To do this you need to know where your are and where you are going. Reverse the order that you break down goals for the review. When setting goals use a top down approach to break them down to smaller goals and tasks. When reviewing go from the bottom up. Start with the smaller tasks and work back up building to the larger goal.

Start with daily reviews of what you’ve accomplished and plan to do. SCRUM/Stand-up is a great example of this. Focus on specifics of what you did yesterday, plan on doing today, and what impedes you. Get into the habit of doing this every morning.

“I feel like I’m accomplishing something productive in my least productive time.”

Each week review what you’ve accomplished and what needs to be done. Look back at the end of each week to see what you had set out to do and if anything kept you from what you wanted to accomplish. This is still at the specific task level when reviewing. Start to apply the tasks you’ve accomplished to the larger goals and see your progress toward them.

“Once you’ve grown enough the problems you have; other people would be grateful to have as problems.”

Take time each month to look at where you are in progress toward larger goals. Look at your timeline to see if you are going to reach your goal within that set time. Go over your daily/weekly reviews to see what is helping or hurting you. Look at how the tasks you’ve accomplished over the past weeks have effected your progress toward your goal. Use this to plan out the implementation of the next month.

“We’ll get together at the end of quarter one to plan for quarter two.”

Plan out a quarterly review of your goals and progress toward them. Focus on the big picture and overall story arcs toward your goals. This review is the time to make decisions on the direction you will go for the next quarter. Assign yourself smaller goals to accomplish within the next quarter. We have a meeting the first Sunday of each quarter to review what we’ve accomplished and plan out the direction we want to go for the next quarter.

“This is where you look at where am I on the way to my five year plan.”

Annually review your long term goals. Look back on what you’ve already accomplished over the year. This will be less specific and more focussed on bigger life goals. Get an idea of where you are in the process of accomplishing them.

35:19 Revising Your Goals

“This episode came about because I have had to revise some of my goals because of life events.”

Goals are not meant to be static, though larger ones may seem that way for a while. If goal was reached too easily make harder goals. If goal was extraneously difficult, set smaller simpler goals. That said don’t give up on your goals because they are going to be difficult to achieve.

“It’s responsive adjustment not reactive.”

Goals should move you toward what you want to achieve or become. When they no longer do this they need to be adjusted. Other situations may take precedence over your goals.

Make your changes at the larger reviews such as monthly or quarterly. Avoid making major changes to your goals too frequently. Take time to review the goal and where you are in the progress of accomplishing it.

40:18 Our Goals For This Year

Here we go through the goals we listed at the beginning of the year and talk about where we are in the process. What has held us up or changed since January and what we plan to do to accomplish the goal.