SMART goals don't work for me, but this does

Have you used SMART goals at work?

SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Realistic, Time-related goals and they are de rigueur in IT and program management.

As someone who’s worked in both for decades, I am not supposed to admit that SMART goals don’t work for me personally.  So, I was delighted to read Aaron Ross write about an alternative that is exactly what works for me, but I had not been so clever in naming or saying it out loud.

The alternative from Aaron Ross is to create forcing functions that get you into action. He calls them ASSes.

1.     Announce to others that you’ll create a  ….

2.     Specific outcome, by a …

3.     Specific date

Or more simply a deadline that other people know about. It’s so true! Somehow you magically know what to triage when the time gets tight.

He writes this is how he motivates himself when he is tired, confused, unsure what to do and ensure he does the important but not urgent things that typically get pushed aside.

Hope it helps.

Best wishes,

Rose

PS - This ASSes idea comes from Aaron Ross & Jason Lemkin’s book From Impossible to Inevitable -How SaaS and Other Hyper-Growth Companies Create Predictable Revenue, which is probably not most people’s preferred reading. If you are in IT, it is worth reading even if you don’t sell SaaS software. I have dogeared about half the book to the point of absurdity and I read it in 2 days. This quote comes from the last section of the book which addresses managing your mindset, which they call “Defining your destiny”. Most of the rest of the book is from an organizational leadership point of view.