Specific Measurable Achievable Relevant Timely

This activity provides a useful way of making sure you cover your requirements in a comprehensive way and don't miss out any important parts. Each part of your action plan target must satisfy the SMART requirements, which is:
&bull: Specific
&bull: Measurable
&bull: Achievable
&bull: Relevant
&bull: Timely

There are other ways of expressing the initials, including:
&bull: S: Significant
&bull: M: Meaningful
&bull: A: Attainable
&bull: R: Realistic
&bull: T: Time-bound

What do these terms mean?

Specific: You need to be clear on what you are doing; what task is to be carried out? Can you explain the details of the task? Is it one specific task you are looking at or is it several? If it’s several tasks, then you will need to break it down into its specific parts.

Measurable: How are you going to be able to confirm that the task has been achieved? What are you going to use as a unit of measure? Will you be able to distinguish between efficiency and effectiveness of the task?

Achievable: Can the task that you are looking at be achieved with your current skills and resources? If not, will you make available additional resources and the gaining of additional skills to enable the task to be achieved? If you aren’t going to make additional resources available, or allow additional skills to be gained, then it’s probable that this is not going to be attainable and you will need to rethink the target.

Relevant: You will have identified some area of your employability skills or personal qualities that you want to improve, so this will be a relevant target. Is this target relevant to your personal development? If you answer ‘No’ then have a rethink and choose another subject area for your target.

Timely: What is the timescale that you are putting on achieving the target? Is this a longer-term project? If it is, will you have some specific points along the time frame to monitor your progress?