Hello, Internet.

So, September is here, and school has started back up once again. One of the assignments we’re doing to kick off the year is each setting a few S.M.A.R.T. Goals in different areas of our lives.

The acronym S.M.A.R.T. stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant (also Rigorous, Realstic and Results-focused), and Timely (or Trackable). It’s used to help people set and achieve goals.

We each had to set three goals: one about school learning, one about out-of-school learning, and one about character growth. We also had to record these goals, and create a visual to go with each of them.

My first goal was to do with my in-school learning. This year, I would like to learn to utilize Explain Everything by researching how to use it, and using my own time to look at and learn to use the different features.

So, does that goal follow the acronym? I’d say yes.

Well, to start out, I’d say it’s pretty specific; saying I’d like to “learn to utilize Explain Everything” is kind of vague, but I followed it up with a specific explanation of how I’d like to achieve my goal.

I think it is measurable. We weren’t given a certain amount of time to aim to complete our goals in, but I’d like to improve my Explain Everything skills within the next two weeks. I’d like to research what can be done with Explain Everything, because I’m not totally sure, designate four specific things that I want to learn how to do, and go through and learn each of them.

The goal is attainable. I already have Explain Everything downloaded and know a little bit about how to use it, I just want to learn more, so it’s doable, and two weeks should be enough time. However, it’s not so much time that I would quickly lose focus from my goal.

The goal is relevant because Explain Everything is a tool that I use for school, but it’s also something I occasionally find frustrating or confusing, so it would be helpful to me to learn more about it.

Finally, the goal is timely. As I mentioned, two weeks is enough time to get it done, but not so much time that I’ll never get started, or that I’ll lose focus.

This was my visual for this goal:

My second goal was about out-of-school learning. I would like to learn how to dress, speak, and act more professionally.

I think this goal is pretty specific, but to make it a bit more so: I would like to break some habits I have such as overusing the word “like” where it isn’t needed, trailing off sentences, or sitting on tables, which I might not want to do in a professional setting, as well as learning to dress more professionally if needed.

This goal is measurable; there are specific habits I want to break and things I want to achieve, so although I might not be able to go, “I sat on one less table today than yesterday”, I know what I want to accomplish, and can take steps to accomplish those things.

I think this goal is attainable. Similarly to with my goal about Explain Everything, I’m not starting from scratch, but instead building off of prior knowledge and experience; I know how to act and dress somewhat professionally, I just have some things I want to do to improve so I can be more professional when needed.

There are many areas in my life where it’s helpful to me to be able to act professional every once in a while, but this goal is particularly relevant at the moment because I’m about to start my first job, so having a professional demeanour and style will be important.

While developing the ability to act professional when needed is something I’d like to work on as an ongoing thing, I’d like to
achieve this goal in the next fifteen days, or about half a month.

This was my visual for this goal:

My final goal, related to my own personal character growth, is that I would like to procrastinate less, and to help myself start to do this, the next four things I recognize myself procrastinating on, I’d like to make an effort sit down and get done.

This goal is specific; I want to identifty four things, from any area of my life, and accomplish them in a timely manner.

This goal is measurable. I have an amount of things I want to do, and I’ll have a clear idea whether or not I do them.

This goal is attainable; four things isn’t many, so as long as I know I have a goal, and I can recognize when I’m procrastinating, attaining this goal should be realistic.

This goal is pretty relevant, considering how often I procrastinate.

I didn’t allot myself a certain amount of time to accomplish this goal, because I don’t think it makes sense to put a time limit on “the next four times I notice I’m procrastinating”, but it is trackable.

This was my visual for this goal:

Here’s the recording, as well as the visuals, for all my goals (I apologize if I sound a bit nasal. I’ve been kind of sick.):

Toodles!