Need a post-holiday boost? Start by setting SMART objectives

Returning to work after a holiday can be a challenge - priorities will have changed and motivation may be low. So how do you get back in to the game?

To provide focus, we like to start by re-grouping as a team and setting ourselves realistic objectives for the short and long term. By setting some trackable targets, we have something to strive for in our daily tasks.

At the beginning of the summer, we met with two members of Rangers7s rugby team to discuss their goals for the season. As their sponsors, we encouraged them to ensure their goals were SMART. This means they should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound.

SMART Objectives should clearly state what you are expecting to achieve, using action words to describe what has to be done.

For example, in a business environment:

Not SMART

Encourage more customers to join the After-Sales Service Scheme.

SMART

Conduct after-sales and service calls to customers to increase membership to the “After Sales Service Scheme” by 5% within the first three months of the year.

The time bound element of your objective is key. If there is a particularly long timescale involved, you may need to break your objective down, identify the steps you need to take to achieve your overall objective and work out how long each step is likely to take so that you can agree a realistic target date.

Why not have a go yourself?

Declan and Tom from Rangers7s shared their team’s SMART long and short-term objectives with us – why not use these as an example to get you started? Your objectives will be SMART in no time…

Targets

Specific

To compete in a minimum of six tournaments and to win silverware this summer.

Measurable

To measure the success of our tournaments, we can use ranking in tournaments i.e. finishing 3rd overall. We can also record our win/loss ratio over the playing season to see our success rate.

Achievable

The target is achievable as we are a newly established sevens side in 2017. A goal of six tournaments is realistic as they are run most weekends across the country.

Relevant

As a team, we are made up of Rugby Union playing students mainly, which means sevens is a great chance to improve fitness and skills in the offseason. We all want to compete at a high level in the tournaments we enter this Summer and look to win trophies.

Time-bound

We must prioritise booking places for six tournaments in the ten available weeks we have.