CDWC #9 - The Zen of Writing (Part 2): SMART Goals
How do we get from A to B? SMARTly.
Last time we looked at writing through the aspirational lens of achieving flow. And we saw that in order to have a chance at flow in writing, we need to set SMART goals. And to set SMART goals consistently, we need some self-regulation skills. So, we find that a simple task ("just do it") breaks down into something daunting ("have better self-regulation skills"), which is not all that helpful.
So let's forget, for the moment, about the big picture. Today, let's drill down into SMART goals. SMART goals are specific, measurable, achievable, and timely. Obviously, what counts as a SMART goal depends on context. Writing a blog post, writing an email, and writing a dissertation are very different beasts. Maybe the better way to think about SMART goals is in relative terms. Relative to the goal you have in mind, can we make our new goal more specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely?
Specificity
Specificity captures the idea that a writing goal should never be vague. A specific goal lets you feel whether you are progressing towards it. For any writing project, no matter the size, "finish the project" is never specific enough. To get specific, you need to be clear on some aspect of how you are to finish the project. You have to scale down your ambition. Sometimes, your goal is to finish the paragraph. Sometimes it is to finish the sentence.
Measurability
By measurability we don't necessarily mean something you can quantify--although in some cases and for some personality types that may make the difference. The basic idea behind measurability is: can I frame the goal so that at any moment, no matter what is going on, I can have a sense of feedback? Measurement here is implicit, which is all you need in most writing situations. You measure progress by the paragraph, by the word, by the sentence, or by the draft. It is up to you. Our information sheet on getting unstuck in writing has some reframing strategies that might help you zero in on goals that feel measurable to you.
Achievability and Realism
I think that these two terms are essentially interchangeable, and were probably separated in order to make the acronym work. (SMAT and SMRT just doesn't have the same ring to it!) Once again, the basic idea is you want to be able to finish the goal so as to afford feedback. It is better to finish a bunch of small goals than to struggle with a few big ones. Accomplishing a goal feels good, no matter the scale, and that good feeling, no matter how small, is motivating and affords some amount of sustainability in our writing.
Timeliness
This feature makes the goal relevant to the context in which you are writing. how much time do you have? Lots of uninterrupted time or sporadic bursts of time? How energetic are you? What counts as timely will differ according to a bunch of dimensions, but the main ones are probably other tasks you need to accomplish and your energy levels. A deeply focused revision of your draft is not timely if you are being constantly interrupted. Similarly, a sprint to finish a project may not be timely if you are feeling sick.
At their most basic, SMART goals are an interrelated package. Specificity depends on context, and is related to realism/achievability. The more realistic and specific a goal is, the more measurable it is, and the more easy it is to sense if it is timely. All the pieces feed back into each other, so as we work with SMART goals, we get much more feedback on our process than we do when the goal is hazy or ill-defined. So, for all those reasons, it is a very good idea to break down big goals into small ones. As always, practice will make it easier. And if you are not the sort of person who likes lists of features, the bottom line is easy to remember: when stuck, simplify your goals.