Making the bed was the least of my concerns
Productivity tool #2 - S.M.A.R.T
Over the years, I’ve relied on multiple people, places, things, and techniques to help me get out of bed. Back in uni, my friend Carlota would sometimes help me with a literal wake-up call on her way to work. She’s incredible that way. By the time I finally jumped out of bed, I was on “run for your life to make it on time” mode.
Late. I was always running late (more on my tardiness and its consequences another time). So, as you can imagine, making the bed was the least of my concerns. “Who has the time for that, am I right?”, I said to myself.
I was the set-eight-alarms kind of person, the Alarmy-app-user kind of person, the snooze-snooze-snooze kind of person. I wanted so bad to become the getting-up-early kind of person, the making-the-bed kind of person, the exercise-before-work kind of person. The gap between who I was and who I wanted to be was astronomical. In words of Sara Bareilles: “Compare / Where you are to where you want to be/ And you'll get/ nowhere…”
How do you create a habit from nowhere? Where the fuck do you start?
ENTER THE S.M.A.R.T
S.M.A.R.T is an acronym used as a mnemonic technique or memory trick1. It stands for: Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Realistic, and Time-related.
HOW IT WORKS
S.M.A.R.T is a goal-setting strategy:
Specific: target a particular area for improvement.
Measurable: quantify or at least suggest an indicator or progress.
Assignable: define responsibilities clearly, stating who will do what.
Realistic: state what results can be realistically achieved with the available resources.
Time-related: specify when the result can be achieved.
THE BACKGROUND
The S.M.A.R.T. method was first documented in 1981 on a paper titled "There's a S.M.A.R.T. way to write management's goals and objectives". (If you like going down rabbit holes and are curious to read a paper from the 80s, go ahead to the original source here).
As the title suggests, it was born as a tool for management - specifically, for corporate management - to communicate business objectives. Since then, this framework has evolved and popularized. You can see it everywhere, from corporate life to sports, from project management to personal development, from business to pop culture.
You may have seen it, or know it, with some variations:
Specific, sometimes replaced by Strategic.
Assignable: Attainable, Actionable, Action-Oriented, or Achievable
Realistic: Reasonable, Result-Based, Rewarding, or Relevant
Time-related: Time-based, Time-oriented, Time-limited, Time-sensitive, Timeframe, or Timely
George T. Doran, the author of the paper, states that the S.M.A.R.T acronym is a guideline to write more efficient goals, and that some objectives won’t have all five criteria. He says:
“It is the combination of the objective and its action plan that is important”
This is for me the most important lesson: setting a clear goal and creating an action plan is the way to get things done.
MY EXAMPLE
Let’s look at my example:
Specific: I wanted to create a new habit, making the bed every morning.
Measurable: I could physically see and touch a bed that was made. But for the sake of self-data-collection, I decided to mark the days on my daily planner when I made the bed. This was a game-changer! At the end of the week, I had a visual representation of my accomplishments. I could then easily identify the blank days and ask: “What happened that day?”. Week after week, I could see the progress, the regressions, and the correlations to my life-events. At the end of the month, I would check-in and reward my progress with a small bed-related something, new cushion cover or a plush blanket. The end of the month reward motivated me to keep trying!
Achievable: I would aim for a made bed, not THE most PERFECT bed ever made. This allowed me the flexibility I needed in order to just try. On difficult mornings, I would (and still do) pull the sheets up and mark the job as completed. On easy mornings, I would (and still do) take my time to make the bed as neat and visually pleasing as possible.
Relevant: in order to fully commit, I had to ask myself “why?”. Why was achieving this goal important to me? Why did I wanted to make the bed every morning for the rest of my life? Some of my answers were a bit philosophical and existential - don’t worry, I won’t bore you with them! But the simple answer was: I want the dopamine hit that comes from a job done first thing in the morning.
Timely: I had to it as soon as I’d wake up, regardless if it was a working day or a free day.
WHY IT DOESN’T ALWAYS WORK FOR ME
Setting goals following the S.M.A.R.T framework has been most useful for me with:
simple activities or goals that can have their progress tracked by marking completed or not completed- like my making the bed example.
projects, activities or goals in formal environments like academia or office work, where you are accountable to someone else whose job is to evaluate the progress of a task.
I find that the S.M.A.R.T approach to be a bit rigid and focused in results more than in the process. So I’m selective of when to use it. I can have the most efficient action plan, but still procrastinate.
What has worked for me the most is to find an emotional connection to the task that needs to get done. It is only when I bring my attention to the “WHY” that I find the fuel I need to start.
YOUR S.M.A.R.T
I would love to know if you’ve used this tool before and if it’s worked for you! If you didn’t know about it, would you give it a go? Let me know! A gentle reminder: “S.M.A.R.T” is only one dish in the productivity buffet. And like any recipe, just remember to follow the instructions but make it your own.
And, in case you were wondering, I can proudly say that, to this day, I make the bed as soon as I wake up! (On difficult mornings, the bare minimum). And no, I don’t need to mark it on my planner anymore.
Mnemonic is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as “assisting or intended to assist memory”. Acronyms, short poems or phrases are some strategies used to improve memorization. More details and examples here.