Welcome to Day Five of my series on SMART goal setting! Today we look at how we can measure progress towards our goals.

Now that our goals are relevant, achievable and specific, how will we know we’ve achieved them?

Well, obviously, Carol, I will have achieved my goal when I’m lying back in my hammock watching the waves from my beach house.

Sure, Grace. And up until then, you can just keep whipping yourself for being a failure. That’s a great life plan. No, it’s not. I’m being sarcastic.

Grace can do better.

It isn’t just about achieving the big goals, it’s about celebrating all the small milestones along the way. There are lots of different methods you can use to track your progress towards any goal. Bullet journaling is especially well suited towards tracking progress. There are many creative ways of doing this, which I will leave to your own creativity and your own Google search.

Let’s look at how Grace can measure progress towards her goals.

Lose 10kg. Get healthy.

Measurement: Weight
:How frequently am I exercising?
: How many hours a night am I sleeping?
: How much pain do I have?
: How well do I feel each day?

Write more.

Measurement: Word count trackers
: Track the number of hours worked each day

Save money.

Measurement: Bank balance

Spend more time on spiritual life.

Measurement: Track the amount of time each day, or the number of consecutive days
: Track the number or titles of books read
: Consider writing in a journal

Focus more on career.

Measurement: Articles read, CPD hours
: Production of pre-determined educational resources

Fix the house.

Measurement: Progress through checklist

We’re nearly there! Tomorrow will be the last installment in this series, when well look at how deadlines can be the final ingredient in a SMART goal.