SMART is an acronym that you can use to guide your goal setting.

To make sure your goals are clear and reachable, each one should be:

• Specific (simple, sensible, significant).
  
• Measurable (meaningful, motivating).
  
• Achievable (agreed, attainable).
  
• Relevant (reasonable, realistic and resourced, results-based).
  
• Time bound (time-based, time limited, time/cost limited, timely, time-sensitive).

Its criteria are commonly attributed to Peter Drucker's Management by Objectives   concept. The first known use of the term occurs in the November 1981 issue of Management Review by George T. Doran. Since then, Professor Robert S. Rubin (Saint Louis University) wrote about SMART in an article for The Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology.