People have been setting goals for thousands of years. For most of this time, evidence for the effectiveness of a particular goal-setting system was anecdotal. Now, researchers take advantage of the scientific method and principles of psychology to formulate sound systems of goal-setting. One such theory was developed by Professor Edwin Locke of the University of Maryland in the late 1960s.
Clarity
Your goals must be clear, because if they are not, there will be no way for you to measure your progress or even to know when you have achieved them. Use numbers whenever appropriate. You should also set deadlines for completion, according to Locke and Gary P. Latham, Professor of Organizational Effectiveness at the University of Toronto. "Reduce employee absenteeism in the Marketing Department to 2 percent" is an example of a clear goal.
Challenge
If your goals are too easy, they will fail to motivate you because even if you achieve them, you won't have accomplished much. Your motivation will also flag if your goals are too difficult, because you will lose confidence in your ability to achieve them, and your goal progress will fail to meet benchmarks. Find the "challenge zone" between too easy and too difficult.
Commitment
Goals enhance performance most effectively when you are highly committed to your goal, according to Locke and Latham. Two factors that will enhance your commitment to your goals are the magnitude of the gain that you expect to achieve from it, and your confidence that you will be able to achieve it. Without either of these, your commitment will be weak, although this may not become evident until times get tough.
Feedback
To maintain your confidence and build a sense of accomplishment, you must build feedback into your goals, according to Mindtools.com. In addition to formulating specific goals, you must constantly monitor your progress. You should write your goal statements in a journal and keep track of how you are doing. One way to enhance this process is to break your goals into mini-goals that you can achieve weekly or even daily. If your goal is to run 10,000 meters in less than 40 minutes, for example, you might set deadlines by which you expect to be able to run this distance in 44 minutes, 43 minutes, and so on.
Task Complexity
Many goals involve a complex set of sub-steps. When faced with a complex goal, be sure to build into the process sufficient time to learn the skills you will need to be successful. If your goal will take a long time to achieve, it is likely that you will be able to work more quickly towards the end of the period than at the beginning, because you will have had more time to master the necessary skills. Take the learning curve into account when setting goal deadlines.
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