A SMART goal is a goal that is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. For example: “Within 90 days, I will increase monthly online orders for my bakery from 120 to 180 by sending a weekly preorder email, because online orders are our highest-margin sales.”
Type your vague goal, answer one prompt per letter, and get a finished SMART goal with a quality check, milestone check-ins, and a template you can copy, download, print, or share.
Free · No signup · Nothing stored on our servers
The SMART goal updates as you type.
Business / startup · 90 days from today
100/100
Strong SMART goal
A quick heuristic check, not a scientific score.
Within 90 days, I will increase monthly online orders for my bakery, measured by monthly online orders rising from 120 to 180, by sending a weekly preorder email to our 900 subscribers and adding Saturday pickup slots, because online orders are our highest-margin sales.
Within 90 days, I will increase monthly online orders for my bakery (monthly online orders from 120 to 180).
S · Specific: Pass
Clear outcome.
M · Measurable: Pass
Numeric target with a way to track it.
A · Achievable: Pass
Backed by concrete actions.
R · Relevant: Pass
Tied to a bigger objective.
T · Time-bound: Pass
Has a clear deadline.
Your draft saves in this browser only. Share links carry the goal in the URL; nothing is sent to our servers.
Evenly spaced check-ins with the value you should be at if progress is steady.
| Check-in | Date | Expected |
|---|---|---|
| 25% | Day 23 | 135 orders |
| 50% | Day 45 | 150 orders |
| 75% | Day 68 | 165 orders |
| Deadline | Day 90 | 180 orders |
Grow my business
Within 90 days, I will increase monthly online orders for my bakery, measured by monthly online orders rising from 120 to 180, by sending a weekly preorder email to our 900 subscribers and adding Saturday pickup slots, because online orders are our highest-margin sales.
Vague goal to SMART goal
15 worked examples for business, sales, marketing, career, health, school, and teams. Load any of them into the generator and edit it.
Business / startup
Vague: Grow my business
SMART: Within 90 days, I will increase monthly online orders for my bakery, measured by monthly online orders rising from 120 to 180, by sending a weekly preorder email to our 900 subscribers and adding Saturday pickup slots, because online orders are our highest-margin sales.
Business / startup
Vague: Get customers for my startup
SMART: Within 120 days, I will sign the first paying customers for our scheduling app among independent physical therapy clinics, measured by paying clinics rising from 0 to 15, by running 40 customer discovery calls and offering a 30-day pilot to every clinic that joins the waitlist, because 15 paying clinics proves demand before we raise a seed round.
Sales
Vague: Close more deals
SMART: Within 90 days, I will grow closed-won new business revenue in my mid-market territory, measured by quarterly closed-won revenue rising from $180,000 to $240,000, by booking 8 discovery calls a week and sending a mutual action plan after every demo, because it puts me on pace for 110% of my annual quota.
Sales
Vague: Win more deals
SMART: Within 180 days, I will raise my win rate on qualified opportunities with help from our sales engineer, measured by win rate rising from 18% to 25%, by reviewing every lost deal with my manager and running a technical demo for every qualified deal, because a higher win rate lets me hit quota without adding pipeline.
Marketing
Vague: Get more website traffic
SMART: Within 180 days, I will grow organic search traffic to our company blog, measured by monthly organic sessions rising from 4,000 to 7,000, by publishing two keyword-researched articles a week and updating our 10 oldest posts, because organic visitors convert to free trials at our lowest acquisition cost.
Marketing
Vague: Build an audience
SMART: Within 90 days, I will grow the email newsletter list for my design studio, measured by newsletter subscribers rising from 1,200 to 2,000, by offering a free brand checklist download and posting three LinkedIn carousels a week, because the list drives about half of our new client inquiries.
Career
Vague: Get promoted
SMART: Within 270 days, I will earn a promotion from analyst to senior analyst with my manager as sponsor, measured by senior analyst competencies demonstrated rising from 3 to 8, by leading one cross-team reporting project end to end and presenting results to leadership twice, because it is the next step toward a team lead role.
Career
Vague: Find a new job
SMART: Within 120 days, I will land a product manager role at a B2B software company, measured by final-round interviews rising from 0 to 4, by sending 10 tailored applications a week, asking for 2 referral conversations a week, and finishing a product case study, because product management uses my customer research background and pays more.
Personal / health
Vague: Lose weight
SMART: Within 120 days, I will lose weight by building a sustainable eating and walking routine, measured by body weight falling from 210 lbs to 195 lbs, by walking 8,000 steps a day and cooking dinner at home five nights a week, because my doctor wants my blood pressure down before my next checkup.
Personal / health
Vague: Get in shape
SMART: Within 70 days, I will run a 5K race without walking breaks, measured by longest continuous run rising from 10 minutes to 35 minutes, by following a 3-runs-a-week beginner plan and stretching for 10 minutes after each run, because I want the energy to keep up with my kids.
Personal / health
Vague: Save money
SMART: Within 180 days, I will build an emergency fund that covers three months of rent, measured by emergency fund balance rising from $1,500 to $6,000, by moving $375 to savings automatically each payday and cancelling two unused subscriptions, because a cushion means a surprise bill never goes on a credit card.
Education / student
Vague: Do better in school
SMART: Within 60 days, I will raise my calculus grade before the final exam, measured by calculus course grade rising from 72% to 85%, by doing 45 minutes of practice problems five days a week and going to office hours every Thursday, because I need a B in calculus to keep my engineering scholarship.
Education / student
Vague: Study for the SAT
SMART: Within 84 days, I will raise my SAT practice test score before the spring test date, measured by full-length practice test score rising from 1,180 points to 1,300 points, by studying with Khan Academy for 30 minutes on weekdays and reviewing every missed question in an error log, because a 1300 puts me in range for my top three colleges.
Team / project
Vague: Ship faster
SMART: Within 90 days, I will cut the time it takes to ship a release to production with the four-person platform team, measured by median days from merge to production falling from 6 to 2, by automating the regression test suite and moving to daily release trains, because customers get fixes sooner and we hit the roadmap dates.
Team / project
Vague: Fix customer support
SMART: Within 60 days, I will reduce open customer support tickets older than 48 hours with our five support agents, measured by open tickets older than 48 hours falling from 140 to 30, by adding 12 help center articles for the top ticket reasons and setting up a daily triage rotation, because slow replies are the top reason customers give for cancelling.
Free printable
Prefer pen and paper? Copy or print this SMART goal template, answer each prompt, then combine your answers into the one-sentence goal at the bottom.
SMART GOAL TEMPLATE Vague goal: ______________________________ S - Specific: What exactly will I achieve? Who is involved? Where, or what scope? ______________________________ M - Measurable: Which number will change? From what baseline to what target? How and how often will I track it? ______________________________ A - Achievable: Which actions will get me there? What resources do I have? What could get in the way? Confidence (1-10): ___ ______________________________ R - Relevant: Why does this matter now? Which bigger goal does it support? ______________________________ T - Time-bound: What is the deadline? When are the check-ins (25%, 50%, 75%)? ______________________________ SMART goal: By [deadline], I will [specific outcome], measured by [metric from baseline to target], by [key actions], because [relevance].
Step by step
Replace the vague goal with exactly what will change, for whom, and where. "Grow my business" becomes "increase monthly online orders for my bakery".
Pick one number that proves progress, write down today's baseline and the target, and decide how often you'll check it.
List the actions you control that will move the number, note the biggest risk, and rate your confidence. Under 5 out of 10, shrink the target or extend the deadline.
Write why the goal matters now and which bigger objective it supports, so it survives a busy week.
Set a deadline or a duration such as 90 days, plus check-ins at 25%, 50%, and 75% of the way there.
Formula: By [deadline], I will [specific outcome], measured by [metric from baseline to target], by [key actions], because [relevance].
Common questions
SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. The acronym is usually traced to George T. Doran's 1981 Management Review article "There's a S.M.A.R.T. way to write management's goals and objectives", where the letters stood for Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Realistic, and Time-related. Achievable and Relevant are the common modern wording.
"Within 90 days, I will increase monthly online orders for my bakery from 120 to 180 by sending a weekly preorder email and adding Saturday pickup slots, because online orders are our highest-margin sales." It names the outcome, the number, the actions, the reason, and the deadline. The examples section above has 15 more SMART goal examples for business, sales, marketing, career, health, school, and teams.
Start with the vague goal and answer five questions: what exactly will change (Specific), which number shows it, from what to what (Measurable), which actions you control will get you there (Achievable), why it matters (Relevant), and by when (Time-bound). Then combine the answers: By [deadline], I will [outcome], measured by [metric from baseline to target], by [key actions], because [reason].
A SMART goal template is a fill-in-the-blank worksheet with one prompt per letter: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound, plus a line that combines them into one goal statement. You can copy or print the blank template on this page, or let the generator fill it in and download it as a .txt file or PDF.
A SMART goal is one well-defined goal with a single measure and deadline. OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) pair a qualitative objective with two to five measurable key results, are usually set by teams each quarter, and are often stretch targets. They work together: each key result can be written as a SMART goal.
Keep planning
Map the problem, customers, and key metrics your goals should move.
Find the strengths and opportunities worth setting goals around.
Turn a startup goal into an ordered launch roadmap for your state.
Check that your deadline fits inside the months of cash you have.
Find the sales target that covers your costs.
Pick which goal to pursue first with weighted criteria.
Browse all free tools