A SMART priority is a single sentence that says what will be true by the end of the quarter, in terms anyone can check. Five tests decide whether you have one.
The SMART criteria of setting a priority were first introduced by George T. Doran in a 1981 paper titled “There's a S.M.A.R.T. Way to Write Management's Goals and Objectives.” Doran was a consultant and former director in the corporate world. His original concept was aimed at helping managers and executives set clear and achievable business objectives. While the acronym has since been adopted and expanded by different organizations and industries, the core idea remains the same.
Not “improve onboarding” - which part, for whom, changed how. If two people could read it and picture different work, it isn't specific yet.
A number, a threshold or an artifact that exists at the end. You should never have to argue about whether it was met.
Against real workload, real holidays and the other people you'll need. Ambition that ignores capacity is just a slide.
You can say in one line why this matters more than the next five things you could have chosen instead.
An end date, and dated steps in between. “By Q3” is a hope; “first draft by 14 August” is a plan.
“Get better at following up with leads this quarter.”
“By 30 September, every inbound lead gets a first reply within one business day, with a logged follow-up sequence - measured on the CRM's response-time report.”
Describe the goal in your own words. PriorityOS applies these five tests, hands back the sentence, and turns it into a dated plan you can edit.