Now is the time of year to abandon your goals, for in just over a month’s time, you’ll be bombarded by over-confident self-appointed coaches with shopping-mall-white teeth to help you set new ones.

I say resist the temptation to set specific, measurable, achievable and time-based (SMART) goals, if you are serious about wanting to get anything done that takes more than a few months or is even reasonably complex.

’Tis the season for resolutions, but recent studies have shown setting specific goals is less effective than just trying your best.Credit: Getty

Whilst you can generally avoid the big teeth, big tats coaching brigade, for many of us we cannot avoid our supervisors armed with the HR-designed (and therefore goal driven) annual appraisal form.

They used to try that one with me, and every year I filled in the bit on goals as a conscientious objector, inviting my supervisor and their HR backers to discuss my published research on the shortcomings of goal-setting. Sadly, I was never taken up on my invitation, but equally, I was never pressed to commit to doing anything more than “the best I can”.

It........

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