Not all goals are created equal. If you set unrealistic goals for yourself or a project, you\u2019re setting yourself up for failure. Instead, be smart. Using a free SMART goals template for Word<\/a> is the first step to achieving your goals because this goal-setting template ensures that the goals are grounded in reality. Once the goals are set, use this goal-tracking template to ensure you’re meeting your goals.<\/p>\n This is achieved through the simple process of vetting goals. That\u2019s where the SMART part comes into play. This acronym stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound. The goal-setting template is divided into three columns. The first column is for what each letter in SMART stands for. The second column asks a series of questions to help define that goal as related to a specific SMART goal<\/a>. Finally, there\u2019s a space for answers. When this process is complete, the goals collected will be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound.<\/p>\n Setting goals is only the start. Now, those goals must be communicated to the team responsible for executing the individual tasks that will lead to achieving those goals. Using this free strategic roadmap template for Excel<\/a> is a great visual aid for achieving the goal of disseminating the goal across the organization. This goal-setting template is a powerful tool to deliver long-term strategy, key goals, objectives and outcomes.<\/p>\n Using this free goal-setting template helps lay out all the strategy elements to prepare an organization for moving from where it currently stands to where it wants to be at a future date. Having a strategy and executing it are two points that are very distant from one another. The strategic roadmap template helps fill that gap.<\/p>\n The trouble with this goal-setting template is that it\u2019s not very collaborative. Project management software is more conducive to sharing strategic plans. ProjectManager<\/a> is award-winning project and portfolio management software that has robust roadmaps that can be shared with teams. More than that, we have resource management, time tracking and task management features that help teams reach those goals. Our robust roadmaps view all projects related to the strategic goal in one place where projects can be filtered to view which are open. The roadmap highlights key metrics for stakeholders, links dependencies, filters for the critical path and sets a baseline to track variance to stay on schedule. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.<\/p>\n You can’t set goals blindly. Before setting goals, it\u2019s important to understand where an organization stands. Knowing the competitive landscape and how the company fits into it is essential to developing a strategic plan. That\u2019s where a free SWOT analysis template for Word<\/a> comes in. It\u2019s another acronym, this one standing for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Filling out the goal-setting template helps to gather the data necessary to make the next, right move.<\/p>\n This goal-setting template is divided into four quadrants, one for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The left-hand vertical axis is divided into two parts, one for external and the other for internal. Across the top axis is a column for positive and another for negative. Then it\u2019s just a matter of placing the information about the company and its competitors into the proper quadrants. This will guide the development of a more impactful strategic plan.<\/a><\/p>\n A gap analysis is a tool to gather information that will help build an action plan. The free gap analysis template for Excel<\/a> is designed to show how an organization can move from its current state to the desired future state. Use this goal-setting template to understand how to hit a strategic or business goal by determining the actions that must take place. Use it for project management, business process improvement and product management.<\/p>\n To use this goal-setting template, first list the focus areas, such as business processes to improve or an HR skill gap. Next, determine the current and future state of that focus area. Then, estimate the gap percentage and list the action items to close that gap (including priority, start and end dates as well as required resources). These action items will be assigned to someone and a status column helps track their progress.<\/p>\n Once goals are set, then comes the real work. Using this free to-do list for Excel<\/a> is a task management tool that organizes and prioritizes work to make executing that work more efficient and effective. This goal-setting template collects all the tasks a team member is responsible for and keeps them in one place, which makes it easier to manage. It\u2019s also a goal-tracking template in that it provides a sense of progress as each task on the list is completed.<\/p>\n It\u2019s easy to get started with this goal-setting template. Just list all the tasks assigned to a team member and estimate the duration of each task, which includes the start date and due date. As tasks are being worked on, set the percentage complete with the drop-down menu, which goes in 25 percent increments from zero to 100. Then note the progress and add any notes that don\u2019t fall into the previous columns.<\/p>\n One of the easiest ways to track progress toward your goals is by using milestones. A milestones template<\/a> maps out the key checkpoints in a project\u2019s lifecycle; major events such as the end of a phase, delivery of a major deliverable or critical approvals. This structure makes it easy to track when important dates are approaching or overdue, coordinate handoffs or phase completions, and communicate critical deadlines with your team or stakeholders.<\/p>\n These milestones mark progress in a clear, visible way, helping teams and stakeholders stay aligned on what\u2019s important and when. By focusing on major achievements instead of every small task, a milestone plan simplifies scheduling, highlights priorities and helps avoid surprises.<\/p>\n Setting goals without tracking their progress is a loser\u2019s game. One way to make sure that the actual progress is aligned with the planned progress is with this free progress report template for Word.<\/a> A progress report documents how far a project has progressed against where the project plan says it should be at this point. This goal-tracking template captures a snapshot of the project\u2019s progress within a specific time frame to show if things are moving forward as planned.<\/p>\n This goal-tracking template begins with a summary to show the big picture before diving into the details that follow. Those details include all the tasks that were executed over the period covered in the progress report, any issues that came up and the money spent over that time. There\u2019s also room to list any accomplishments and expected accomplishments that will show up in the next progress report.<\/p>\n It’s never too early to start setting long-term goals. This 5-year plan template<\/a> is designed to define your long-term objective and break it down year by year, noting annual end-goals, strategies or processes to get there, required resources and measurable success metrics.<\/p>\n It gives long-term direction, helps prioritize resources and provides a framework for decision\u2011making over time. With a clear 5\u2011year plan, everyone understands the vision and can align their efforts to support sustainable growth, avoid chaos, and measure progress against shared objectives.<\/p>\n Another goal-setting template is the free status report template for Excel<\/a>. A status report is different from a progress report. The former is a broad overview of a project\u2019s current state, while the latter focuses on the project\u2019s progress over time. Regardless, both are important goal-tracking tools.<\/p>\n This goal-setting template opens with a summary of the project, such as its name, date, project manager as well as the reporting period. There follows a summary of key accomplishments, completed work, planned work, milestones, deliverables and action items. Then there’s a rundown of the project’s health, such as the budget<\/a>, schedule, quality and scope. There is also a risk management overview and recommendations for going forward.<\/p>\n A project deliverables list defines the concrete outputs a project is expected to produce, including the reports, features, products, or services that must be delivered when the project ends. With this project deliverables template<\/a>, you capture each deliverable\u2019s name, description, who\u2019s responsible, and its due date, all in one organized sheet. You can monitor status (e.g., not started, in progress, complete), add notes or comments and adjust deadlines or ownership as needed.<\/p>\n By specifying deliverables early, it ensures everyone understands what \u201cdone\u201d means, aligns expectations among stakeholders and reduces the risk of scope creep or missing outcomes. This clarity helps guide planning, coordinate work, and validate project success.<\/p>\n Knowing the requirements necessary to execute a plan is a key part of achieving one\u2019s goals. Using this free requirements gathering template for Word<\/a> collects what’s required and communicates that information between the user and developer. The user will show what they require and the developer ensures that it\u2019s all accounted for in the requirements-gathering process.<\/p>\n The free goal-setting template has a cover page that not only names the project but also has a box that tracks the versions and why changes were made to the requirements gathering template. Next, there\u2019s a section for the project plan, its purpose, scope and timeframe, with milestones, goals and dependencies. Constraints and restrictions are outlined. Then the requirements are broken down into seven subsections to capture everything from user requirements to risk management.<\/a><\/p>\n A project overview is a high-level description of the project and one of the documents used to get a new project started. Use this free project overview template for Word<\/a> to convince senior management of the project’s viability and to get the project team on the same page in terms of the goals and objectives of the project.<\/p>\n This goal-setting template captures everything from the business case,<\/a> which summarizes the project and its value, to the project deliverables. There\u2019s also a section to capture opportunities and problems, goals and objectives and what\u2019s in and out of scope for the project.<\/p>\n An annual work plan is a strategic document that lays out what a team or organization aims to accomplish over the course of a year. Use our free annual work plan template<\/a> to turn broad goals into concrete objectives, define the initiatives needed and assign responsibilities, timelines and resources.<\/p>\n The template offers a central place to organize objectives, giving your team a shared roadmap and helping everyone stay focused on what matters most during the year.<\/p>\n A project summary is part of a project proposal, which is used to convince stakeholders or clients that the potential project is worth funding. To achieve this goal use our free project summary template for Word<\/a>. This project goal-setting template can also be a standalone document or part of a project proposal. Either way, it\u2019s a comprehensive overview of the project, briefly stated, but including key details.<\/p>\n This goal-setting template captures important information, such as the project schedule, including durations, milestones and deliverables. There’s space for the project budget, which includes financial projections to show costs and return on investment (ROI). The resource plan is outlined and there\u2019s a risk management overview to show how roadblocks and other challenges will be dealt with.<\/p>\n The Eisenhower matrix is a simple yet powerful prioritization method that helps you decide which tasks to tackle first by evaluating two criteria: urgency and importance. Use our free Eisenhower matrix template<\/a> to divide tasks into four categories: \u201curgent\u202f&\u202fimportant,\u201d \u201cimportant but not urgent,\u201d \u201curgent but not important\u201d and \u201cneither urgent nor important.\u201d<\/p>\n You can quickly see which tasks deserve your immediate attention, which should be scheduled later, which can be delegated and which can be dropped. By doing so, the template helps you convert a chaotic to\u2011do list into a prioritized, actionable plan<\/p>\n Goal setting requires more than a list of objectives; it needs a clear picture of where the organization is ultimately headed. A vision statement template gives leadership teams a structured format for articulating that future state in concrete, memorable terms. A strong vision statement acts as a north star that aligns every goal, milestone and decision that follows it, making it one of the most foundational documents in any goal-setting process.<\/p>\n The vision statement template guides you through defining the organization’s core purpose, the future state it is working toward and the values that will guide the journey. Working through each prompt as a team surfaces disagreements about direction early, before they show up as misaligned goals later. The finished statement becomes a reference point for evaluating whether individual goals are actually pointing in the right direction.<\/p>\n Use this template at the start of any strategic planning or annual goal-setting cycle. A well-crafted vision statement makes every subsequent goal-setting conversation more focused and more grounded in what the organization is actually trying to become.<\/p>\n Setting goals is only half the work; knowing whether you are on track to hit them requires consistent measurement. A KPI dashboard template gives teams a centralized view of the key performance indicators tied to their goals, making it easy to spot which areas are progressing and which need attention. Without this visibility, goal reviews become backward-looking and reactive rather than forward-looking and corrective.<\/p>\n The KPI dashboard template includes a structured layout for listing each key metric alongside its target, current value, trend direction and owner. Color-coded status indicators make it easy to read performance at a glance without digging through raw data. Teams typically update the dashboard on a weekly or monthly cadence and use it as the agenda for goal review meetings.<\/p>\n This template is especially useful for teams managing multiple goals across different functions, where a single shared view of performance prevents siloed tracking and keeps everyone accountable to the same picture.<\/p>\n A goal without a plan is just a wish. An action plan template bridges the gap between the goals you set and the day-to-day work required to achieve them, laying out every task, owner and deadline in a format the whole team can follow. It is the document that turns strategic intent into operational reality, making it an essential companion to any goal-setting process.<\/p>\n The action plan template includes columns for each action item, the goal it supports, the assigned owner, the due date and the current status. Breaking goals down into discrete tasks makes them less abstract and easier to delegate. Regular reviews of the action plan reveal whether the team is executing at the pace needed to hit the goal on time.<\/p>\n Use this template alongside the SMART goals template to connect clearly defined goals to the specific actions that will deliver them. Together they create a complete picture from goal definition through to execution and follow-through.<\/p>\n Using these goal-setting templates is helpful, but only to a point. That\u2019s because all templates, whether for Excel or Word, are static documents. That means that each must be manually updated, taking teams away from their tasks and giving managers data that is already outdated once added to the template. To leverage an advantage that templates can\u2019t provide, use project management software. ProjectManager<\/a> is award-winning project and portfolio management software that delivers real-time data and has workflow automation with approval settings to ensure quality deliverables while streamlining processes.<\/p>\n There are goal-setting templates that can monitor progress and help make sure the actual effort is aligned with the planned effort. But those templates are always a day late and a dollar short. Get a high-level overview of the project\u2019s key performance indicators (KPIs) with our real-time dashboards<\/a> for individual projects, a program or a portfolio of projects. Easy-to-read graphs and charts capture time, cost, workload and more, automatically updating as teams log their statuses. Best of all, there\u2019s no lengthy and complicated setup needed as with lightweight alternatives.<\/p>\n When more detail is required, toggle over to the reporting feature<\/a>. Reports can be generated in minutes and show project or portfolio status, variance, timesheets, workload and more. Filter the reports to go deep into detail for managers and their teams or create a more general overview that can then be shared with stakeholders to keep them up to date. Looking for more free templates. Other template roundups collect free templates around a theme, whether that\u2019s change management, construction or project management. Below are links to those posts.<\/p>\n ProjectManager is online project and portfolio management software that connects teams whether they\u2019re in the office, out in the field or anywhere else. They can share files, comment at the task level and stay updated with email and in-app notifications. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"ProjectManager's](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/smart-goals-template-image.jpg\")
<\/a>\n2. Strategic Roadmap Template<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"ProjectManager's](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Strategic-Roadmap-Template-for-Excel-ProjectManager-2.webp\")
<\/a>\n![\"ProjectManager's](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/light-mode-CTA.jpg\")
<\/a>3. SWOT Analysis Template<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"ProjectManager's](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Swot-analysis-template-screenshot.jpg\")
<\/a>\n4. Gap Analysis Template<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"ProjectManager's](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Gap-Analysis-Screenshot.jpg\")
<\/a>\n5. To-Do List Template<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"ProjectManager's](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/To-Do-List-Screenshot.jpg\")
<\/a>\n6. Milestones Template<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"Milestones](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Milestones-Template-Screenshot.png\")
<\/a>\n7. Progress Report Template<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"ProjectManager's](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Progress-Report-Screenshot.jpg\")
<\/a>\n8. 5-Year Plan Template<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"5](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/5-Year-Plan-template.png\")
<\/a>\n9. Status Report Template<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"ProjectManager's](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Status-Report-Screenshot.jpg\")
<\/a>\n10. Project Deliverables Template<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"Project](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Project-deliverables-template.png\")
<\/a>\n11. Requirements Gathering Template<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"ProjectManager's](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Requirements-Gathering-Screenshot.jpg\")
<\/a>\n12. Project Overview Template<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"ProjectManager's](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Project-Overview-Screenshot.jpg\")
<\/a>\n13. Annual Work Plan Template<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"Annual](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Annual-Work-Plan-Template-Screenshot-1.png\")
<\/a>\n14. Project Summary Template<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"ProjectManager's](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Project-Summary-Template-Image.png\")
<\/a>\n15. Eisenhower Matrix Template<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"Eisenhower](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/eisenhower-matrix-screenshot.png\")
<\/a>\n16. Vision Statement Template<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"Vision](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/vision-statement-template-screenshot.png\")
<\/a>\n17. KPI Dashboard Template<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"KPI](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/KPI-Dashboard-Template-Screenshot.png\")
<\/a>\n18. Action Plan Template<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"Action](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/action-plan-template-project-plan-2024-cropped.png\")
<\/a>\nProjectManager Helps With Goal-Setting and Tracking<\/h2>\n
Monitor Goals With Real-Time Dashboards<\/h3>\n
![\"ProjectManager's](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/portfolio-dashboard-screenshot-lightmode.png\")
<\/a>
\nGet More Details With Customizable Reports<\/h3>\n
\n![\"ProjectManager's](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Reports-Light-2554x1372-1.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nRelated Template Content<\/h2>\n
\n