The difference between objectives and tasks

Objectives describe what you will ultimately achieve. Tasks are the key actions that show how you will achieve it.

Here is an example objective: 

'Increase Employment Law related revenue from our existing FTSE 100 clients by £100,000 to £500,000 this year.'

That’s a clearly defined, challenging, measurable objective.

The key tasks may be:

• Work with our BD team to map opportunities to pitch experience from existing work streams to other Employment Clients.
• Engage our Marketing team to organise a seminar for all of our existing FTSE 100 clients on the recent changes to the TUPE regulations.
• Set up lunch with GC at client X to talk about their existing and potential future legal needs.

These are the ‘things’ you need to DO in order to achieve the objective.

Practical tip:

When you have identified your Objectives, ask yourself 'How will I achieve this objective?' to start to defining your key Tasks. As you do this, you can often find that something you think is an Objective is actually a Task that fits into an overarching objective.