Hello, welcome back!
We have a lot to unpack for today's post, including what OKRs are if you don't already know, what are the goals I'm trying to reach with them, and how I'm doing it (or plan to, at least).
I would also like to give a bit more context as to why I decided this would be a good idea.
Let's dive right in!
Why did I come up with using OKRs to get to my goals?
Glad you asked!
Since last December, the company I work at started implementing them, as a way to be more transparent with the goals we would have for the year and to involve everyone in getting to those goals. The main objectives, as well as the key results, were divided by area and teams and it was up to us, with the help of peers and leaders to break them down into smaller, doable steps.
Recently, I've also started the Google Project Management: Professional Certificate, to better qualify myself, and to learn in theory what I've been practicing at work for a few years now.
One of the modules in this course talks about the importance of OKRs, how to come up with them, and also mentions a very insightful TED Talk video explaining a bit more about it.
I decided to take what I learned from my company and this course and try applying it to my life.
What are OKRs?
OKRs stand for Objective and Key Results. They are a series of measurable and time-bound goals you have that are not easily achievable but serve to inspire and create more value, sometimes even breakthroughs, with limited resources.
In the words of Forbes Magazine,
Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) provide a framework for businesses to execute and achieve their desired strategies through simple, collaborative goal setting. OKRs have helped many organizations, including Google, successfully establish priorities, create internal alignment, increase accountability and reach their objectives.
Why do I think it makes sense to apply OKRs to my life?
OKRs are meant to be challenging, forcing us to expand creatively on how to better use our resources to complete the daily required tasks, but also work on the bigger, newer objectives.
As mentioned before they also have to be measurable, time-bound, and inspiring so we can track its progress and be excited by it.
Here on the blog, I've written about creating systems to make tasks easier, preparing at your best moments to account for your lowest moments, consistency, and that doing the work takes less energy than avoiding the work.
I think OKRs make a ton of sense here to give all the work I've done and am doing a bit more structure.
What are the goals I'm trying to reach with OKRs?
Earlier this year I wrote about some of the goals I would like to reach, but I wasn't as specific because I didn't know much about the circumstances I would be in. Now that a few months have passed, I feel more confident about specifying my goals a bit more and fitting them into the measurable-time-bound framework.
So here are the main goals I want to achieve this year, apart from the inner-work-type ones
Take action to buy my first car
Make US$100 with the blog until December
Be considered a senior in my professional role
Start a business of my own (new goal)
How I'm doing it (or plan to, at least)
To better explain how I'm using OKRs to get closer to my goals for this year, first I need to explain how to put together a good OKR. For that, I will be paraphrasing the course I'm taking, ok?
Also according to the course:
Project objectives should be aspirational, aligned with your ultimate goals, action-oriented, concrete, and significant. Key results should be time-bound. They can be used to indicate the amount of progress to achieve within a shorter period or to define whether you’ve met your objective at the end of the project.
Let's take my car goal as an example here:
A good objective would be to have enough money saved to be able to put the down payment on the car.
A good key result would be: having half of the car's value until November.
So this OKR would be:
Having enough money saved to be able to put the down payment on the car by having half of the car's value until November.
This is actionable, time-bound, and specific. I know what metric to achieve for it to be successful and I feel inspired to do it.
I, now, can also break this OKR down into smaller goals and put together a roadmap for myself.
This also means that once I defined this as a priority, made it into a challenging but inspiring goal, and got specific with it, I can use all of the mindset tools I've talked about before. I can start developing saving habits, I can start studying car terminology and specifications and I can take my steps to get to my goal in an organized, planned, and healthy way.
Summing it all up
For some, I know this might be a bit much. I mean, how many times have you heard about people accomplishing their New Year's resolution, let alone by using a corporate framework to do it?
But as I hope to have explained, this is just a tool. A helpful one, at least for me, but a tool nonetheless. And you might have another you prefer better.
The point here is to bring more structure to my goals to help me achieve them, while also forming a habit of organizing and planning my thoughts and desires.
OKRs fit this criteria for me at this moment, and I hope to have helped you understand and think about it through these lenses too.
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