Most productivity methods feel like they were written for people who only need to be told how to organize themselves but are otherwise motivated and focused people. OKRs stands for Objectives and Key Results. They have nothing to do with organization. They focus on motivation and focus. And this is what is missing from many productivity methods.
Why OKRs?
OKRs let you pick a goal and define what it looks like to accomplish that goal
- They help avoid arbitrary or overly ambitious goals and they help to evaluate goals
- You want to read a book a week? That’s a Key Result of reading 52 books this year. But what does it accomplish – what’s the Objective?
How To OKRs
Useful means full of use. After picking an Objective, after picking one or more Key Results that prove the objective was accomplished, and after picking only the most pertinent Tasks that accomplish each Key Result, you can walk away and tell everyone about your new year’s resolutions.
- OKRs help you answer the question, am I doing what I want to be doing?
- Use a series of check-ins, from weekly to yearly. Each check-in doesn’t have to be more than a few minutes.
Be On Guard
Do not settle for completing your Tasks without completing your Key Results
- Time is a limited resource. Make the best use of it while you can
- With a three-month commitment, you’ll see whether your Objective is important enough to push through a lack of motivation for.
How OKRs?
You can’t set a meaningful goal without determining what’s meaningful to you
- Ask yourself these two questions: What do you want your life to look like? What would you do if your life looked like it?
- The first question gives you an Objective, while the second gives you a Key Result
- Decide what’s important to you, then when you have something you care about, decide what needs to happen to prove that you love it
TL;DR Pick Objectives that are meaningful to you
Pick Key Results that prove they’re meaningful
An OKR is Not a Task
When I say to decide what needs to happen to show that you care about something, I don’t just mean eat your vegetables.
- The result you want is to be healthier, and eating your vegetables is just one action that helps to accomplish that result. Don’t get distracted by your Tasks and lose sight of your Key Result.
