Setting up personal OKR (objectives and key-results)

I've used OKR for 7 years, on a quarterly basis. I had simple markdown files at first, then vnl-log files, and now R notebooks (https://github.com/dkogan/vnlog) to read / plot.

It may seem like overhead, and there's some snark in this thread about how it's project / team management without the project and team.

I completely disagree. If you set up your KR's so they are 1) quantitative, 2) daily measurable, 3) simple to log ( a few keystrokes while journalling) and 4) completely under your control to achieve.

At the end of the day, I mark down my progress on all my OKRs. I can quickly plot them, look back at progress, and look back at goals and concerns by seeing the types of objectives I had. It's a 10,000 foot journal that I otherwise wouldn't have.

There's more to this than simply quantifying yourself. We like #'s because they are representations of complex systems. The self and your personal history are absolutely a complex system worth tracking.

Looking back at my OKRs when I was dating my (now) wife, comparing the ways I put effort into our relationship and our changing priorities. Seeing over time my running distances, weight lifting activity, meditation record, and seeing how I consistently attempt to over-achieve by setting KR values too high ... Having those points of reference has made today more enjoyable, and been a constant reminder that progress comes slowly and missing on any particular attempt at something is irrelevant. It's so completely a part of my life now that I can't imagine setting goals or daily priorities without it.

Think of it like quantitative journalling.

can we ask what you are doing instead?

Wow, just wow. Someone contributed to OKR getting a wife. I am blown away. I will never quantize some parts of my life. Work is work. Learning is learning. There are a lot of methodologies for GTD, but in my experience balancing order with improvised chaos is healthy practice :)

PS. Joke aside there is a proven correlation between high achievement and habit of tracking and measuring a goal. I am not sure about OKR but may be the choice of which methodology to use is personal or psychology driven.

I agree with parent and I’ll provide my own answer: I live in the moment. A simple but powerful lesson I learned from my pets.

Good question. I wish I had a more sophisticated answer, but everything I do is fairly low-tech. First, memory: this works for nearly everything in my case. Second, a whiteboard for grocery items, which I update as needed. Third, just keeping momentum going for my goals.

For what I might term "loftier" aspirations (diet, fitness, etc), I just make sure I am being consistent. Those things have to be built into your lifestyle, or at least, that is the only way I can get it to work. There was a time, for instance, when I did track my nutrition with a spreadsheet. But after a few months I realized I could manage it all within my head: I had gauged my daily macro needs, and could largely judge by eye, and it has worked for years since.

I have tried todo-style apps, as an example of where I have tried a more explicit approach. I find that they are just procrastination and delay lists for me. If I am not actively doing it already, with exceptions, it probably won't be done at all.