OKRs, or Objectives and Key Results, are a way to help you set and achieve your goals. Have you tried moodboards and they don’t work for you? Or you’re just not sure where to begin on working towards your goals? Maybe it’s time to give OKRs a go!
OKRs are used in a lot of different industries, by both people and companies. Usually, you’ll have 3 objectives with 3 key results each. You can change this number depending on what you want to achieve, but you shouldn’t go over 5 Objectives. We need to keep things simple to make sure we achieve them!
How Do I Develop My Objectives?
Objectives are the ‘WHAT’ part of the goal setting. To come up with your objectives, you should ask yourself what it is you would like to accomplish. Once you’ve got your ideas in your head, think about how you can make your objectives inspirational, but not impossible to reach.
For instance, your objective might be to Improve your sleep schedule.
How Do I Develop My Key Results?
Your Key Results are the ‘HOW’ part of setting your OKRs. Your Key Results should be quite specific. The more specific we are, the better chance we have of actually doing them!
Key results should also include some numbers, as a way of measuring our progress.
Let’s take the example above, and your objective is to improve your sleep schedule. Your key results could be:
- To get 7-8 hours of sleep a night
- To limit myself to 1 caffeinated drink per-day
- Keep my phone out of my bedroom for 3 nights per week.
As you can see, now we’ve set some key results, our overall goal feels a lot more achievable.
I’ve Set My OKRs, What Now?
Once you’ve set your OKRs, think about how long you’re going to work on them. Maybe you want to look back and change your OKRs every quarter, every month, or every year. Maybe you’ve set a clear endpoint in your OKRs (such as reaching a personal best or getting a place at university) so you’ll know you’ve been successful. Whatever works for you and your goals!
Sometimes our goals need adapting, and that’s ok too. We don’t want to make them too easy, but we don’t want to make them too hard either. Goals that are too tricky to reach can make us feel unmotivated and lead to burnout.
