2018 has come to an end and, with it, my first attempt at using objectives and key results to define my goals and track progress towards them. Here’s a quick retrospective on my first round of personal OKRs.
Objective:
Create healthier habits ahead of 2019 fitness push.
Key results:
- Lose 10 pounds by December 31st.
- Get 10k steps at least four days a week.
- Go sugar/caffeine free for at least 45 days.
Out of all three, I’d say that this was my main goal. Having a desk job for the past ten years has taken its toll, and I’m on a mission to lose some weight, gain some mobility, and just feel better on a regular basis. Unfortunately, I’m giving myself a big ol’ zero for this objective.
The past two months have been spent selling our house, buying a new one, doing some major renovations in a very short period of time, and moving in over the holidays. It was complete chaos and, as a result, all of this quarter’s OKRs suffered.
As anyone who has moved can tell you, it’s largely a scramble to get way too many tasks done in less time than you could ever expect. As such, you’re left trying to fit the regular bits of life into very, very small windows of time. Common, every day activities like eating a decent meal are hard to prioritize, especially when your kitchen is packed into twenty different boxes.
My weight stayed the same (hurray for not gaining, at least!), I drank way more soda than usual, and, apart from the two weeks right around Christmas and New Year’s when we moved, the 10k day was rare.
Objective:
Increase my profile as a public speaking expert.
Key results:
- Get 1 article published on speaking in external publication.
- Finish first draft of Speak Easier.
- Submit 5 CFPs to conferences for next year.
I’d call this one more successful, but only slightly. On the one hand, I did get an article on speaking published over on the LogRocket blog. I did not get a full first draft of my new book, Speak Easier, completed, nor did I submit to any CFPs, although I did gather a list of conferences to submit to and get them organized in Trello.
For reasoning and excuses, see the section above.
Objective:
Increase the reach and influence of my newsletter.
Key results:
- Grow email subscribers to 2,000.
- Publish The Intermittent Newsletter at least once a week.
- Average 40% open rate.
Again, largely a failure on these OKRs, too. I’ll let this screenshot from MailChimp do most of the talking:
Although my email list grew, it did so slightly. I’m a few hundred off my goal and didn’t have much time to invest in implementing any serious growth strategies. And you can see that I only sent my newsletter 5 out of the 13 weeks in the quarter.
The good news is that I did manage to average a 40% open rate, which isn’t too bad.
Overall Review
My first quarter of using OKRs wasn’t the best by a long shot. I maintain that moving house and contending with the holidays are reasonable excuses as to why, but excuses are excuses…
I do think that there are a few things I need to do moving forward to make my OKRs successful. They include:
- Making them more visible e.g. printing them out and hanging them somewhere I will see them on a daily basis.
- Scheduling weekly check-ins to review progress and remind myself of my goals.
- Scheduling discrete blocks of time to work on specific OKRs.
- Settle into our new home to make everything in life a bit easier.
See this quarter’s OKRs here.
