Are you ready to take control of your life and move forward with clarity and purpose?
OKR planning is the perfect tool to help you set an achievable direction and stay motivated. It provides the structure, focus, and accountability for reaching your goals with ease, making it easier than ever to make progress on the things that matter most to you.
Read on for a breakdown of OKR planning and how it can help you achieve success!
What is OKR Planning?
OKR planning is a goal-setting framework that uses Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) to help you set achievable goals and measure your progress.
The objectives are big-picture visions that provide your overall direction, while the key results provide concrete metrics that help you track your progress toward those objectives.
Why should you care about the OKR system?
This framework allows you to measure your progress in an organized way, helping you stay motivated and focused on your goals.
OKR planning also offers you accountability while chasing after your goals. Each milestone also provides an opportunity for re-evaluation, allowing you to adjust and reset along the way.
- Provides structure and clarity to your goal-setting.
- Helps you track progress toward objectives in an organized manner.
- Offers accountability and visibility.
- Helps you stay motivated and focused on your objectives.
- Offers a measurable way to track your progress.
- Provides tangible evidence of success along the way.
Overall, OKR planning is an effective way to set achievable goals and measure your forward movement. With its emphasis on structure and accountability, it helps you stay motivated to pursue your objectives while allowing you to adjust your plan along the way.
How to Plan with Objectives and Key Results (OKRs): Step-by-Step
Using the OKR planning process is simple.
First, establish your Objectives and Key Results. Once these have been set, break down tasks for each of your objectives. Finally, track progress towards each objective by monitoring each key result. Make adjustments to what you’re doing, if you need to, to come closer to your key results. By following these steps consistently over time, you will find yourself making great strides toward achieving your goals with the help of the OKR framework.
Here are the steps as a list:
- Set your objective.
- List your key results.
- Break down tasks that will get you there.
- Revisit and review.
Now, let’s walk through each step in more detail.
1. Set your objective.
Start by setting out a clear goal. Make sure that it is viable within the given timeframe yet challenging, not so ambitious that it is completely unrealistic. It should also align with your values and be relevant to your overall desired direction.
Structure of Good Objectives
A good objective is written as a SMART goal. It should be:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Relevant
- Time-bound
Examples of Good Objectives
- Increase my fitness level from couch potato to 5k runner in 10 weeks.
- Increase my retirement savings rate to 20% of my income within two years.
- Learn a new language and become conversational within 12 weeks.
2. List your key results.
Start by identifying 3-5 metrics that impact your objective. Make sure that the ones you are choosing can be readily quantified. You will use them to measure success. Write a statement that summarizes the changes that you want to see in each metric. The change should be achievable in roughly the same timeframe as the one you set for your objective.
Structure of a Good Key Result
A good key result, like a good objective, should be specific, measurable, challenging, yet achievable, and relevant to the objective. In fact, depending on the size of your overall objectives, a key result can become an objective in and of itself.
Examples of a Good Key Result
- Decrease my mile run time by 1 minute.
- Increase my debt repayment rate by 5%.
- Reduce my spending on restaurants by 10%.
- Increase my vocabulary in this new language to 300 words.
- Reduce my coffee consumption to 1 cup per day.
3. Break down tasks that will get you there.
Once your OKRs are defined, brainstorm tasks that can be completed to bring you closer to your desired state. When creating these tasks, consider what resources you will need to complete them successfully. If a task seems too big, try to think of a way to break it into smaller steps. Finally, prioritize your tasks by how critical they are to your success.
Structure of a Well-Defined Task
A well-defined task is:
- granular enough that you understand what needs to be done to complete it.
- targeted to a specific deadline.
- directly related to the objective you are trying to achieve.
Examples of Tasks to Support Your Objective
- Find a running training plan for beginners by the end of this week.
- Make a list of the balances and interest rates of all of my credit accounts today.
- Plan 5 meals to cook this week and get the groceries to make them by tomorrow.
- Watch 3 movies in the language I am learning this month.
- Research language learning programs and pick one to sign-up by Wednesday.
4. Revisit and review.
Re-evaluate your OKRs regularly to assess what is left to achieve. Pay special attention to tasks that are taking longer than expected or have become more difficult than anticipated. Make any necessary changes to ensure that your goal remains achievable within the OKR framework. Allow yourself to be flexible, as goals may need periodic updates to remain achievable within the context of a busy schedule or shifting priorities.
Examples of the OKR Methodology
Now, it’s time to put it all together. We’re going to walk through a few examples of the OKR planning process to make sure we’re on the same page.
Let’s say you really do want to go from couch potato to 5k runner. Your OKR process might result in this:
Increase my fitness level from couch potato to 5k runner in 10 weeks.
- Decrease my mile run time by 1 minute.
- Reduce my resting heart rate to 60 beats per minute.
- Increase the distance I can run without stopping by 3x.
- Find a running training plan for beginners by the end of this week.
- Research and purchase good running shoes by the end of next week.
- Find a place where I can run by the end of next week.
- Complete the running training plan by 10 weeks from now.
If you are actually trying to save for retirement, your OKR process may generate the following plan:
Increase my retirement savings rate to 20% of my income within two years.
- Reduce my spending on restaurants by 10%.
- Decrease my subscription bills by 30%.
- Increase my 401k investment rate from 10% to 15%.
- Increase my other savings rates by 5%.
- Make a list of meals that I can quickly and easily make at home.
- Plan 5 meals to cook this week and get the groceries to make them by tomorrow.
- Cook dinner tonight.
- Make a list of all the subscription services I use.
- Decide which ones can live without.
- Cancel my unneeded subscriptions.
Traveling to another country and want to learn their language? Then, you might set up this plan:
Learn a new language and become conversational within 12 weeks.
- Increase my vocabulary in this new language to 300 words.
- Improve my language assessment score by 10%.
- Increase my language comprehension by 40%.
- Research language learning programs and pick one by Wednesday.
- Complete the language learning program before leaving.
- Watch 3 movies in the language I am learning this month.
- Find several articles in the language that I want to learn and try to read them.
- Look up the words in the articles that I don’t know.
- Look for a native speaker who is willing to help me practice and provide feedback.
Key Considerations For Successfully Planning with OKRs
One consideration is how often to have your planning sessions. You’ll need to find a balance between planning for the big picture and potentially going in the wrong direction.
For me, annual planning is too much; it doesn’t set me up for a successful year. I prefer a shorter period, i.e. quarterly goals. I get the most value from developing OKRs for the upcoming quarter. Then, I track my OKR plan through the next quarter.
How to Take Your OKR Planning to the Next Level
Using OKR software can greatly simplify your OKR planning session. The software streamlines the process of setting OKRs, providing intuitive features to make sure all goals are being tracked accurately and efficiently.
Many OKR software products provide real-time analytics, allowing for quickly tracking progress against goals and adjusting accordingly. These features can be especially helpful in managing projects that require continual monitoring and review.
Alternative to the OKR Process
If you’re not seeing all the benefits of the OKR methodology. You might give the GROW model a try, instead.
The GROW model is another framework used to structure goal-setting. It stands for Goal, Reality, Options, and Will (or Way forward). The idea behind this model is to start with a clear goal, assess the current reality of the situation, consider possible options for action, and then decide on how best to move forward.
This process can be applied to any type of goal or project and encourages critical thinking about potential solutions. This framework makes it easier to identify optimal paths toward achieving desired results.
Wrapping Up and My Experience With OKR Planning
OKRs are a powerful tool for setting and achieving goals. They help you break down your long-term objectives into smaller, achievable steps that can be tracked over time.
The OKR process encourages critical thinking about potential solutions to reach desired results and provides an organized structure for planning your path to success. When you set OKRs, you are essentially creating quantitative goals for your top priorities. Look back at the OKR examples that we walked through to help you get started with yours.
You can set OKRs for any time span that works for you. Quarterly planning works best for my own OKRs. I love to achieve my quarterly goals!
You can find an easy-to-use tool to help you focus and keep track of your OKRs. This will make it simpler to track OKRs and even create a reporting process if you get super into it.
If the OKR method doesn’t seem like it’s working for you, there is always the GROW model, which follows a similar framework but with more focus on identifying optimal paths toward reaching one’s goal.
With consistent effort and dedication to tracking progress against goals using this goal-setting technique -you’ll find yourself well on your way toward achieving great things in life.
