October 11, 2022

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[rtime]

 mins

How To Set Practical & Achievable Life Goals

At a glance

Welcome to the new friends of the Mental Models, Concepts, and Frameworks newsletter who have joined us since last week!

This Week: How to set practical & achievable life & business goals

In 1983, Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) were introduced to the world by Andy Grove—former CEO of Intel.

But, it was only in 1999 when John Doerr—who worked for Andy Grove—introduced the framework to Larry Page and Sergey Brin (Founders of Google) that it really took off.

Since then, OKRs have been used by some of the world’s most successful companies.

Larry Page even credits them with much of Google’s success:

”OKRs have helped lead us to 10x growth, many times over.

They’ve kept the company on time and on track when it mattered most.”

So, what are OKRs?

Objectives are what you’re setting out to achieve.

Key Results are the measurable benchmarks that show you whether you’ve achieved your objectives.

Initiatives are the specific tasks you’ll do to achieve your key results.

Credit: @PerdooHQ

Put another way:

Objectives = “What do you want to achieve?”

Key Results = “How will you know when you’ve achieved it?”

Initiatives = “How are you going to achieve it?”

Objectives = Strategy.

Key Results = Measurement.

Initiatives = Execution.

Here’s a business example:

Objective: Improve Company website

Key Results:

1) Have completed a re-design of the visuals and layout of the website by 30 October

2) Increase visit times by 10%

Initiatives:

1) Write a design brief and hire a freelance designer

2) Add 10 videos from content library to website

And a personal example:

Objective: Improve fitness & physical health

Key Results:

1) Lose 3kgs in 90 days

2) Be able to do 50 push-ups in a row

Initiatives:

1) Start a meal plan subscription that limits calories

2) Find an accountability partner and do 20 push-ups/per day

Most goal-setting frameworks fail by not bridging the gap between strategy and execution.

A goal of “Improving fitness & physical health” is useless without knowing exactly what success means.

And knowing what success means is useless without knowing how you’ll get there.

OKRs bridge the gap between strategy and execution by providing a clear framework that clarifies:

What you want to achieve = Objective

How you’ll know you’ve achieved it = Key Results

How you’re going to achieve it = Initiatives

Next time you set personal or company goals, I strongly encourage you to take the time and effort to use OKRs.

There’s no way of fooling yourself or others.

Remember:

I will (Objective) as measured by (this set of Key Results) by doing (these initiatives).

For further reading on OKRs, check out some of the below resources:

That's it, I hope you enjoyed reading :)

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