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Disclaimer: This is not a guide on how to implement OKRs in your personal life, but I’d be glad to help - just write me!. Here I’m just aiming to explain my mental state in the past year, my motivation and a bit on how I got where I am.
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I have a problem: I’m not where I want to be.
Ok, I know this is feeling of restlessness is very common, but in the past year, it has been growing and annoying me more with each passing day.
Some of the issues that disturbed me were: I gained weight during lockdown (who hasn’t?); being an introvert, I forget to keep in touch with friends and family (I know, it’s bizarre, but it meee); I feel that I should have done much more at work; I’m skipping my study sessions and feel I haven’t accomplished anything (a bit dramatic here).
I’ve always felt overwhelmed by some of those things, by seeing final goals unreachable because I only targeted the outcome.
On the career side, I always believed I needed a mentor to help me with these “too far to reach” sensation, someone that would map deficiencies I was not aware I had, or “things I didn’t know I didn’t know.” I always thought I needed someone to hold me accountable for my path. So, without it, I had alternated periods of…
- Wander for long periods studying things at random, building an erratic knowledge base, not knowing where or how to apply what I learned. I know everything I’ve been learning will be useful, but where and how do they connect? How can I better combine this knowledge to build something meaningful? I thought I was investing a lot of time getting nowhere. All of this led me to:
- Get demotivated and don’t study at all (that’s how I finished seven seasons of RuPaul’s Drag Race in 2 months), lost, thinking “that’s it, I have no idea of what I know, I’m in the middle of a foggy road, and I see nothing ahead” (the dramaaa)
Last year I invested some time reading about time management, productivity, methodologies to get things done (including the GTD itself). I had resisted the urge to enter this world before because “productivity gurus” usually talk in a way that treats one’s life as if it were a company: you have to optimize your time, extrapolate efficiency, be productive ALWAYS, wake up at 5 am! GOD. No. Uh-uh. I’m not a business, I’m not punching the clock in and out my house, I don’t have a KPMG auditor knocking on my door.
Although I’m very proficient with the technical and practical side of OKRs and writing and managing them, I hadn’t considered implementing them in my real life for the reasons above. I used to separate very well what belonged to my corporate or my personal life.
And then, COVID-19 happened. During the forced confinement, all I read about time management and productivity, as well as the issues bothering me, were sinking in until one given night I decided to put into practice and give it a try. I chose to be my own mentor. The thing is, the methodologies may not work if you follow them rigorously: at least for me, it’s a combination of tools and systems that get me going. It’s a trial and error thing.
I know I’m no genius by realizing this, neither by implementing what I did the way I did, but one thing is to read, hear and watch experts effortlessly teaching you how to achieve your goals, and a whole other thing is you trying to do it for yourself.
Anyway! Here I am with a blank piece of paper trying to decide where and who I want to be in the next 6 months. I chose this time window because it’s not so short I cannot set ambitious goals, but it’s not so long I, on my first time doing so, lose track or momentum along the journey. I covered all areas I saw immediate room for improvement: social, health, career, study, and home. To pinpoint my desired goals, I had to be ruthlessly honest with who I currently am and where I stand. At first, it was tough to write where I lack knowledge (“I’m mediocre doing X”), opposed to my strengths. However, the clarity it brought paid for my ego into pieces on the floor.
After setting the naked truth of my current self in each area of my life, it was time to set my ambitious goals, and that’s where OKRs come in hand. I used it to clearly describe my goals, measure them with key results, and act upon them with initiatives.
And then, the magic happens: all the great things I want to achieve are reachable, and the initiatives are the steps that will lead me there. My week is filled with short term tasks that are perfectly designed (so I have an excuse no to act on them), and I don’t have to keep an eye on the goal at ALL TIMES anymore.
I found out the perfect combination of tools to assist me on this journey:
- A Trello board, with a list for each area, a card for each goal and key results + tasks inside the cards;
- A calendar of my “ideal day” on Google Calendar, so I don’t lose track of time and know if I’m wasting precious hours;
- A bullet journal; yes, super “not techie,” but that’s precisely why I use it: I need to shake off the “robotic sensation” of this whole thing and give it a personalized, human touch. Also, it goes well with my interest in stationery, art (on a very simple form), and I like writing on paper, it gives me the sensation of something REAL that I commit to, instead of pixels on a screen.
I’ve been running my little experiment for 2 months now, and so far, so good. It’s very satisfying to complete tasks with a greater purpose behind them and realizing I can be my own mentor. I mean, I haven’t given up on having someone more experienced tailoring my future along with me, but for now, I’ll be thrilled if I get where I want to be by December, and I’m sure I will!
PS: and yes, writing blog posts is part of my OKRs!!!
