OKRs are not limited to business-related initiatives. You can utilize them in any context where you aim to drive transformation. In my case, I have chosen to employ OKRs to enhance my health over the next 90 days.
OKRs for your personal life
Being overweight and completely out of shape, I have made the decision to utilize the summertime as an opportunity to regain control of my well-being and improve my health. I will employ OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) to establish clear goals and track my progress.
So, first things first, I am thinking about what’s really important for me, from a health-fitness perspective, to obtain in the next months. That will be my objective.
Objective
So, after reflection, I decided on a single objective that will take priority in my health-oriented transformation for the next quarter: Regaining health and fitness. My primary focus will be on weight loss and resetting the sedentary lifestyle habits that I have developed over the past years.
Key Results
I better define my objective by setting two key results to be gained within the next 90 days:
- KR1 Shed weight from 81 Kilograms to 75, by the end of September
- KR2 Run 10 Kilometers by the end of September
These results are challenging, mainly due to vacations (it makes it harder to follow the diet) and record-hot weather in Europe (it makes it harder to run), but I know I can reach them.
Initiatives
How do I accomplish the transformation? I have decided on four initiatives, as follows:
- Diet. I’ll follow a dietary plan that has been customized for me by a dietitian. This is directly connected with KR 1 on weight loss and is likely to be the most impactful activity of all
- Running two times a week. This very very simple protocol is meant to move me from couch potato back to a decent basic amateur fitness of being able to run 10 Kilometers. It is directly connected with KR2, but also supposed to help with KR1
- Three TRX sessions, weekly. Finally, having suffered a rotator cuff tear recently, I will follow a strengthening protocol three times a week, at home, using the TRX. Here, I have to be cautious not to push too much due to the recent injury. No Key result is directly tied to strength, but the initiative will help with running and weight loss.
- To weigh myself daily. Tracking my body weight daily (when I am in Milan) will provide a day-by-day progress report, serving as motivation to stay on course.
Tracking
I am tracking the progress toward results with two simple tools, a mind map (see Fig. 1) and Garmin Connect to track body-weight daily (Fig.2), as well as my two weekly running sessions.
Key results are evaluated daily, weekly, and monthly as well as at the end of the 90-day period. The daily tracking of the throughput of my activities (i.e. sessions done, daily diet respected, etc.) helps me stay on track. For the 10 Kms criteria, on top of the weekly running sessions, I will also have a “long-run” once a month, to check on the ability to run 5,7,10 kilometers respectively
Have you ever used OKRs for your personal goals?