Personal OKRs: How to Set Objectives and Key Results Across Your Life

What Personal OKRs Are

OKRs, short for objectives and key results, started in companies. Andy Grove developed the approach at Intel, and John Doerr's book Measure What Matters (2018) describes how it spread, including to Google. The idea is simple. An objective says what you want to move. Key results are the measurable signs that it moved.

For a person, the structure still works if you keep it small. You are not running a company, there is no performance review, and your life has more than one side. The point is to pick a few things and make them specific enough to check.

How to Write One

Objective. A short, plain statement of direction: "Feel steadier at work", "Be closer to my friends", "Learn enough Spanish to hold a basic conversation". It does not need a number.

Key results. Two to four signs that the objective moved. Each one should be something you can check at the end of the quarter without arguing with yourself. Compare:

A task or vague wish	A key result
Call friends more	Have a real conversation with at least one friend every week for 12 weeks
Get organized	Finish my weekly review in 11 of the next 12 weeks
Learn Spanish	Complete a 10-minute conversation practice session each week and hold a 5-minute chat with a native speaker by week 12

Aim for outcomes where you can, and for regular inputs where the outcome is outside your control. Specific goals tend to produce better results than vague ones (Locke and Latham, 2002, mostly studied in work settings), which is the reason the structure asks for numbers.

Keep It to One to Three Objectives

There are eight life dimensions, but eight objectives is a trap. Pick the one to three that matter most this quarter, ideally after a quarterly review. For the rest, set a floor instead of a goal: a level you want to keep from slipping, such as "Rest stays at 6 or above in my weekly rating". A floor tells you when to look at a dimension without turning it into another project.

Examples Across the Eight Dimensions

These show structure, not what you should aim for. Health and money targets in particular depend on your circumstances; set ones that suit you and talk to a professional about anything medical or financial.

Dimension	Example objective	Example key results
Health	Build a movement habit I enjoy	Do three planned sessions a week in 10 of 12 weeks; try two new activities
Mind	Feel less overloaded	Write a short daily note on most days; do one weekly brain dump
Relationships	Be closer to my friends	One real conversation a week; host two get-togethers
Work	Finish the project I keep postponing	First draft by week 4; review with a colleague by week 8; ship by week 12
Finances	Understand where my money goes	Review my spending once a week; set up a simple monthly overview by week 4
Learning	Get working knowledge of a new skill	Complete one lesson a week; make one small thing with it by week 10
Rest	Protect recovery time	Keep one fully unscheduled evening each week; keep a consistent wind-down time on most nights
Purpose	Spend more time on what feels meaningful	Name three activities that felt meaningful; schedule one of them every week

You would not set all eight. Choose the one to three that matter and let the others run on a floor.

Check In Weekly, Without Guilt

A key result you never look at is only a wish. A five-minute weekly check does the job. Ask three things: what moved on each key result this week, what is the one thing for next week, and does anything need to change. This fits naturally into a weekly review.

At the end of the quarter, score each key result honestly, for example from 0 to 1. Treat the number as information. A low score might mean the target was too big, something changed, or the objective no longer matters, and each of those is a useful thing to learn. Then run your quarterly review and write the next set.

Using Xenith Alongside OKRs

Xenith has no OKR feature, so write your objectives wherever you keep notes. A few things in the app pair well with them:

• Life Dimensions: the weekly 1 to 10 rating for each dimension is a quick way to see whether a dimension you are not focusing on is holding its floor. See Life Dimensions.
• Intentions: you can tag each intention to a dimension, so you can see whether your daily priorities match the objectives you chose.
• Insights: a balance radar shows your ratings together. See Insights.

For tracking goals more generally, see how to track your life goals, and for the layers around OKRs, see the personal review system.

Common Mistakes

• Too many objectives. Eight is a list, not a focus.
• Key results that are tasks. If you can finish it in an afternoon, it is probably a task.
• No weekly look. Without a short regular check, the quarter ends and you find out then.
• Treating the score as a verdict. A missed target is information about the plan.
• Ignoring everything else. A floor on the other dimensions keeps a focused quarter from quietly costing you elsewhere.

Frequently Asked Questions