How To Use Business Strategies To Optimize Your Personal Life

I’ve spent the last 8 years not only working, but learning as much as I can at work. Since I got my Director role 3 years ago, I’ve spent a decent amount of time looking at the big picture, strategizing for our business, and doing overall business and goal planning for my 9-5.

Recently, someone close to me asked “how do you plan out projects at work? Can any of those methods work for life planning?” That question set off all the alarm bells in my life—have I been missing out on this golden productivity opportunity this whole time?!

Earlier this year, I launched my Notion Productivity Dashboard where I use the OKR method to project manage your goals and initiatives at work. It‘s the system that I’ve been using for the past 4+ years to manage projects at my 9-5 as a Marketing Director, all of my content scheduling as a content creator, and even projects for my e-comm business, Enkel Studios.

It’s such an effective method to break down any goals or major objectives into measurable results and actionable tasks. So why have I not been using this to plan my life?!

What is the OKR method?

OKR (or Objectives and Key Results) is a goal-setting framework created by Andrew Grove, former CEO of Intel and coined by venture capitalist, John Doerr. It’s a commonly-used strategy in the tech industry that allows leadership to set high-level objectives that cascade down to teams and individuals with clarity.

In essence, the OKR method provides a structured and collaborative framework for goal-setting, emphasizing measurable results, and fostering a culture of transparency, alignment, and adaptability within teams and organizations.

How does the OKR method work?

Since we now know that OKR stands for Objectives and Key Results, we should be able to infer that those are some of the things we’ll be hashing out. There are 3 essential parts to writing out an OKR. The objective (or high level goal), the key results (which should be measurable), and the tasks required to reach said results. As you move downwards from Objectives towards Tasks, your items should get more and more detailed and specific.

Objectives

When you’re writing an OKR, you want to start with your objective. Although this can sometimes be tough, it’s important you spend some time here to evaluate and understand your goals. Although the objective can be “broad”, it should still help you prioritize on a key aspect of your business.

An example of a well-written objective could be “Increase user engagement on our invoicing app”.

Key Results

Once you’ve defined your objective, it’s time to figure out your key results. Your KRs are specific, measurable outcomes that demonstrate progress towards achieving the defined objective. They provide a quantitative way to assess your success.

Continuing on with our “Increase user engagement on our invoicing app” objective, some KRs could be:

• Increase email call-to-action click-through rate rate to 30%
• Increase invoices sent metric to 30/month
• Update in-app articles 4 times/month

Actionable Tasks

You’ve now got your objective and your KRs, it’s time to formulate your action plan on how you’re going to achieve your key results. This is where you break down what it’s going to take for you to actually accomplish your KRs. Tasks help achieve your KRs which in turn gets you closer to your objective. In a business organization, your leadership team sets the objectives, managers keep track of your KRs and ensures your teams stays focused, and your individual contributors accomplishes the tasks.

Some tasks for our defined KRs could be:

KR 1: Increase email call-to-action click-through rate to 30%

• Test out one incentive per week for the next month to see what users respond to
• Create a weekly reporting update to get users back in-app through the emails

KR 2: Increase invoices sent metric to 30/month

• Create a bi-weekly reminder email to get users to visit the app and send their next invoice

KR 3: Update in-app articles 4 times/month

• Write a new blog article every Monday so that we can update the app every Thursday

How can I apply this to my life?

Now that you’ve mastered writing OKRs and using them to project manage for your high-level business goals, it’s time to apply this same method to optimize your life planning. I’m honestly kicking myself for not doing this sooner. Using the same framework as above, here’s an example of how I could “OKR my life”.

1 life OKR example:

Objective

Rebuild an exercise habit into my routine

Key Results

• Go to the gym 4 times a week
• Take a long walk once a week
• Have 4 protein-rich meals every week

Tasks

KR 1: Go to the gym 4 times a week

• Sign up for 4 classes every Sunday for the upcoming week, add these to my calendar immediately
• If there aren’t classes available, schedule a gym day into my calendar
• Prepare gym clothes on counter nightly before the workout days

KR 2: Take a long walk once a week

• Schedule in long walk into my schedule for the upcoming week on Sunday
• Set an alarm to remind myself it’s time to go for my walk
• Look for 1 podcast episode to listen to the morning of my long walk day

KR 3: Have 4 protein-rich meals every week

• Plan out proteins I want to eat on the Saturday so I can buy it on Sunday and meal prep
• Create 2 different protein-rich meals for each week so I don’t get bored

And voila! You’re now using a proven business planning framework created by some of the most successful people in tech to optimize your life. Easier than you thought, no?

I’ve been going through literally every area of my life and creating an OKR plan for it so that I can actually have some tangible steps to follow when it comes to accomplish my goals. My biggest tip for you? Don’t save this for your next new year resolutions. I’m a firm believer that NY resolutions are dumb and we should be setting goals and iterating on them all year round. Your priorities, schedule, and wants and needs change as you grow and learn about yourself so why should you have to wait until the next Jan 1st to start bettering your life?

Give the OKR method a try and let me know how you like it! I’m always either just an email or discord message away.