That would be an obvious misstep. Both in terms of objective setting and in measurable key results. This blog post misses part of the value of OKRs: they teach us to set high level objectives and repeatedly decompose them. Here, objectives are instead just categories that provide no focus. It's like that antipattern where managers ask their directs for projects then try to combine them into OKRs. What, pray-tell, does launching an open source project have to do with boosting knowledge? And like, why 20 books instead of 10? And why specify quantity rather than quality or subject? Does reading a book mean you've boosted knowledge if you barely remember anything you read?
A better OKR setup would likely be something like (a bit modified to suit my own circumstances):
Objective: Boost Knowledge
Key result: learn more about statistics
Which is decomposed into:
Objective: Learn more about statistics
Key Result: Work through the Freedman, Pisani and Purves Statistics textbook
Key Result: Create a hundred Anki cards on statistics
Key Result: Make the front page of HN with a stats blog post
Objective: Make the front page of HN with a stats blog post
Key Result: Generate ten blog post ideas
Key Result: Research and analyze five blog post ideas
Key Result: Publish and promote all five blog post ideas
The problem with this I see is the KR itself, not Objective. In 2019 I choose similar Objective which pushed me towards finishing books I didn't enjoy or valuable, so I decided to set the KR as number of pages read or just 30 minutes a day.
I do keep a list of books I’ve read because I like seeing it grow, but there’s not really a goal besides “read books” and I’m not giving myself an annual performance review.
In paper you have accomplished your OKR, but in practice you are further away from your true goal.
The problem that most of us seem to have is that we're only tracking easy things to measure. Everything valuable is difficult to measure.
Reading a book is worthless. The purpose of reading a book is to gain something (learn something, read faster, practice public speaking, etc.). That's what we should be tracking.
Also, this doesn't really apply to emotional relationships for me. Personal OKRs are basically for self improvement which helps me in reaching something I aim for future.
I explored this throughly in 2014:
https://medium.com/@duopixel/the-qualified-self-7f69c6b23623
I have not updated this post, but I did this for years without finding satisfaction, because what I had to address was judgement about myself, not the shortcomings that I perceived I had at the time.
But the exercise of trying to measure the subjective is very instructive in itself. I ignore if you counter my point from experience, if not, I encourage you to register subjective judgement. And if you already do it, I encourage you to drop it and sense how it feels.
Many paths of personal growth require you to do opposite things at different times, so you can maximize your surface of experience.
If you don't set a goal, you might just procastinate over it.
> Consider: the author has set himself to read 20 books per year. Suppose this is double of his standard. What he will do to fulfill his OKR? He's not going to choose a difficult read such as Ulysses, or an existential crisis inducing book such as Crime and Punishment, he will go for what is more superficial and easier to read, because his goal is not to be transformed by what he reads, his goal is to read 20 books.
- It is okay to read 10 books or X number of pages. Now, you actually started reading right! One's aim should not be to complete the KR for the sake of completion, but rather pushing yourself to do more, slowly improvements will be visible.
It makes life as boring as work.
These methods are meant for teams working towards a common objective, where anything extraneous to the OKRs is considered a distraction. This has its shortcomings (I've met way too many project managers who seem to be so absorbed by metrics they fail to see what is right in front of their noses). It's most definitely useful is this context, but not in life.
Consider: the author has set himself to read 20 books per year. Suppose this is double of his standard. What he will do to fulfill his OKR? He's not going to choose a difficult read such as Ulysses, or an existential crisis inducing book such as Crime and Punishment, he will go for what is more superficial and easier to read, because his goal is not to be transformed by what he reads, his goal is to read 20 books.
The crucial layer of meaning is lost when we project-manage ourselves. Life is more akin to a poem than it is to a project.