✦
Experiments

Personal OKR generatorOne objective.
Three results you cannot argue with.

OKRs work for one specific reason and fail for one specific reason. They work because a key result has to be a number, which forces the vagueness out of an objective. They fail because most people write tasks as key results — “launch the website” is something you do, not a result you get, and a quarter of ticking off tasks tells you nothing about whether anything changed.

Free, no sign-up. Worked out in your browser, nothing sent anywhere, and the result imports into EvyOS.

Key results

Numbers, with a start and a target. Three is right; four is the maximum.

Key resultFromToConfidence
5
5
5

Write the objective first.

Everything is worked out in this page and saved in this browser only. Nothing is sent anywhere.

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✦ How to use it

Three things that make it work.

1
One objective, qualitative

It is allowed to be inspiring and unmeasurable. That is what the key results are for.

2
Three key results, all numbers

Each with a starting value and a target. Without the start you cannot tell movement from noise.

3
Aim for about 70%

A set you are certain of is sandbagged; one you have no path to is theatre. Uncomfortable but conceivable is the target.

This checks each key result against the four rules that matter: it is a number, it is an outcome rather than an activity, it is not certain, and it is not a foregone conclusion either. Then it tells you which of yours fail and why.

One objective a quarter. The single most common mistake in personal OKRs is copying the company practice of five, which for one person with a job is a list rather than a focus.

✦ The limit

An answer is not a record.

This works something out and then forgets it. It cannot tell you whether the number moved, because it has no memory of the last time you ran it and no idea what you did in between. Every calculator on the internet has that limit, and if it has never bothered you then this one is yours for free for good.

EvyOS is the same structure with the work recorded against it. Send the result across and it becomes real goals, tasks or habits with their dates — then the next answer is computed from what actually happened rather than from what you remember typing.

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✦ Questions

Personal OKR generator, answered.

Being an activity rather than an outcome. "Launch the website" is something you do and you can tick it while nothing changes; "200 sign-ups from the website" is what you were actually after. That single distinction accounts for most personal OKRs that produce nothing.
One a quarter. Companies run several because they have several teams; one person with a job has one focus, and copying the corporate count is the most common way personal OKRs turn into an ordinary list.
About 5 or 6 out of 10 — roughly a 70 per cent expected landing. Certainty means you sandbagged and the OKR will not change what you do; near-zero confidence usually means there is no path rather than that it is ambitious.
No, that is the design. OKRs are deliberately set beyond comfortable so that full marks are unusual, which is exactly why they should never be tied to anything you are assessed on.
Fortnightly, in five minutes. Weekly is too often for a quarter-length measure and monthly leaves it too late to change anything — which is why the check-ins come across as dated tasks when you send it to EvyOS.

Keep the answer.
And the record of doing it.

Goals, projects, tasks, habits and skills in one system, with the work logged against what it belonged to.

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