Notion OKRs: How I Set and Achieve My Biggest, Most Ambitious Goals

One problem I’ve always had with traditional goal setting is not knowing what I want so far in the future.

In Q1 2020, for instance, I started a weekly newsletter called Words Into Works. But after 52 consecutive weeks, I paused it to prioritize a more important goal (launching Getting Things Done with Notion). 

This isn’t an isolated example. In my experience, my annual goals were often arbitrary, driven by a metric that was neither achievable nor realistic. I wrote what I thought I wanted to achieve, not what I ought to achieve to ascend to a higher level in my life and business.

However, that all changed when I discovered OKRs (objectives and key results), a goal-setting framework used by Google and Twitter, among other notable companies.

Since 2019, we’ve used OKRs at Sleeknote. And given our success on both a company and departmental level, I started writing OKRs of my own, both for my personal life and business. 

I’ve followed this goal-setting framework for a long time now, so it’s time to share everything I’ve learned about personal OKRs, and how they can help you achieve more than traditional goal-setting.

In this article, I’ll cover:

• How I write personal OKRs (and why I write them in Notion)
• How I combine personal OKRs with David Allen’s Getting Things Done methodology (GTD)
• The three-step process I go through each quarter when writing my personal OKRs

What Are OKRs?

John Doerr, who popularized the framework, writes OKRs are “a collaborative goal-setting tool used by teams and individuals to set challenging, ambitious goals with measurable results.” 

OKRs offer a means to track progress, create alignment between teams, and encourage engagement around measurable goals. And for that reason, can also work for personal goals, as I’ll explain below.

How to Set Notion OKRs

Similar to my Notion GTD setup, I have an OKR dashboard in Notion that provides an overview of where I’m at with each objective and key result that’s “active” based on the current quarter.

When combined with GTD, writing quarterly OKRs requires three simple steps:

1. Writing Objectives;
2. Planning Key Results; and
3. Deciding on Projects and Next Actions

Let’s discuss each in turn.

1. Write Objectives

In his book, Measure What Matters, Doerr writes objectives are “Whats.” They express goals and intents and are aggressive yet realistic.

By definition, objectives are significant, concrete, action-oriented, and (ideally) inspirational, and above all, inform key results.

Before starting each quarter, I write one to three objectives across two areas: Personal and Business. 

To give real-life examples, below are my current objectives at the time of writing this article:

1. Relaunch the Best Course on The Planet for How to Implement GTD for Notion
2. Prioritize Health, Wealth, and Happiness
3. Continue to Write, Edit, and Publish the Best, Most Concise Book Summaries on the Planet

I write my objectives and key results in separate Notion databases. Then, I use Notion’s linked database block to embed the current quarter’s pages as a gallery view.

If I open an objective, I have several properties that give an overview of the objective’s status, including:

• The area the objective falls under (Personal, Business)
• Associated key results
• Any progress I’ve made

I won’t go into specific details here behind how I’ve set up each property (see Will Nut’s article under my Acknowledgements for a tutorial). But for now, know that the most important property (for reasons I’ll explain in a moment) is key results.

2. Plan Key Results

If objectives are the panacea for ambiguous goals, key results benchmark and monitor how you can achieve the objective. Doerr says effective key results are measurable and verifiable. You either meet a key result’s requirements, or you don’t; there is no grey area, you must be evidence of completion.

Keeping in with the above examples, these are my key results at the time of writing this article:

1. Run 3 Content Projects (Business)
2. Read 13 Books (Personal)
3. Workout 30 Times (Personal)
4. Pass Core Web Vitals Assessment on Mobile (Business)
5. Launch Getting Things Done with Notion (2.0) (Business)

Like my objectives, there are several properties inside a key result page including, most notably, “Current Value” and “Target Value.” 

With “Current Value” and “Target Value,” I can update the key result in real-time, which, in turn, updates the key result’s page and the objective’s overall progress. Here, I can update the key result in real-time, which, in turn, updates the key result’s page and the objective’s overall progress.

While objectives and key results guide me in where I focus my time, energy, and attention, most of my efforts lean more toward the third step: projects and next actions.

3. Decide on Projects and Next Actions

Once you know your objectives and key results, you need to plan 

1. The projects you will commit to; and 
2. The actions you need to take to move those projects forward. 

At Sleeknote, we commit to 80 percent of our projects before the upcoming quarter. We also add a start and end date to each project which we monitor using a Gantt view in ClickUp, our preferred project management software.

I’ve hidden the names of our remaining projects this quarter due to confidentiality.

When it’s time to start a project, the stakeholder—or stakeholders—will scope the project based on its goal and decide its next actions.

An example of a project I scoped to improve internal links on our blog.

For my personal goals, however, I combine OKRs with David Allen’s Getting Things Done methodology. Unlike how I plan projects at Sleeknote, I plan my personal projects on a month-to-month basis and plan those projects’ next actions over seven-day sprints. 

Here’s how my process looks step-by-step.

At the start of each month, I pull in one to two projects based on the key results I set at the start of the quarter. I then use Notion’s timeline view to schedule each project to run one to two weeks based on its size and scope. As you can see in the image below, I have two days left to finish this article if I want to start the next project on time.

Next, I scope each upcoming project, as I do with Sleeknote projects, and move the projects’ next actions to the Next Actions database. Note: I recommend adding notes over a couple of days rather than all at once; rarely do your best thoughts come from scoping a project in one sitting. After, I scope each project, as I do with Sleeknote projects, and move the projects’ next actions to the Next Actions database.

Next, when planning my weekly sprint each Sunday, I look at the project scheduled to start in the upcoming week, add dates to the relevant project’s next actions, and the linked database in my GTD Dashboard will pull them in for the upcoming week.When I plan my weekly sprint each Sunday, all I need to do is look at the project scheduled to start in the upcoming week, add dates to the relevant project’s next actions, and the linked database in the dashboard will pull them in for the upcoming week.

Combining OKRs with GTD: A Real-Life Example

One of my objectives is “Continue to Write, Edit, and Publish the Best, Most Concise Book Summaries on the Planet.”

To do that, one area I need to focus on, in Q3 2021 at least, is my website, in particular, the mobile user experience. In May 2021, Google rolled out a new update—which means I have to ensure that I “Pass Google’s Core Web Vitals Assessment on Desktop and Mobile.” This is one of two key results I’ve set for this objective.

Previously, I had a Key Result called “Prepare for Core Web Vitals,” where I did all that I could, but there were a few issues that I couldn’t fix due to my limited expertise. To finish the job, I needed a new project: “Hire a Consultant to Help Me Pass Core Web Vitals Assessment on Mobile and Desktop.”

Fortunately, Emil, our CMO at Sleeknote, referred me to a consultant that worked on Sleeknote’s website, so I didn’t need to plan any next actions to find, vet, and hire a consultant. Instead, I added a buffer based on what the consultant might from me.

Combining OKRs with GTD has allowed me to become laser-focused on what I want to achieve each quarter. I no longer have an idea and act on it immediately, only to realize I didn’t think it through. Instead, I have a clear, well-defined reason behind what I need to work on, from objective to key result and from project to next action.

Conclusion

I’ve been following traditional goal setting for years. But never have I found a more robust framework as I have with OKRs, and in particular, combining OKRs with GTD. 

Lastly, if you’re interested in learning more about how I’m using OKR and GTD to achieve your biggest, most ambitious goals, check out my flagship program Getting Things Done with Notion.