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Goodbye OKRs, hello yearly theme

Happy 2024! I wanted the first video of the year to be about balance.

Last year, and the few years before that, I've made more and more specific objectives for the year. The OKR (Objectives and Key Results) approach is something I'm familiar with in my day job, so it felt natural to extend that to my personal life as well.

What I found out last year, quite dramatically, is that it was too much. Having objectives, even ones I set for myself, made me push a little too hard to achieve them, and feel a little too keenly the sense of failure when I didn't achieve every one.

Then I listened to this podcast episode by CGP Grey and Myke Hurley about their yearly themes, and something clicked. The concept of a yearly theme is not new to me, but I'd always thought it was a little too vague and unstructured. This year it hit different, probably because I'm feeling like my life could use a little less structure right now. So i'm steering into that!

This video is a bit about why I've decided to go for a yearly theme, and my super simple setup for it in Obsidian. Enjoy!

Goodbye OKRs, hello yearly theme

Comments

Yay! Happy to help. I hope yearly themes work for you too!

Nicole van der Hoeven

This was exactly what I needed. Thank you for the great inspiration Nicole

Olliver Stensbøl

Glad to hear it's been working for you! Looking back, there were times when I needed more guidance than a yearly theme, and objectives/resolutions definitely helped me there. I can see go back to them at some point, but I have a feeling I'll be on a yearly theme for a while! Totally agree on keeping it front of mind, though.

Nicole van der Hoeven

Have been on the Cortex 'Yearly Theme' train for a few years now and have found it to be far more useful than resolutions. As a replacement for goal setting it's as good as the time I put into it. Keeping it front of mind as I work through reviews has been where I've used it the most effectively,

Keith Murray


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