It’s December, somehow; the tail end of a stressful year, but also the precursor to another one that (and I’m sorry this isn’t the cheeriest prediction) somehow promises to be worse. Good times.
How do we propose to survive it?
Although I’m not a big resolutions guy, this year I think I need to set firm goals in order to get through it with intention. Sure, the primary goal (as always) is just to get through the year intact, but 2025 will also be foundational: a year where how we show up and manifest our presence sets the groundwork for everything that comes beyond. The world is changing, whether we like it or not: more Trump, more war, more division, more climate change. How we react to that, and how we choose to conduct our life, really matters.
Lists of New Year’s resolutions never really cut to the “why”: sure, you want to get fit, but where does that really get you? What’s your underlying purpose: the mission that will keep you on track? Why does any of it matter at all?
This is maybe the most LinkedIn idea ever, and maybe it’s because when you have a hammer everything looks like a nail, but I’ve found myself thinking that, rather than resolutions, 2025 needs OKRs.
Objectives and Key Results are a management tool that was originally created by Andy Grove at Intel, but is now used in almost every tech company in almost every scenario. Here, you set a handful of top-level objectives, and then list some time-limited, measurable results for each one that will indicate that you’re on your path to achieving them. In an era where it’s going to be important to stick to our values and make progress on our goals as human beings in the face of increasing adverse pressure, I think figuring out what we need to do in order to make progress is going to be a helpful tool.
Remembering that OKRs have mostly been a tool for work, here’s an example objective with key results from Asana:
Objective: Become the market leader in cloud-based project management software.
Key results:
- Increase market share from 15% to 30% by the end of the fiscal year.
- Achieve a Net Promoter Score of 60+ by the end of Q3.
- Launch three new product features per quarter based on user feedback and usage data.
- Increase the free-to-paid conversion rate from 5% to 15% by the end of Q4.
In a corporate setting, this is pretty straightforward. Each objective should tie into a strategy that brings you closer to the vision for the world that your team is trying to create, which in turn is in service of a mission that defines why you exist in the world. So if you’re setting OKRs for a quarter, the hope is that each one will get you a little bit closer to creating the world you’ve set out to make, in service of that mission. If they don’t, they’re bad OKRs.
Clearly, I don’t want to set these sorts of corporate goals for my personal life; the real psycho move would be to send a Net Promoter Score survey to your friends and family. But I do think there’s value in thinking about, periodically, what your mission is (what is the purpose of your life?), your vision (what is the world that you seek to create?), your strategy and your objectives. And then figuring out what your measurable key results are that you actually want to achieve.
Is this approach a little bit over the line into management psychosis? Definitely. Could it still be useful? I think probably.
My mission is to work on and support things that make the world more equal and informed, while living a life rooted in creativity, inclusiveness, openness, and spontaneity, in opposition to competitiveness, aggression, tribalism, and conformity.
My vision is an aligned life where I and the people around me can truly be themselves, follow their passions, and do so in an environment of fairness and freedom, in an integrated community that is well-supported with transit, education, welfare, culture, and an internationalist outlook.
With those stated, without further ado, here are my OKRs for 2025:
Pivot from being a developer who writes to a writer who develops.
I’ve always identified as a developer who writes, but writing was my first love. In 2025, I want to realign my identity to reflect my actual priorities. Technology pays the bills, but writing feeds my soul — in 2025, I want to prioritize what genuinely drives me. Andy Weir and Ted Chiang, two writers who have made this leap, are inspirations to me.
This goal is about fostering a life rooted in creativity, and being true to my values and motivations.
Key results for 2025:
- Spend an hour a day writing fiction.
- Publish four short stories in publications where my work has never previously appeared.
- Finish the current novel.
- Finish a subsequent novel.
- Limit blogging to no more than twice a week to preserve time and energy for other writing.
- Read a minimum of two fiction novels a month.
Be an available father who intentionally expands our son’s horizons.
We have the world’s most incredible two year old. (If you also have a two year old, please don’t fight me on this. You know we all think our children are the most amazing.) I was very lucky to have parents who intentionally expanded my horizons in terms of breaking me out of a templated life: we lived in different countries, saw different ways of living, knew people from all over the world, and didn’t conform for conformity’s sake. Particularly in an era that seems to invite parochialism and a very narrow view of the world, I want to manifest the same thing for our son. I want his world to be expansive, inclusive, and far away from restrictive norms: a global outlook that values all people.
This goal is about openness and a global perspective, and prioritizing the life and prospects of our son.
Key results for 2025:
- Take him to at least one continent he has never previously visited and make a firm plan to take him to another.
- Take him to a museum or cultural event at least once per month.
- Do not spend time on devices (phone or laptop) around him.
- Read to him every night and intentionally pick stories from different cultures.
Strengthen my relationships with my friends and family.
I miss my friends. I miss my family. We are only as strong as our communities. Until the pandemic, I was pretty good about keeping up with people, but the onset of COVID-19 turned me into more of a recluse. (Moving across the country didn’t help.) I also had what I now think of as a breakdown in the year after my mother’s death — after a ten-year terminal illness which was the reason for my move to the US in the first place — and I made some decisions that I deeply regret.
This goal, at its heart, is about fostering a strong community.
Key results for 2025:
- Make real apologies to family members I hurt or disappointed during the year after my mother’s death.
- Reconnect with at least five friends I’ve lost touch with by scheduling regular check-ins (calls, video chats, or in-person meetups).
- Plan at least two reunions with friends or extended family during the year.
- Meet up with at least one friend in person per month.
- Have one 1:1 meal or coffee with my dad every week.
- Continue working in couples therapy to build a relationship founded on mutual understanding and emotional intimacy.
Live longer.
Somewhere around 2016, I let a combination of malaise and depression overtake me. I gained weight, I got sleepy, and I became less fit. I used to walk everywhere, and I stopped.
If this continues, I will die earlier than I want to. I don’t want to die. I want to live — particularly as an older parent of a toddler. More than anything, this goal is about being present for our son.
Key results for 2025:
- Do one vigorous workout exercise per day, every day, except when sick or traveling.
- Run at least one 5K per week starting mid-year.
- Walk to all destinations if walking is an option in the time available, regardless of the weather.
- Make a meaningful positive diet change, for example by becoming pescatarian and cutting out all processed food.
- Eat out no more than once per month, except when traveling.
- Don’t eat fast food, except when it’s genuinely the only option (for example, on a road trip).
Build in more freedom.
It’s easy to get caught up in a trap of your own making. The need to make more money often leads to less available time and a focus on things other than what you wanted the money to be able to do in the first place. It’s better to be free and unconstrained than to be wealthy and living a cookie-cutter life.
Similarly, it’s better to be true to yourself and your values than to bite your tongue — particularly in this upcoming era.
This goal is fundamentally about non-conformity and being true to your values: two things that are really important to me.
Key results for 2025:
- Lower monthly living costs by at least 25%.
- Increase available daily free time by 2 hours.
- Do not mince words with regards to anti-fascism, internationalism, fairness, or other core values.
- Travel for personal reasons (including just for fun!) at least once a quarter.
Do meaningful work with the potential to make the world more equal and informed.
I want to work on projects — whether by building or supporting them — that have the potential to make the world more equal and informed. I’ve found a home doing that in service of meaningful journalism that helps to strengthen democracy.
In order for this work to be meaningful to me, it has to have a strong, aligned mission, but I also need to do it with autonomy, trust, and the ability to set strategy and standards. I want to call the shots for my own work.
Key results for 2025:
- Ship a product with the potential to make the world more informed and equal, leveraging a technology strategy that reflects my mission, which I have defined and implemented.
- Advise and support two projects aligned with this mission, ensuring they make meaningful progress and ship to their intended audiences.
- Define and implement at least two core technology policies at my employer.
- Open source at least two core technology policies for any organization to use and build on.
These OKRs are my guide for 2025: a year where I want to live more intentionally, aligned with my values, and present for the things that truly matter. They’re not about perfection but about progress and purpose.
They’re also not set in stone: things happen. Life changes. They’re intended to be a North Star that guides me rather than a scaffold that constrains me. If I need to adjust them, I will. But I think it’s more useful to have these goals in mind than none at all.
These are mine. How about you? If you’re inclined to write your own OKRs for 2025, I’d love to read them.
Photo by Moritz Knöringer on Unsplash