Happy New Year! Welcome to 2024. It’s time to start a new journal. I’ve kept journals for over 10 years and have notes from my time at Bazaarvoice in 2010, maybe even earlier if I look hard enough. They’re helpful for reflection, and occasionally, there’s something I did previously that I cannot find in my brain but still exists on paper in a journal somewhere. Thanks to Bullet journaling, I have an index and page numbers, and the whole journal is more or less chronological, so finding something I’m interested in is generally possible.

However, in the last few years, I have moved away from pen and paper for my daily journals. I still love the tactile feel of a good journal and a great pen, but the simplicity of the Remarkable for me to be able to have all of my journals (personal, work, 1:1s, church, and more) at my fingertips at any time is too much to ignore. I switched to the Remarkable when I got mine back in late 2021 and never looked back (except for travel journaling, but that’s different.) 

Anyway, I digress. I wanted to tell the story of how vital writing has been to processing all of the changes that 2023 brought. This weekly journal has been an outlet for how things are going, a way to keep up with those going through it alongside me, and simultaneously a way to connect with others beyond my immediate network. Journaling has been incredibly important as 2024 came around, and every contact I have went into hyperdrive (recharged after the holidays, or ambitious to get stuff done early in 2024…who can say.) So, today’s focus is handling the full steam ahead of the New Year charge.

Acknowledgment

Like clockwork, every year in January, the gyms are packed. Recruiting (usually) kicks into high gear as new annual budgets open up and everyone returns from the holiday break. And those returning to the office have a renewed vigor to dive back into work. It all culminates in a lot of action, but what progress? 

Some people set annual goals before the New Year celebration, while others wait until after, but no matter when you set the goal, the question is how you will track and obtain those goals. Many frameworks exist – OKRs, KPIs, MBOs, BHAGs, etc. Ultimately, they are all just tools. The question is how to communicate those goals so that they’re understood clearly and how will you track the progress to know if things are working.

I know this will ruffle some feathers, but I believe OKRs are the worst form of goal tracking – except for all the others I’ve tried. I appreciate OKRs for their inclusiveness when you take the time to communicate high-level objectives and listen as the objectives and key results (the O & KRs) trickle back up. It takes time to get them right, which takes planning and preparation. But, if you 1) avoid setting overly aggressive Key Results (realistic goals work fine, and you can even recognize overachieving), 2) allow your team to adjust OKRs (within reason) when appropriate, and 3) don’t abuse OKRs by driving them to the individual level or use them for individual performance management, I believe you’ll get a lot of mileage out of OKRs. Here’s a good tip (5m read) for teams trying to improve their OKR game.

Mistakes were made

Mistake #41 is missing week 41. Due to the aforementioned busyness of the New Year, the week just flew by, and I didn’t get a newsletter published. 

More mistakes were made

For week #42, I wanted to discuss something personal. My wife and I have been married for over 20 years, but only in the last year (since the layoff, really), have we taken the time to collaborate deliberately. In the hecticness of raising four kids (yes, really) between the ages of 8 and 16, we had gotten into a routine of drive-by co-parenting. What I mean by that is that we were just rapidly throwing out items for discussion/planning/execution as we thought of them, rather than being intentional about how we planned our lives. Starting last year we moved to a model where we have a weekly meeting to discuss how things are going, and I borrowed heavily from a structure we refined for team meetings. It looks a bit like this:

Agenda

Agenda items that we have not yet scheduled, discussed or returned to. Copied to the Notes section each meeting as the start of the agenda for that meeting. This can be sorted, or sorted at the start of each meeting.

• Item A
• Item B
• Etc.

Action Items

Updated each week with the set of action items that are still remaining, due dates, assignees, etc.

Mine

• Item 1 (Jan 15)
• Item 2 (Jan 31)

Hers

• Item 3 (Jan 16)
• Item 4 (Feb 1)

Notes

Running history of meeting notes. Dated. Completed action items since last meeting are copied here.

Jan 10, 2024

• Item A
  • Notes from our discussion of Item A
• Item B
  • Notes from our discussion of Item B
  • Decisions are noted. Action items are too, and then put in the lists above.
• Completed action items (items completed since the last meeting, or in this meeting.)
  • Item 5 (Jan 1)

This structure was excellent for team leadership meetings, 1:1s, and other meetings. The only thing not covered here is “quick discussions” and “longer topics.” Pulling quick discussion to the top, and more extended topics get a scheduled date for discussion (along with assigning pre-work if needed to attendees,) makes sure that there is dedicated time for discussions that might otherwise always get pushed out.

Fun