Choosing your own KPIs

Day 217 / 366

In the corporate world, we use a term called KPI — Key Performance Indicators. KPIs are ways to track to progress of a person or a project. For instance, in software projects, we could use the number of bugs as a KPI. If the number of bugs is increasing, it means we are doing something wrong.

Why was I thinking about KPIs on a Sunday? Well, I was thinking about happiness, and specifically what decides if I should be happy or not. Most of the time, it’s something external. What feedback am I getting from my clients? How much money am I making? Are others praising me?

It’s not a good idea to give the control of your happiness to external factors. Wouldn’t it be nice to make some KPIs for your own personal life? Things that you can use to track whether you are doing well or not?

Of course, the first thing that comes to mind to use as a KPI is how happy or content I am. But that is too abstract to be measured, so I came up with a few simpler things.

• Sleep Quality — I could measure the number of hours I am sleeping each day. If it gets less, it means I am doing something wrong.
• Physical Activity — This is easy to measure. Something like daily step count or time I spent exercising.
• Learning and Growth — This one is the most important one for me personally. I should be able to take some time out every day and spend it reading books, watching a TED talk, or an informational podcast. If I am not learning, then I am not improving.

If I could just rewire my brain into focusing on these KPIs, and not the external stuff, I am sure I would be able to live a more fulfilling and more happier life.