Examples Of Planning Half-Year Goals Using Habits, Apps, And Metrics With Objectives And Key Results
I spent the last few days reviewing my progress in 2024 and setting goals for 2025. If you are planning for 2025 or just the next month, you will find the anecdotes and examples helpful from this post.
American writer, Napoleon Hill, said,
“A goal is a dream with a deadline.”
For me, that deadline is July, giving me six months to work on these goals. I aim to focus on this timeframe and assess the impact by mid-year. These objectives and key results form my goals for 2025 H1.
Although I’ve listed many key results, I feel confident that I can reach 50% or more of them. Christina Wodtke from Stanford suggests writing OKRs such that you have a 50% confidence level that you can achieve them.
Using examples from my 2025 goals makes the framework more relatable and tangible, even if sharing them feels uncomfortable. Generic examples, like "Lorem Ipsum," simply don’t have the same impact when sharing with you.
"A goal without a plan is just a wish."
You’ll see I’ve tried to make goals measurable. I’ve also aimed for goals to become habits so that I do not need to rely on willpower or motivation to succeed. I don’t need to remember the goals, as I will be tracking them regularly on my habit tracker app, HabitNow.

Related:
Summarized 2025 goals (OKRs): Setting Personal Goals In OKR Format For 2025 H1 (Summarized)
2024 goals: Personal Goal Setting For 2024: Not Will Power, Only Habits
2024 goals review: Year In Review: Candid Look At My 2024 Goals And Resolutions
Explains the framework: 2023’s Goals and Journey of Planning
6 Focus Areas For Yearly Goals
6 areas, following same framework as last year.
Family
Fitness
Finance
Mind
Adventure
Other/Miscellaneous
I created an ordered list to remind me of their relative priority. Family first. Miscellaneous goals last.

1 - Family
Objective: Deepen family connections through consistent, meaningful time with my son and spouse.
Key results below.
KR 1 - Morning Quality Time With Son
Spend 5+ minutes of undistracted interaction each morning before 9 a.m., achieving at least 80% on-time completion, tracked in HabitNow.
Include him in a family hug or goodbye routine.
Share what I’m looking forward to during the day.
Playtime focused on his interests, reinforcing mindful parenting. Avoid distractions: no video calls, eating, chores, or coordinating with my spouse if she’s not playing with us.
KR 2 - Weekend Father-Son Activities
Plan and complete 3 father-son activities each month (e.g., Lego-building, park visits). Write a backlog of items in OurGroceries app and spend 30+ minutes on each focused activity on weekends outside meals.
KR 3 - Daily Spouse Connection Rituals
Implement daily connection routines inspired by Gottman's Rituals of Connection. Track the completion rate in the HabitNow app and improve versus 2024.

Parting: Have a brief chat each morning when parting for work. Hug or kiss when saying bye.
Reunion: Discuss the day's events during lunch or dinner. Hug or kiss when we reunite after either of us is away. When we don’t get time to talk in person, send a voice note on WhatsApp before sleep.
Appreciation: Identify and express daily appreciation for my spouse's actions.
Weekly Dates or Check-ins: Have a date night or a relationship check-in 1 night every week. For example, on Saturday nights, 7 to 8 pm. On check-in nights, discuss our relationship and stressors. Date ideas include board games, dinner outings, face masks, or dances. I use OurGroceries to save future date ideas.
Quarterly Date Days: 4 special date days every year, one every 3 months. These dates are like all-day dates rather than a dinner outing. Outings on birthdays or anniversaries also count as a date day, but not outings with kids.
Express Happiness: Greet my spouse warmly (e.g., a bright “hi” when entering the room).
2 - Fitness
Objective: Increase strength and cardio fitness by July 2025 through consistent, injury-free workouts towards my Centenarian Decathlon goal.
Key results are below.
KR 1 - Weight-training Volume Improvement
Increase peak set volume for key compound movements (bench press, squat, deadlift, barbell row, dumbbell shoulder press) by 5% over previous quarter.
I’ve been working out for a long time but my muscle gains have been slow over the last 14 years. Focus on intentional muscle gain. Maintain counter metrics of BMI, waist, and stomach line. Continue workouts in the home gym with dumbbells. Track these in Google Sheets and FitNotes.

Metrics: Increase workout volume per muscle by 5%. Measure maximum volume per set for each compound movement (bench press, squats, deadlift, barbell row, dumbbell shoulder press) per day. Establish baselines: one from the last quarter and another from 2024's highest performance.
Counter metrics: Retain BMI < 24.5. Retain waist < 75cm. Retain stomach line < 82cm.
Quality metrics or constrains: Complete warm-up, workout, and cool-down within 40 minutes (reduced from 60 minutes last year).
Prioritize compound exercises and large muscles.
A rep without proper form does not count.
Do 3 or 2 sets per exercise, following Jeff Nippard’s tips, unless you find research that suggests 3 or 4 sets.
Prioritize exercises with more accurate movement or measurement. For example, prioritize bench pec fly over cable fly. Pull-ups over cable lat-pull-down.
Stick to my dumbbell-based home gym to eliminate commute time, time of the day restrictions, and weather excuses.
For most exercises, keep sets within 12 reps.
KR 2 - Cardiovascular Conditioning For VO2max
Walk or run at least once a week. For example, in one rotation of push-pull-legs, do legs workout. The next time, do a walk or run.
Measure VO2 max at least once in 2025. Previous one was in June 2024.

KR 3 - Injury Prevention
Achieve 90%+ pain-free days. Pain days are when behavior changes due to discomfort (e.g., skipping workouts due to chronic back, neck, leg, or foot pain).
Warm-ups: Prioritize regular warm-ups to prevent injuries.
Injury management: Pause workouts immediately upon injury.
Daily physio: Continue to add exercises from physiotherapy visits to the overall routine, for example, neck stretching. Do pelvic floor exercises daily.
Tracking: Monitor workout regularity and habits using the HabitNow app.
3 - Finance
Objective: Achieve sustainable net worth growth through stable income, disciplined savings, and strategic career development.
Key results below.
KR 1 - Professional Competitive Advantage: Knowledge
Gain daily insights into the AI ecosystem with ease. Track at least one new GenAI insight each weekday. Insights can come from:
Reading a news article or blog post
Watching a instructional video
Learning from colleagues about customer needs or technical challenges
Experimenting with an AI tool
This habit fosters curiosity and excitement at work, transforming challenges into opportunities - similar to the approach in SuperBetter.
KR 2 - Professional Competitive Advantage: Relationships

Maintain and strengthen professional connections. Reach out to 1+ person each weekday via call, message, or in-person to nurture and reinforce relationships. Alternatively, wish birthday or anniversary to 2+ people.

KR 3 - Savings
Invest 20% of post-tax monthly salary. Allocate 20% of my post-tax salary each month to investments. When unsure about specific options, prioritize standard ETFs.
Optimize financial decisions with a high impact on savings or net worth. Focus on actions such as refinancing the mortgage, renegotiating insurance premiums, or reallocating investments for better returns. Prioritize decisions with potential savings of €1,000+ annually while deprioritizing low-impact adjustments.
Quality metrics: Maintain full-time employment or a consistent-income equivalent role throughout the six-month period.
4 - Mind
Objective: Maintain a sharp, focused mind through mindful daily habits, focused and purposeful work sessions, and consistent rejuvenation.
Key results below.
KR 1 - Daily One-Liner Goal
Write a one-liner goal 96%+ of weekdays before I start work for the day. Write the goal in Momentum chrome extension and track this using HabitNow. This habit helped me plan the day and be mindful.

KR 2 - Mindful Workday
Practice a mindfulness or breathing exercise 1+ time between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays. Each session is a focus meditation of 3+ minutes. This makes me take a break from work and be mindful of my day and focus. I’ve increased the goal from 2 to 3 minutes. I still struggle to do this when co-working from the office, instead of WFH.
KR 3 - High Productivity
Maintain 70%+ productivity (time spent productively vs. total digital time), as tracked by RescueTime throughout H1 2025. I had a productivity of 74% on weekdays in 2024.

KR 4 - Pomodoro Focus Sessions
Complete 15 or more focused work sessions weekly, each lasting 20 minutes. I increased this goal from 12 to 15. Currently, the score is 78. Increase the weekly target by 1 session each month until I hit my maximum potential. Target 15 weekly focus sessions in February, 16 in March, 17 in April, 18 in May, 19 in June, and 20 in July, aligning with my goal to progressively reach my maximum potential.
KR 5 - Night Journal
Write a nightly journal entry to reduce stress, improve sleep, and savor the positive moments.
KR 6 - Evening Priorities For Better Sleep
Spend evenings after 9 p.m. with my spouse, friends, work, or a pre-chosen hobby daily. Avoid distractions like YouTube or other unplanned activities.
To avoid distracting myself using my phone:
note down things to do from phone to paper so I don’t need my phone to check reminders.
Use the Studystream app while completing household chores or working on laptop.
5 - Adventure
Objective: Cultivate personal growth and creativity through hobbies, meaningful connections, and new adventures that enrich life beyond work and family.
Key results below.
KR 1 - Consistent Content Creation
Publish 26 Substack posts and 40+ LinkedIn posts by end of year. Achieve this by 1 writing sprint every weekday. I will reduce my writing output compared to 2024, but continue to be consistent in daily writing.

KR 2 - Write About GenAI Or Startups
At least 9 blog posts in the year focused on GenAI or startups to encourage me to think of my insights from my work in a GenAI startup.
KR 3 - Reader Engagement
Engage with at least 5 substack readers and 5 LinkedIn readers (not including family) for feedback before July 2025, applying insights from Deploy Empathy. The immediate next step for this will be to decide whether to send 1 Substack newsletter with a Calendly link or a survey form.
KR 4 - Social Gatherings
Host 6–8 gatherings with close friends to foster a vibrant social life. Each gathering involves inviting one or more families to our home. Decide in advance who to include.
KR 5 - Optimize Meal Prep
Track and reduce meal prep and batch cooking time, aiming for measurable monthly reductions. First, measure total prep time, then compare active hands-on time to total cooking time.
6 - Miscellaneous or Other
N/A
Goals I Discarded For 2025 H1
I selected five objectives and several key results for 2025 H1. However, I also discarded several goals because:
They aren't feasible at this time.
They are too ambitious and don't align with a sustainable routine.
I've already mastered them and no longer need them as goals.
I've decided to pursue a different direction.
Discarded Family goals
Affection: End each day with a wind-down chat and cuddle.
Sensate Focus: Find dedicated focused time with spouse.
Mealtimes: Share lunch and walks on work-from-home days with spouse. Join spouse for coffee.
Fair Play in Running the Household: Work towards a fair distribution of household tasks, following advice from Fair Play, Emily Oster's Family Firm, and Gottman.
Quality Time with My Son: Ensure time spent with my son is undistracted and focused, free from digital devices, chores, or work.
Weekend Family Plans: Organize or join at least one family activity every weekend, including hosting friends or attending birthday parties.
Discarded Fitness goals
Good Sleep: Minimize night wakings and be consistent about the time I sleep and wake up. Consider visiting a sleep clinic. Use sleep score, sleep duration, and sleep consistency metrics from Withings Sleep Analyzer and Samsung Galaxy Watch to track sleep.
Disciplined Dining: I’ve split this habit into weekdays and weekends; I’m tracking this habit using HabitNow. On weekdays, eat measured food unless there is a social get-together. I’m at a score of 97 for this habit and a score of 50 for my weekend food discipline. See Fitness Fanatic vs Feasting Foodie. On weekends, apply these 5 criteria to food to help my fitness goals, reduce dirty eating, and be portion-conscious:
Eat slowly.
Avoid extra servings due to social pressure.
Order one large dish per adult, or less.
Pre-plan restaurants or occasions.
Taste desserts, don't feast.
Improve balance using a balance board.
Perform HIIT at least once a month with a pre-planned routine.
Discarded Finance goals
Market and Monetize Resume Parser Product: I launched a resume parser product last year which made some money over the year, but I didn’t spend time executing my marketing plan via content creation. Execute the marketing plan, focusing on content creation to attract paying users. Be open to pivoting the product direction.
Use Money to Buy Time: Continue to use money to save time. Hire freelancers and house helpers. Invest in software for efficiency. Optimize meal prep time. Blog coming up on solo-entrepreneurship software.
Find a side-hustle
Identify optimum investment opportunities
Review and optimize family expenses.
Discarded Mind goals
Mindful Eating: Eat without distractions, focusing solely on my food. Read more in my post on fitness fanatic vs feasting foodie. Inspiration from A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled.
Discarded Adventure goals
Initially considered growing my audience by 10% through better distribution but discarded it. My goal is to be “known well, not well-known.” Keeping this note as a reminder.
Uplevel in Marathi language: Uplevel my Marathi speaking and reading. For example, I currently read one page of a Marathi book before sleep every night to improve my reading.
Improve Dance Moves: Take 20hrs+ of additional lessons on Steezy and track weekly progress using HabitNow. Do two 30 min lessons every week. Alternatively, take the 1-hour classes from JustDance.ie.
No yoga or mindfulness retreats.
No travel goals.
Do a cold plunge in icy water.
Read 10 paperback or audiobooks.
Maintain neat, tidy long hair - because my spouse likes it, and I prefer it neat.
Done.
Now, time to go and achieve things.
Related:
Summarized 2025 goals (OKRs): Setting Personal Goals In OKR Format For 2025 H1 (Summarized)
2024 goals: Personal Goal Setting For 2024: Not Will Power, Only Habits
2024 goals review: Year In Review: Candid Look At My 2024 Goals And Resolutions
Explains the framework: 2023’s Goals and Journey of Planning