Iterations lasting a day - what the doctor ordered
I love patterns. Often I apply ideas from one sphere to another - so, in time management, the KISS programming principle (keep it simple, stupid) works fine, as does DRY (don't repeat yourself).
Another useful idea that can be taken from project management in IT is an iterative approach. In one sense or another, we apply it all, but often unconsciously.
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Like every tool, iterations have a purpose - to respond flexibly to changing customer requirements, to get more accurate in terms of functionality to the desired product in shorter terms, better controllability of terms due to splitting tasks into small and multiple control points, and so on.
In life, we have exactly the same tasks - to respond flexibly to the changing environment every day, to get what we want faster, not to fail the promise, to do the planned in time, and so on.
At the same time, many try to manage their time according to the “waterfall model” - a plan is written and then not corrected. In this case, the plan is the most complex, for many days in advance. And of course, it either fails completely, or is executed by a small percentage. Such plans, as exactly the guys from 37signals noticed, are more precisely called guesswork.
But how to write plans that work?
Writing is very simple. To understand that the plan is not the main thing. In general, you can not write a plan, but draw tasks with symbols, or in the form of a MindMap.
Much more important is the process of creating and updating a plan . But the process needs to be given very important attention. I want to share my personal approach.
Now I have only two plans:
Iteration is measured in one day. I believe that all further work is being built from exact work today. That is, the tasks for the day should bring you closer to the most important goals in the general list. And the more precisely today we manage to do, the faster the goal will be achieved.
This may seem simple, but if you think only about today in the key “how to do to maximize bring the goal closer” , then the choice of tasks you will have is based on a completely different plan than when you schedule tasks for each day a month in advance. I painted a month in advance, it works for a number of people in static conditions, but not for an ordinary person.
Notice - no plans for the week, month or year. The point is that when a task is broken up into parts, with great precision you can say what you will do only today. With some - tomorrow. But that of the pieces of the former big task will be done in a month is almost impossible. Then why waste time on it?
The second point is the finiteness of the tasks for the day. Since this is an iteration, I have a planning game and a retrospective. During the game of planning, I get a set of estimates for the tasks from my intuition, and I choose the most important ones. During the reprospectives I write down the diary of the analyst of what has been done (and not done).
In fact, the feeling of the integrity of the day is true.
The third point is flexibility. When you do not hold in your head a plan for the month ahead closed for a specific skeleton of tasks, you can very easily change your vector. If in your head there are tasks for the year ahead, any external changes that lead to the need to update the plan are very difficult. Just because you need to first convince yourself that the old plan is irrelevant, throw it out of your head, and start all over again - calculate a month in advance. What for? Keep a roadmap from the list, and choose the tasks for the day.
The fourth is fun. When there is a plan for the month ahead, he presses. A meeting tomorrow, the day after tomorrow to the doctor, next week's release ... And the organism is a thing that works according to its cycles. To hold on your shoulders the responsibility for what you cannot control - the future thirty days - unnecessary efforts. And what about the weekend you want to sleep off, and send all the plans? It’s not so easy to psychologically abandon tasks, it’s even harder to convince others that you’ve changed your mind about going to hell knows where to go on Sunday morning because you need to take a break from the weekly stuffing.
And when you have a plan only for the day ahead, this is closer to reality, and there is always an opportunity to insert a pleasure like a trip to the cinema.
In general, I want to wish all those who are interested in time-management, not to get involved in them too much. Simple systems still work better than complex ones, and evolution is better than a static picture of the future in the head.
Have a nice day!
Another useful idea that can be taken from project management in IT is an iterative approach. In one sense or another, we apply it all, but often unconsciously.
')
Like every tool, iterations have a purpose - to respond flexibly to changing customer requirements, to get more accurate in terms of functionality to the desired product in shorter terms, better controllability of terms due to splitting tasks into small and multiple control points, and so on.
In life, we have exactly the same tasks - to respond flexibly to the changing environment every day, to get what we want faster, not to fail the promise, to do the planned in time, and so on.
At the same time, many try to manage their time according to the “waterfall model” - a plan is written and then not corrected. In this case, the plan is the most complex, for many days in advance. And of course, it either fails completely, or is executed by a small percentage. Such plans, as exactly the guys from 37signals noticed, are more precisely called guesswork.
But how to write plans that work?
Writing is very simple. To understand that the plan is not the main thing. In general, you can not write a plan, but draw tasks with symbols, or in the form of a MindMap.
Much more important is the process of creating and updating a plan . But the process needs to be given very important attention. I want to share my personal approach.
Now I have only two plans:
- Tasks for today
- General list of goals, each goal has tasks
Iteration is measured in one day. I believe that all further work is being built from exact work today. That is, the tasks for the day should bring you closer to the most important goals in the general list. And the more precisely today we manage to do, the faster the goal will be achieved.
This may seem simple, but if you think only about today in the key “how to do to maximize bring the goal closer” , then the choice of tasks you will have is based on a completely different plan than when you schedule tasks for each day a month in advance. I painted a month in advance, it works for a number of people in static conditions, but not for an ordinary person.
Notice - no plans for the week, month or year. The point is that when a task is broken up into parts, with great precision you can say what you will do only today. With some - tomorrow. But that of the pieces of the former big task will be done in a month is almost impossible. Then why waste time on it?
The second point is the finiteness of the tasks for the day. Since this is an iteration, I have a planning game and a retrospective. During the game of planning, I get a set of estimates for the tasks from my intuition, and I choose the most important ones. During the reprospectives I write down the diary of the analyst of what has been done (and not done).
In fact, the feeling of the integrity of the day is true.
The third point is flexibility. When you do not hold in your head a plan for the month ahead closed for a specific skeleton of tasks, you can very easily change your vector. If in your head there are tasks for the year ahead, any external changes that lead to the need to update the plan are very difficult. Just because you need to first convince yourself that the old plan is irrelevant, throw it out of your head, and start all over again - calculate a month in advance. What for? Keep a roadmap from the list, and choose the tasks for the day.
The fourth is fun. When there is a plan for the month ahead, he presses. A meeting tomorrow, the day after tomorrow to the doctor, next week's release ... And the organism is a thing that works according to its cycles. To hold on your shoulders the responsibility for what you cannot control - the future thirty days - unnecessary efforts. And what about the weekend you want to sleep off, and send all the plans? It’s not so easy to psychologically abandon tasks, it’s even harder to convince others that you’ve changed your mind about going to hell knows where to go on Sunday morning because you need to take a break from the weekly stuffing.
And when you have a plan only for the day ahead, this is closer to reality, and there is always an opportunity to insert a pleasure like a trip to the cinema.
In general, I want to wish all those who are interested in time-management, not to get involved in them too much. Simple systems still work better than complex ones, and evolution is better than a static picture of the future in the head.
Have a nice day!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/117488/
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