In the software development world we have dealt with the pressure of getting projects completed faster and getting new releases into the hands of users and consumers for quite sometime. This pressure has accelerated with the rapid development environments with mobile computing (your phone). Modern day programming teams do not have time anymore to hang on to failed ideas, to harbor unproductive behavior, and fail to get important things done quickly.
New models or methodologies have emerged over the last decade that are designed to aid programming teams in creating structures that allow them to meet the increasing need for speed and efficiency. One of these methodologies (I will not bore you with the details) uses a concept called a “sprint.” I am borrowing from that concept today for my 365 thoughts.
I really want to get things done. I write them down on my 365 commitment and I want to execute them quickly and efficiently. The problem is I fall victim to all the same problems a programming team does. I decide to work on the wrong things. I procrastinate the hard parts. I do not review my progress. I do not start with a game plan that makes sense and I do not review how well I did when I finish and make improvements the next time I attempt something important.
The sprint model has a few basic concepts that perhaps we can consider? The first is that I should collect a list of things I want to do in my life that are important. That does not mean I need to do them all, it just means I am gathering them and I know that I could do them if I had the time to dedicate and the resources. Second is that you decide how long your “sprints” will be and fix a duration for them. This is important. Your sprints should always be the same length. The reason is that you want to get into a cycle where you have expectations set for your self on the time it takes to get something done.
For example, I am going to make my sprint cycle 3 weeks. Usually when I engage in something it takes about 3 weeks to accomplish. I am currently making some improvements to my home office. This might be something I want to accomplish, so therefore I could decide to have one of my sprint cycles handle that and in 3 weeks I will have an improved office. I wont have the perfect office – but this is the point. Striving for perfection is what destroys programming projects and it is also what prevents you from getting things done.
If you get in the habit of a regular repeating sprint cycle – then you can start accomplishing things in a regular and consistent way. You can have them follow each other, or perhaps give yourself a week break in between sprints. That is up to you – just be consistent. A good sprint has a format that you are going to follow every time. A 3 week sprint cycle should start with a solid 6 hours of planning (2 hours for every 1 week in the sprint). Yes, you read that right. Start your ‘Sprint’ with a full 6 hours of planning. You will need to carve out of your life a 6 hour block of time to plan a 3 week sprint.
I will let you decide what to plan, you will get better at this as you go along. The point is that you plan all the resources you will need, the people, the time, and figure out what you want to accomplish and what you can accomplish in the next 3 weeks. Then you need to have a sprint update everyday thereafter. 15 minutes a day is all that is required. 15 minutes to review where you are at and what is in your way and work out how to overcome challenges. At the end you will spend about 3 hours reviewing your entire progress and determining if you had a successful or a failed sprint. Evaluate what you would do to improve your next cycle.
This might sound complicated and you might abandon this idea and dismiss it – but seriously – think of how much you would get done if you hacked your brain to start thinking in short, intense, sprint cycles that accomplished things you wanted to get done. Instead of a mysterious plan that leads to greatness – you have a short period of time to work on it and fail or succeed. The price of failure is only a short period of time – not a lifetime.
You could apply this to anything. For example, I want to create a better personal budgeting process. Perfect for my sprint. I want to remortgage my house – perfect for a sprint. I want to clean the garage – perfect for a sprint. This iterative process has worked wonders for software development teams – perhaps it can help you and I?
Guy Reams (123)
365 Member
P.S. Happy Birthday Jolie!
