The 365 Commitment

Day 124 – Personal Backlog

So yesterday as I was experimenting with creating a sprint cycle for personal issues in my life – I realized that I had quite a few items that I want to accomplish in my life. Clean out the garage is just the tip of the iceberg! As I started to think about exerting a concentrated effort over a fixed period of time to resolve a particular challenge in my life, or overcome an obstacle preventing me from achieving my goals, I started to create a long list.

That long list has now become my personal backlog. Instead of having these things I need to get done floating around in my head, I am going to document them and have them ready to go in a simple list. Whenever I come up with something I need to accomplish, I am not going to start working on it – rather I am just going to add it to my personal backlog. Then when I am ready to start a focused effort, a sprint, I can look in my backlog and pick the ones that are the most important.

I have decided on a 1 week sprint cycle. Sunday to Saturday. On Sunday I will set my heart to what I want to accomplish out of my backlog, create a small plan for carrying it out (about an hour preparation) and then everyday in my 365 list, I am going to include things from my plan to get that done. I am adding a few minutes to my morning to review my progress on the sprint, and then on Saturday I will review how I did, decided if I was successful or not and then wait until Sunday when the sprint cycle starts again.

Each week I can feel proud that I did my best to accomplish a real objective I had for my life and that I made forward progress. I can release that improvement that I creating during this sprint into my life and I can start changing my behavior.

I am going to try this for a while and see if my new found 365 commitment can help me stay on track.

Guy Reams (124)
365 Member

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