Applying Agile to New Year's Resolutions - Part 3

hi there. Welcome to part three of New Year's Resolutions series. Serious, Today we'll talk about finalizing your New Year's goals and resolutions, using the remaining Scrum principles. Let's go. So let's recap where we are. We've done the review session, meaning that we've reviewed our progress on our goals and resolutions So far, what worked, what didn't , we've created a backlog file on our phones or in our notebooks. We've picked the sprint duration that we think. The right duration for the type of goals or resolutions that we have, and also the right duration for our own personality where it's short enough for us to fill the deadline approach and, but long enough for us to generate some results. We've also evaluated sprint capacity by looking at our calendar and our commitments. We've picked the sprint objective and we've done some preliminary backlog. So it's been a week. Hopefully we had some time to think about our goals and resolutions and which ones we should pick for the first sprint. As I've mentioned in my previous podcast, there are three different ways you can go about choosing your first Prince goals. They can be complimentary to the major commitment that you are working on. I give an example of studying for a CPA exam or bar exam or something like that. So you would pick a goal that would help you achieve this external commitment. You can pick goals that will guarantee T a better work-life balance and therefore avoid burnout. or you can pick goals that have the most strategic byproducts. If you want to learn more, check out the episode from last week. Finalizing sprint goals Now it's time to finalize your sprint goals. So what you need to do is to create a new text file or open up a new page in your notebook. If you are a pen and paper type of person. and you can call it sprint one, or you can call it January Sprint. If your duration is one month, or you can call it Q1 sprint. It's up to you how you want to call it, but it should be a separate file from your backlog. In the next line, you put your duration, your date, let's say from January 1st till January 31st, or from January 1st till March 15th. Whatever duration you decided to pick, just write down the dates so that you know when the sprint ends and again, this deadline is very helpful and you need to see it on a daily basis. Then you write your sprint objective in one sentence. It shouldn't be more than that. It should be something that you can communicate easily to another person if they ask what you are working on. Again, not that you have to, but this is the format that I want you to think about where it's short, concise, and easy to understand. And then you list out all the sprint goals that you have selected for the first. Checkpoints This are the checkpoints that I want you to run every sprint goal. Is it something that you have full control over? A much better goal would be to create and publish 10 videos on YouTube versus gaining a thousand subscribers. . Creating and publishing videos is something that you have a full control over. While getting a thousand subscribers is something that is dependent on other factors that are outside of your control for the most part. The next checkpoint is that the total sum of all the goals should not exceed your sprint capacity. So you shouldn't put more goals than you have time a. Then all the goals should be listed in order of priorities. And the top one should be the closest to the sprint objective. Adding definition of done Then once you are done listing out your goals and organizing them in order of priority with the top one being the closest to the sprint objective. Then you should add a definition of done for each of the goals. How will you know that it's done? And this definition of done should be highly objective, not subjective. . Meaning if you were to show this definition of done to a random person from the street, they would be able to evaluate if the goal is achieved or not. In one of my previous episodes, I gave an example of a home renovation project. Making a room look nicer is not a good definition of done because it's highly subject. , what does it mean? Nicer to me is not the same thing as nicer to you. And how do you know when you are done making something look nicer? In contrast, if your definition of done stays that by the end of the sprint the curtains should be up. Coffee table assembled. , Pillows and throws at it to the couch and two, three paintings, hand on the wall. This is an objective and good definition of done. Why is that? Because a random person from the street can walk into your living. Check for all these items and agree with you a hundred percent on whether the goal is achieved or not. So why is it important to create a very clear and objective definition of done? I like to say that personal productivity is not about time manage. It's about self-management. You can't manage time. There is 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. That's it. That's fixed. What is there to manage? the only thing that you can manage is your, And more precisely your brain. An objective definition of done brings clarity and stops any confusion. And our brains love clarity when tasks are clearly defined. There is a lot less resistance coming from our brain. At any given point, we can negotiate with ourselves, with our brain and say, listen, all we have left to do for this project , is to assemble a coffee. That's it. Everything else is done, and once we are done with the coffee table, we can cross this out and forget about the living room. For the time being, this goal is complete. In contrast, when we have a very vague goal of improving something or making something look nicer, the end is never in. , there is always much more that you can do. As a response to this never ending to-do list. Our brain generates a lot of resistance, which is much harder to overcome. A clear definition of done will help you on a daily basis when you go through the. because it'll have a very clear image of what you are trying to achieve. And your brain will be much easier to work with when there is such clarity. So every goal or resolution for your sprint should have a clear definition of done. When will you know that it is done? If you want to go to the gym more often, how many times per week and for how long? If you want to eat healthier, how does it look like? What do you mean? Remember, if a random person was observing you, how would they know you are sticking to your newest resolution? It should be that easy to understand. If you want to start the YouTube channel, what would your progress be at the end of the first print? And remember, the progress should be measured in things you have full control over. So every goal you have, how would you know when you are done? If it's a habit that you're trying to build, then how many times do you want to go through this behavior? At what point do you think it'll become automatic? How many times for how? , these things are important. So that's it. Once you are done creating the definition of done for each of the goals, well, first of all, you shouldn't have too many goals to start , because we've done the sprint capacity calculation and probably you don. A lot of time available. So you should have a very manageable list of sprint goals or resolutions. Therefore creating the definition of done shouldn't take you too much time. And once you are done that. You are done planning your first sprint. Recommendations of a successful first sprint Congratulations, and now you are all good to go and have your first sprint. I have five episodes that I have in my archive that I think you should listen. This five episodes will make sure that your first sprint goes smooth. . So the first one is the one way to do list. The second one is the daily standups. Third one is how to create and follow your schedule. Fourth one, the one question that stops my procrastination, and the fifth one, the one question that turns a lazy day. So the first three are more like tools and , , scrum concepts. And the last two are more about self-management, and again, talking to your brain and making sure that it's on board to do the things that you said you wanna do. And once you are done going through your first print, don't forget to do this print review at the end of the sprint. You need to do that to get that feedback loop started. The one that I've talked about in the first part of this series. I've walked you through the steps. If you don't remember, I have a separate episode on sprint review or Sprint with respective people call it different things. So now that you will start going through your first sprint, you will learn a lot about the goals that you've set, about your own productivity, about your own self-management, and how you. work together with your brain to fight resistance, procrastination, laziness, and all of that. So in order to make your next sprint even more effective, you need to have a solid foundation that consists of the learnings from the first sprint. So again, don't forget to do the sprint review. It's one of the most important parts of the whole agile methodology because otherwise you don't have the feedback loop going and you don't have the incremental. improvement process going on. If you want to launch a side hustle next year So if you went through these exercises and decided that one of your sprint goals or resolutions is to launch a side business, a podcast, a YouTube channel, build an app, check out the free workshop that I'm teaching, specifically designed. Launching products and services in three months or less using agile principles. The link is in the show notes. You learn practical tips on how you can launch your creation in the very short period of time. I'll be teaching this workshop for a limited time, make sure to reserve your spot while it's available. If you have any questions about the concepts that I've taught. New Year's Resolution series, feel free to send me a message through the contact page on my website, monthly method.com. The link will be in the show notes. I'll be more than happy to clarify some of the things, or maybe even record the Q&A episode if I have enough questions . So that's it. Have a fantastic week. Happy holidays and Happy New Year and I'll talk to you in 2023. Cheers.