What to do when you have too many tasks to cope with? Only if there was a way…
The modern (postmodern) world does not only bring tools to make out lives easier but also burdens like compliances and expectations we need to bear. These responsibilities’ worst attribute is that they don’t vanish even if you try to ignore them and they will multiply and merge with each other.
Recently I also have had many different things to do. The main source of these things is a boy who is very close to me. He is my son and he is super cute but also pretty needy and he is not even the only ball we need to keep our eyes on. We need to register him here and there. We need this and that document to be able to get an appointment for another registration. It feels like a never-ending puzzle game that also has a time limit. Dependencies after dependencies.
We even have more stuff going on like my driving test + renewing both of our driving licenses. I’m not going to stress you out more, but there are even more tasks we juggle.
Scrum saves the day
I don’t know if it was the universe or just fortune, I had scrum training for 4 days from Scrum Inc that was enlightening. I had the chance to see how a process can be so efficient and clear with some simple rules. It is basically for companies to be more productive but there is no reason to not use it for my personal life.
By the way, have I mentioned that I’m a certified scrum master now? 😄
Visibility
Even before starting a sprint, listing every task we need to deal with was helpful. Usually, the things that stress us out are unknowns. When you make them visible at least you know they are finite. On top of that, seeing some of them are solved and moved to the other side of the board is a great dopamine source. (That is unlike eating sugar. You need to spend the effort to earn that dopamine.)
Focus
The Russian proverb “If you chase two rabbits, you will not catch either one”
When you have a single task to finish, you are more likely to do a great job. If there are exceptional jobs to that statement please leave a comment. In addition to that; when you are done with a task that you focused on enough, you are sure that it won’t be an issue again. Without focusing on what you are doing, you’ll skip requirements, dates, dependencies, affected tasks, etc…
Kaizen
I had to mention it. Continuous Improvement. This happened to me at least. I saw that the items I need to deal with are melting down while I have more time and energy to do other stuff. I started to bring more backlog items. It may not be the best improvement, but hey! It’s something and I have more action items to experiment on such as eating jalapeno peppers before appointments to have a better crying performance. 😢 🌶
Personal Limits
I even have a burndown chart. It is as primitive as you can imagine but still helpful for me to see what I’m currently capable of. So I’m not going to plan too much more to demotivate myself.
Finally
If you are stressed because of something(s) try to list them down. If you want continuous improvement then try some scrum in your life. 😉
Let me know what you think, leave a comment.
