If you know me at all, you know that I communicate in hyperbole – often – but there is one scenario where shifting my approach to my routine ended up shifting some of my deeply-held beliefs and actually changing my life for the better – using a personal scrum.
What is Scrum, you ask? The experts at Scrum.org define scrum as follows:
Scrum is a framework within which people can address complex adaptive problems, while productively and creatively delivering products of the highest possible value.
scrum.org
Prior to this work, my understanding of Scrum was based largely on what I’d heard from my husband. He is a software developer and uses Scrum daily in his professional life. In fact, in my day-to-day to do list, I thought I had been using a personal Scrum to inform how I split up my list on a monthly, weekly, and daily level.
Boy, was I wrong.
In November 2019, I completed the Scrum Product Owner certification to help with my job search, which involved learning quite a bit about what Scrum is (and isn’t). I was excited to use what I’d learned, but without a job to use my newfound knowledge, I decided to implement the practice with a personal Scrum.
And EVERYTHING BECAME CLEAR.
…well, not exactly. But within a few short weeks, I had noticed some shifts in my thinking!
A Quick Review of My Personal Scrum
The nice thing about Scrum is that it’s just a framework, not a formula for how to work. Check out the Scrum Guide for more details on how it works. Tl;dr: in Scrum, all work is prioritized on a backlog. At the beginning of every sprint (aka defined period of time – I use a week), the working team selects the goal of the sprint and the items off the backlog that will allow the team to complete the goal. Then, the team gets to work, checking in regularly to ensure work is on track. At the end of the sprint, the team reviews work completed with stakeholders, and identify improvements for the sprint process.
Got it? Cool. If you want an in-depth look at how I implemented this in my life, I’ve written about it here. But a quick overview: I maintain one master to do list, prioritized on a weekly basis. Once per week, I select what I want to get done in the next week – and I ONLY focus on those things. At the end of the week, I remove what I’ve done from my master list, reprioritize, and select my tasks for the next week.
The result? I focus my energy on a finite number of tasks, and I finish more of them. COMPLETELY – not “done, but wait, I still have to finish that one little bit…” – DONE.
But I also improved my life outside of the sprints – here are four examples:
#1: I’ve acknowledged that my personal Scrum will never end
When I started using my personal Scrum, my secret hope was to get my to do list to a manageable size. The goal for every to do list I’ve made for as long as I can remember was to get everything done so that I can finally relax.
But here’s the catch: to do lists will NEVER end! If you’re a list-maker, you will make lists until the end of time. There will always be things to add to my list. The magical moment where everything is done is a fantasy.
Letting go of that fantasy was powerful. And scary. If I’m not working toward a to do list-free utopia, why am I working on these things?
That’s where the sprint goal comes in handy. I get to decide why I’m working on the things. I set the goal for the week and select the tasks that will get me there, leaving all other tasks to wait until the time when they fit into my weekly goal – or get taken off the list because I don’t care about it anymore.
Oh, and something else I’ve learned that’s very me-specific: a to do list-free utopia is, in fact, my nightmare. I could spend the majority of my time doing any and all leisure activities I choose, but I deeply enjoy working on projects – doing things actually makes me happy, so I may as well enjoy it!
Now I think of my to do list as a gallery of things I could choose to spend time on. And every week, I commit to myself to accomplish a few of those things. The list is no longer a slog – it’s what I chose.
#2: I’ve learned how much I can accomplish in a period of time
I think a big part of why I felt like I NEEDED to get things done before relaxing was because I had this weird feeling that I should have already done everything, so I better hurry and get it done.
One hard rule in Scrum is that the ONLY acceptable way to estimate how much work is possible in a sprint is based on past performance. Not forecasting ahead. Not guessing or hoping or dreaming. It’s based on evidence.
With my personal Scrum, I estimated how much time each task would take, and tracked both how much I took on in a sprint and how much I actually accomplished. At the beginning, I consistently overcommited myself, but over time, I’ve learned to adjust my expectations and only take on as much as I’ve been able to accomplish in the past. It still feels like I’m taking on less than I should be able to do, but I’m learning how to be content with my reality instead of disappointed that life isn’t my productivity fantasy.
Scrum! It’s not just for folks with gigantic whiteboards anymore!
#3: I learned how to fake prioritizing
I will likely write a longer rant about this in a separate place, but I’m TERRIBLE at prioritizing. I think this is tied to my inability to understand how much time things take to accomplish – if I can get it all done now, why shouldn’t it ALL be a priority?
Happily, I don’t have to perfectly order all of my tasks – I just have to decide which tasks go into the “This Sprint” bucket vs. the “Later Sprints” buckets.
Combined with #2, this can lead to a bunch of self-negotiation, but it results in perfectly reasonable chunks of work (read 50 pages of that book in the next week vs. FINISH ALL 600 PAGES).
I won’t say that I learned how to prioritize – I’m not sure I’m ready to take on Warren Buffet’s 5/25 activity – but I at least have a process to weed out what’s important for right now, which is an improvement.
#4: I’m learning how to share the load
Scrum has three pillars: transparency, inspection, and adaptation. Transparency is all about allowing stakeholders visibility into the work that is being prioritized and completed.
I was bad at this.
For one thing, my “I should have been done with these things already” mentality introduced some shame into the equation, which led to thinking the burden of my list was mine to carry.
Fun fact: I’m married. And my husband wants me to be happy. Which includes sharing the burden of Things That Need To Be Done. He also has his own mental priority list, and when we don’t compare notes, that leads to frustrations.
So with this process, I give him some say in what I get done in a week. If it’s at the top of his list, it goes on the top of mine, too. And he learns what’s at the top of my list and pitches in whenever he can.
But romantic partners aren’t the only stakeholders! This can also help you manage your commitments to friends and employers – does it fit in your sprint? Yes? Then say yes to all the happy hours, helping friends move, and extra projects you’d like! But if it doesn’t, say no. Better to only take on what you can handle than say yes to everything and drop the ball down the line.
Ok, that’s all the insight I’ve gleaned from this process so far. I’m still developing this system – like I mentioned, part of Scrum involves identifying process improvements on a regular basis! I’ll likely have many more insights as I continue to use my personal Scrum for my life.
