Avatar photoSteven Savage

My Agile Life: Overwork

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, Steve’s LinkedIn, and Steve’s Tumblr)

(My continuing “Agile Life” column, where I use Scrum for a more balanced and productive life continues).

Uhg.  So as you know from my blogging about agile techniques, I’ve been getting overloaded.  I’m trying to fix this with some success.  So here’s what I’ve been trying.

  • Velocity.  Velocity, the measure of work done in a timeframe, is a big part of Scrum.  One reason to measure it is to see what you can do – but another is to make sure you’re not overloaded.  I can tell my usual workload doesn’t quite work out, so I’m trying to reduce it a bit here and there.  EXAMPLE: Restructuring how much I put into a given project a month.
  • Effectiveness.  Do things better.  I’ve found you can also save time just by doing stuff better.  EXAMPLE: I made graphic templates for upcoming graphic work.
  • Letting go of the schedule.  Work done on time doesn’t matter if it’s poorly done.  You have to re-evaluate and re-assess your schedules and in some cases dispose of them entirely.  EXAMPLE: I had some library donations to make that kept getting interrupted, so I had to accept “it gets done when it gets done.”
  • Iterativeness.  The flipside of efficiency is to not try to be perfect.  Some things are iterative, things you do over and over or regularly.  These can be improved, or mistakes compensated for.  EXAMPLE: Cleaning.  If I miss a hard water stain in the shower it won’t kill me as I’ll fix that next week.
  • Capture.  Be sure to capture any big blocks of time you want to use for something.  EXAMPLE: I have some convention speaking coming up so I literally put it in my schedule as a big block of time to note “I will be doing nothing else then.”
  • Sizing.  I’m sticking with the Fibonacci numbers for sizing my work – in hours – as it seems to produce better estimates.

I’ve also looked at things that mess up my planning and scheduling and productivity.  The Antipatterns.  They are

  • Loading Up.  When you find your maximum velocity of work, it doesn’t mean it’s what you should do.  It’s what you’re capable of when you push yourself.  What is you sustainable rate?
  • Lumping.  When possible break things down so you can calculate your workload – and because it lets you adapt better.
  • Missing lumps.  Some things are just purely about a time commitment, like “setting aside X hours to relax.”  Some things are better lumped together just so you’re not micromanaging.
  • Not looking at value.  When you do something ask what makes it useful – believe me there’s some surprises in there.
  • Bad Deadlines.  Again, deadlines should serve quality, not the other way around.
  • No goals.  When you don’t have goals, you can’t plan.  We often substitute panic, deadlines, etc. for goals – those aren’t goals.  Goals are positive.
  • Done over quality.  Doing something fast poorly can be worthless.
  • Rigidity.  Agile methods are about embracing change, and if you have to keep things rigid, you’re not Agile.  You need to find ways to be adaptable.

Hope these help you out.  Something to look out for in your own life – and anyone you manage.

(By the way I do plenty of books for coaching people to improve in various areas, which may also help you out!)

– Steve

Steve’s Update 8/7/2017

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, www.SeventhSanctum.com, and Steve’s Tumblr)

It’s my weekly Scrum style standup for my audience, so where am I?

First, apologies for missing another start-of-month update two months in a row.  It’s like I forget to do a post on those times, and will try not to do that.

So August’s goals are pretty much get out the Way With Worlds Book 3, keep writing “A Bridge To The Quiet Planet,” and I may get out a generator or two.

So what have I done the last week?

  • “A Bridge To The Quiet Planet”: Chapter #4 was released to my pre-readers.  Remember if you want to pre-read, let me know.  Plus I also integrated a lot of feedback – what I’m doing is, as feedback comes, reviewing past chapters to correct any mistakes or common mistakes.  Definitely helped, but a bit draining.
  • Blogging: I recorded more blog posts – so as you can guess, more is coming!  I have some pretty interesting stuff coming up!
  • Speaking: I spoke at Kin-Yoobi con (and really I gotta post the Asian Cooking Hacks handout).

What am I going to do this week:

  • Way With Worlds Minibook #3: I’m going to do the cover and hopefully the edits.
  • “A Bridge To The Quiet Planet:” General writing, finish up Chapter 5 and probably do some more fleshing around of the plot to incorporate some changes I came up with.
  • Generators: I’ve actually got a new generator queued up and I plan to launch it.  I think I may do “funnier” generators for the rest of the year, take a bit of a break.

Challenges:

  • Fair warning this month opened with a lot of unexpected issues; friends moving, friends having job changes, friends with family health issues, etc.  So I might see some interruptions.

– Steve

A Writer’s Life: Writing And The Models

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr)

My friend Serdar was discussing why we write and why it’s valuable.  If you haven’t read is stuff, scope it out, his Flight of the Vajra is one of my influences to write again.

He talks about why some writing fails at a point, and how writing is a way of modeling.

The tough part is for that model to be properly informed by real human behavior and real-world facts. Most of the bad writing I’ve encountered is either ignorant of the way the world works in its most mechanical aspects, or depicts models of human behavior that are either too flat or too ludicrious to pass for the real thing, or (worst of all) both of those things acting in concert.

 

He’s right on many flawed works – yet also we see flawed works be enjoyed by people.  All of us may enjoy some flawed or just outright shallow stuff – not in the MST3K/Rifftrax way – but we really enjoy them.  I know I’ve enjoyed my share of, let us be frank, pandering B.S.

I think some things appeal to people – even with flawed models of behavior and world – due to audience participation.

On the “lowest” level a story may be very flawed, but if it tickles our sweet spots, we enjoy it.  Perhaps there are many guilty pleasures here, but also things that may be profound at least in what they tell us, moments of artistic madness.  We bring these stories to life because they fit our desires.

Then there are stories that are very trope-filled. Because they’re familiar, we may enjoy them, even when they’re not exactly realistic or believable.  Our “suspension of disbelief” is a high-wire act, but because familiar themes are involved, we embrace them.  Cultural and media tropes bring these stories to life, and we power them with our belief.

Finally, there are stories and settings that come alive due to the way the creators work.  The things we “get” even if they may be alien or bizarre or unfamiliar.  These are rare and powerful works at their best.  They come to life because the creator makes something believable, even if we may have trouble relating to it, and we bring it to life because we “get” what’s going on.

Perhaps when writing, we should set goals for how we want the work to come to life.  Many of us may aspire to the last category, but there may be nothing wrong with a lot of tropes or some pandering if other ethical/personal concerns are addressed.

– Steve