Heard of Scrum? Here is how you could make your daily life effective with Scrum!
About a few months ago, I picked up a book called “Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time”. And, it would be an understatement to say that it was a discovery in itself. Having worked in the corporate sector, where we often adhered to agile and scrum principles, I thought I knew quite a bit about this concept. However, this book from the formulator of Scrum, gave me an inward view of how it came to be. The values behind it and also, how its been applied to areas outside software development (government institutions, schools and even NGOs).
Though the book did not talk about applying scrum to daily life (since its more of a team framework), I have been toying with this idea ever since. It seemed like a eureka moment to me. Especially, considering its relevance in today’s world, where we are constantly distracted and in the struggle to find progress. Scrum has been always about getting things done effectively, efficiently and in a continuous progression.
So, here is my take on how to apply scrum framework to your daily life:
The Sprint Backlog
A sprint is a predefined time interval in which you hope to complete a set of tasks and produce a valuable output. The backlog is the set of tasks that has to be accomplished within a set of sprints. So when it comes to your daily life, this could be the set of tasks you hope to accomplish in the next few months or even weeks. These could be a set of your personal as well as professional goals. It’s okay to be a bit super ambitious here!
Here is an example:
The Sprint Planning
Now that you have your objectives in place, its important to break it down and plan your sprints. You should first define your sprint duration. In my opinion, a week is the best time interval for personal sprints. Make sure that each task is actionable and it aligns with your backlog. Also, put in the average estimated time related to each task. You can put in your estimated capacity for each day and plan the tasks accordingly. For the first sprint, always pick up a doable number of hours and later, you can increase your sprint velocity.
Here, is an example. I have considered 6 days of a week in the below example. Alternatively, you can plan your daily tasks as well.
Once, you complete the first sprint, you can use the feedback from the same to work on your next sprints. For eg: You may discover that you take more than 3 hours to cook everyday, so you can estimate the time accordingly. Or, you may be faster than the estimated time for some tasks. Also, don’t forget to factor in your other miscellaneous tasks, like, going to the bank or attending a family function etc. Always make sure that you improve on your sprint velocity (the amount of work completed in the given time). That is, the aim is to continually progress and make the best of your time.
The Daily Stand-up
Always choose a fixed time to review your progress on a daily basis. This will hardly take 5 minutes but will be very valuable in helping you understand if you are on track or lagging behind on your planned tasks. Also, there may be somethings you did not factor in during the planning. These are three questions you must ask yourself during your daily stand up.
What did I do yesterday? What will I do today? Do I have any impediments or tasks that may spill over?
The Sprint Review
At the end of your sprint, just sit down and review how it went. Look at the value you produced and how it aligns with your goals. You may be surprised of how you overachieved in certain areas while you underachieved in others. This will also help you to plan your next sprints accordingly. Besides, you will definitely feel proud of the amount of work you got done in such a simple manner.
The Sprint Retrospective
Finally, take out 5 mins at the end of every sprint to address how you feel. Are you really happy about the way things are going? How do you think your past week went? What do you think should improve? Incorporate your feedback into the next sprint!
Though, all this sounds like a huge process, all it will take is about an hour or so of your week to plan. It will only take the amount of time that you spend scrolling through Instagram. It is more than usual for us to underestimate ourselves. But, we are capable and made for the big things. All it takes is to try!
Do let me know your perspective in the comments section. Thank you for reading!
