Limit What You Start to Go Faster: Priorities and Simplicity

Speed happens when you are lighter and more focused.

This is the second post in a series on limiting what you start to go faster.

The first post introduced us to how we can achieve optimal productivity and many other benefits, including happiness, by performing one task to completion before starting a new task.

In this post, we introduce our first Agile pattern to limit what we start — prioritization and simplicity.

The Anti-Pattern: It is All a Priority

“We have to do it all. I see no need to prioritize the work.”

We have all heard this statement. Many times this statement is made due to invalidated bias or bravado that the solution ideas are the right ideas. Sometimes a promise has been made to someone in authority to do all the work. Perhaps the highest-paid person in the room feels strongly about an idea. We can easily fall victim to these fallacies.

Even worse, traditional software development predictive techniques condition us to set the scope early and deliver it all according to plan. Minimal validation of value occurs along the way.