On Thu, Oct 9, 2014 at 2:23 AM, johannes meier
<
johannes...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> On Tuesday, October 7, 2014 4:33:00 PM UTC+2, Ryan Freckleton wrote:
>>
>> [...] a personal kanban to track my commitments, their approximate time
>> frames and when they
>> need to be started (backlog, this month, this week).
>
>
> Can you describe that in more detail, please? (I tend to get discouraged by
> the perceived size of the task when I try to estimate it up-front.)
Sure, I have a personal kanban with the following columns:
- Ongoing projects (stuff that I'm committed to due to my employment)
- Backlog (catchall for anything that I feel would be a distraction if
I put it on my FV right now)
- Month -- this is stuff that I need to *start* within the next month
to get it done when I want it to be.
- Week -- this is stuff I need to work on this week in order to be
where I want to be. This is the column that ends up feeding my FV
list. In addition, emails, conversations and my calendar end up
feeding my FV list.
- Done -- where stuff goes once it's completed.
I don't actually estimate effort or time for things, I just say when I
want to start them. Sometimes I'll put a due date, either one I choose
myself or one that someone assigns me, but these tend to be fluid as
well. The columns are all based on when I want to *start* things, so
it's just a way to determine relative urgency. I also try to keep them
in order from most urgent at the top of the column to least urgent at
the bottom.
These articles have a bit more on how to use urgency as a
prioritization scheme. It also has some relation to the concept of
"Cost of Delay" that's used in the lean community.
-
http://markforster.squarespace.com/blog/2012/1/26/urgency-the-natural-way-to-prioritize.html
-
http://markforster.squarespace.com/blog/2012/1/27/how-do-we-tell-how-urgent-a-task-is.html
-
http://markforster.squarespace.com/blog/2012/1/28/urgency-and-importance.html
-
http://markforster.squarespace.com/blog/2012/1/30/how-do-we-tell-how-important-a-task-is.html
>
>>
>> I also use the pomodoro technique with my FV list, the pomodoro isn't
>> interrupted as long as I'm doing a FV task or selecting a new chain.
>> This I track through beeminder with an easy to reach goal of 12 poms
>> per week.
>
>
> I've been experimenting with pomodoros, too. They work well for things like
> studying vocabulary, but badly for creative work - which happens to be the
> most important stuff.
>
I've found they work well for creative activities, but I tend to treat
them like "sessions" in exploratory testing, or music recording. But
the important thing is to find and use the techniques that work well
in your context.
>> What issue are you running into with alternate FV mode, specifically?
>>
>
> Incentive schemes are tricky, I'm trying to avoid unintended consequences.
> Also, I'm not sure I won't start resisting "maximum resistance" FV.
>
For me, if I'm running into resistance or feel that I need to use
"maximum resistance" FV, it's been a sign that I have too many
commitments, hence the elaborate kanban system :).
I've found the best way to avoid unintended consequences are 1) make
sure your commitment is something small to start with and 2)
understand what your goal *truly* is. For me, it's often to change the
type of person I am. E.g. to cultivate virtues and change my character
to the point where I don't need the hand-holding the graph and
incentive provide.