Life Epics (Living the Scrum Life)

Ok dudes and dudettes, I’m a weird duck. I get that. 🙂 Also, in my last post, I know I promised a different topic for this time but I had to get this one out. Perhaps on 2/10, I’ll unleash the post I had mentioned.

Maybe this is just a picture of how strangely my brain works but I think this idea might have some legs for those of us who are “list makers”. Often I get overwhelmed with “what to do next”, “all I should be doing” and/or “what I could be doing instead of what I am doing”.

Is that ADHD? Maybe. I don’t know. Was that a squirrel?

What I’m driving at is that in each of our lives, there is lot to think about. We’re all busy. So how do manage it all? My answer is always to think about it in smaller bites but I have had a hard time putting that into practice.

Today I realized that maybe mixing my professional world with my personal world might provide an answer.

Scrum Basics

On our software team, we run our projects (called Epics) based around a process called Agile/Scrum. That’s just a fancy-schmancy term for another way to organize your work. Each Epic has a huge backlog of things-to-do in it. But for each sprint (a fancy word for a block of time in which to accomplish some tasks) we work on, we pick some things on which to focus and have a daily call for updates on those small tasks.

Each the call consists of three questions for each Epic:

What did you do yesterday?
What are you doing now?
Do you have any blocks keeping you from moving forward?

This helps each team member stay super-focused on what is expected of them. They don’t have to worry about the larger backlog of ideas. They just work on the items that have been planned to be completed right now.

Scrum Life – Making it Personal

So if we think about living the scrum life and using this type of thinking for our personal “backlogs”, what Epics might we have?

Recently I read an email that was attributed to the former CEO of Coca Cola. I did not verify if the quote was really his but I like the thinking, regardless of who said it.

“Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them – Work, Family, Health, Friends and Spirit and you’re keeping all of these in the air.

You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls – Family, Health, Friends and Spirit – are made of glass. If you drop one of these; they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for it.”

–Brian G. Dyson

Great quote – great thought!

So I wondered about those life categories he outlined; what if I tried to apply them as Epics and apply Scrum thinking to them? Would it help me focus in on a task, instead of thinking about the hundreds of things I could do?

I came up with an Epic list, similar to Brian Dyson’s, adding some additional sections for things like Hobbies. Also, I changed the questions to sort of match what happens with life by removing the “What did you do yesterday” question. I didn’t want to get that granular. I wanted three things: What’s going on right now, what’s up next and is anything blocking me.

Here is my personal list and how it might look.

Life Epics (Run Life Like a Scrum)

Family, Health, Spiritual, Friends, Finances, Career, Personal Business, and Hobbies

Then for each of those Epics, I ask myself the following questions.

What am I doing now?
What’s up next?
Any blocks?

Also, a general rule of thumb is you can effectively focus on no more than two things per Epic at one time. So two items (as my main priorities) for each Epic. Clearly life doesn’t always play along. You might be focusing on adding a new bathroom to your home and the furnace goes out. Scrum does handle these situations too with something called the Fast Track Lane. This if for “production emergencies” aka the furnace just stopped working and it’s 10 degrees outside. Might wanna fast-track that furnace repair but then get right back to your DIY bathroom upgrade.

So you have to be flexible which I guess goes without saying.

I can manage this kind of stuff with Trello. If you haven’t yet discovered that yet, then you might like it.

There will always be a “backlog” for each of these Epics. Life just keeps on creating work items for us doesn’t it? 🙂 And this is just one of what I’m sure are a ton of ways to look at managing a busy life. Maybe if you’re like me at all, this might help you out or give you some ideas into personal organization.

I’m kinda diggin it. What do you guys think? Have other ideas? Would love to hear all about it below!