Weeknotes 4
Weeknotes 4 - What happened this week? Sharing what I've learned this week across my personal and professional life.
Intro 00:00–00:34 / The art of timeboxing 00:35–04:08 / To sit or to stand, that is the question 04:09 — 5:18 / What else is going on in my life? 05:19–08:59 / Next week 09:00 — End
The art of timeboxing
I’ve recognised this week that there’s an art to timeboxing, suggesting “shall we timebox this?” isn’t the full picture of what’s needed for a successful outcome.
At the heart of the practice of timeboxing is discipline.
Self discipline in a remote only world is hard. We used to have office closing times, dinners with friends, or school runs to do which enforced a discipline onto us which is hard to replicate now.
All individuals within the team must possess an amount of self discipline and be willing to spend that on the task or discussion at the time for a timeboxing session to be successful.
There also needs to be recognisable value in completing the timebox;
- at the end of 5 minutes we will have finished the small section,
- at the end of 15 minutes we will have finished a larger section,
- at the end of week we would have advanced against our weekly goal,
- at the end of a two week Sprint we will have advanced against our Sprint goal,
- at the end of a quarter we will have executed against our quarterly OKRs,
- at the end of a year we will have advanced our yearly goals.
To sit or to stand, that is the question
I setup my standing desk this week and it’s been great!
I’m lucky to have convinced my housemate (who is also my landlord and one of my best friends!) to give up some communal space in the open plan living room so we can create a second office feel.
I collected a laptop from my client this week, a beefy Macbook Pro which was a nice surprise, so I’m currently shuttling between my current setup and the standing desk — it’s like having a commute all over again!
What else is going on in my life?
Quite a few people are interested in how I’m juggling working with a client, working on my own business (Cluster Consulting), and still managing to have a life outside of work — Good question.
What am I reading?
As a Christmas gift, I was given a Mr B’s Emporium monthly subscription — This months book is The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet.
What am I listening to?
The Intelligence Squared podcast, they’re just long enough for a dog walk at lunchtime.
What am I watching?
Snowpiercer on Netflix, I’m pretty addicted to the weekly releases now!
Next week
- Our first Show and Tell with the client - very excited for this,
- Review Q1 Personal and Professional OKRs (and report back via a YouTube video),
- Continue drafting Cluster Consulting’s first book.
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