Spiral Findings

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Perfectionism Monster – Blogging & Work

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I have had several new ideas for blog posts recently, especially given recent travel adventures, but for reasons I can’t explain, I couldn’t conjure up the words to share here on my blog, as you can see by the fact I haven’t really posted since January of this year.  🙁

I had a similar experience when I was trying to research a new topic for my day job.  I am trying to learn about agile product development which is a fairly new concept for me.  I’ve tried my hand at it a few times, but it’s very different from my formal training in software development (it wasn’t as popular/taught in schools back then) and professional experience in hardware products (these project haven’t typically use agile, but they are starting to).

What I was dealing with was the fear of starting or the perfectionism monster rearing its head when I was trying to write user stories.  This lead to procrastination & inability to start because of fear of writing an “imperfect user story.”

Sidebar – I think this is probably a common condition actually, and more so as you get older.  I mean really, if we were like this as children, we would never have learned to walk for fear of falling down.  But now, if you think about it, some of the decisions we have to make can stop us right in our tracks – for example, moving to a new city might be scarier now than when you first set out to attend college in a new city.

As I continue to learn about agile, I am starting to understand the value is in continuous improvement, not just in the product, but also in how the team works together.  The value isn’t in writing a “perfect user story” or knowing exactly what the customer wants right at the beginning.  In fact, writing a perfect user story is an illusion and it could take months for a team to gel to write good stories to work off of because each team might have a different structure for how they would like to work.  As long as the team has a plan for how to work together, that seems to be the most important point rather than perfecting each user story, and then iterating from there.

How does perfectionism show up in your life and projects?  How do you tackle those projects in spite of the nagging voice of perfection?  

P.S. I’m just starting to learn about agile, so I know there is more to the process than this.

P.P.S. I like to envision perfectionism as a little monster.  Here’s a visual for your enjoyment. 🙂

Mornings & Phone Usage

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I traveled away from home for about a week and a half to Germany for my day job, and I haven’t had my normal set up available to me for my morning routine.  In place of an alarm clock, I have been using my phone.

At home, my alarm wakes me up with Pandora playing a station of ambient music (think spa music 🙂) and maybe 10 minutes later or so, the regular radio turns on tuned to a local top hits radio station.

In the hotel, I wake up to the beeping of the phone alarm and I do something I don’t typically do at home – I grab my phone and start thumbing through my messages.  First it’s iMessage and Facebook messenger so I can connect with people at home and check on my kitty.  Then, I open up social media – Instagram and Facebook itself – which I know is a bad practice because of what I learned from my 99 days of freedom project – but as I’m fairly isolated from friends and family while I’m traveling, this helps me feel connected with home.

Aside…let’s not even begin to discuss what Instagram is doing with their ads.  I’m seriously about to quit using it because of all the irritating ads. 🙁

Then I start catching up with personal emails, and then, if it gets really bad, I even start reading slack and work emails before I even get out of bed. *Gasp*

I know this is a bad practice, all of it really, because when I start my day with a cup of tea and writing, which I did only one day on this trip and I have a slow, intentional start to the day, I feel better and it makes the rest of my day go better.  Unfortunately, I didn’t do this during my trip and I need to be more mindful, especially when using my phone as my alarm clock, to avoid getting caught up in bad patterns of behavior.

What habits do you fall back into that you really wish you didn’t?  How do you keep your good habits when you’re out of your normal environment?

Intentions For A New Year

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I’m not interested in resolutions.  I find that I fail at these before I even get to January 2nd and there is too much pressure assigned to keeping a resolution that it doesn’t provide the right kind of energy when I’m trying to start fresh at the beginning of the year.

I have found a few resources and tools that bring a bit of closure to the end of the year and help me set intentions for the new year.  Intentions, rather than resolutions, feel gentler somehow.  This isn’t my idea, and I’m sure I read it somewhere, but I’ve definitely adopted it!

I thought I’d share some of the resources I use in case you are interested in starting your year, or month, or week off with a bit of mindfulness.  I don’t think you have to do these at the beginning of the year, and if you’re at a major shift in your life and this type of reflection would be helpful, go for it!

What resources do you use to finish up a year and to begin a new year?  Do you have any traditions you use at this time of year?  Are resolutions/intentions things that you set for yourself yearly, monthly, weekly?  Do you have a word for the year?  If so, you don’t have to share it here, especially if it’s personal, but I’m curious if others go through the year choosing a word to help them move through the year.

Happy New Year!

2017 Planners

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I’ve been evaluating my current planners after a chat with a friend, and trying to figure out what I’m going to do for next year.

I have four options in the mix that I can choose from:

  1. Passion Planner
  2. Day Designer Planner
  3. Kate Spade Planner/Filofax Ring Binder
  4. Desire Map Planner

But which of these planners do I want to use for the end of the year and next year?

I started by breaking down what type of planner I like.  These are the things I’ve learned over the evaluating different planners in 2016:

  • Weekly planners rather than daily planners – daily planners is too much overhead given the craziness of the week
  • 2 page view of the month before the weekly views – to view the month at a glance, one page isn’t enough space
  • 2 page view of the week – to have enough space to map out my week because one page doesn’t seem like enough space
  • Time for the weekday broken down into 30 minute blocks – most of my meetings during the week are usually scheduled in 30 minute increments.
  • Pre-printed with the date to minimize the amount of time I need to set up my week.  If it’s too much work, I won’t use it.
  • A place for my Most Important Task for the day, and weekly To Dos, ideally with a section for personal and work, because they are both important
  • A place for tracking habits
  • A clear separation of the work day from the evening, so I can remind myself to unplug and make time to take care of myself as well – make dinner, exercise, rest, recover, read, etc.
  • Portable – anything larger than 5.5″ x 8.5″ is too big for me to carry around

I think I’m going to start with the Passion Planner and the Desire Map Planner and go from there.  And of course, like everything else, I had intended to post this before the end of the year, and it’s January already!

What tools will you be using in the new year?  Are you predisposed to analog or digital planning options?  Which tools have you had success with in the past?

168 Hours

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There are 168 hours in one week.

  • Around 60 of those hours are spent asleep.  This leaves 108 hours.
  • Around 40-60 of those remaining hours are spent at work. For me, it is probably closer to 60, maybe more.  This leaves 48 hours.
  • Let’s estimate 4 hours daily are spent eating.  This leaves 20 hours.
20 hours for personal time for…
  • showering & grooming
  • building relationships
  • fitness
  • reading
  • writing
  • learning
  • time to yourself
Just 20 hours a week.  3 hours a day.  We’re not going to give up sleep or food for personal time.  Something has to change.
How do you spend your weeks?  Have you tracked the time you spend doing different activities during the week?  Is it what you want to be spending your time doing? If so, great!  If not, what would you change?  How can you plan your weeks more intentionally to do the things you want to be doing?