> This works because it frees me, mentally, of the work I didn’t get to (it’s not on today’s list anymore; it’s tomorrow’s problem)
I struggled to "leave work at work" when there were incomplete tasks still lingering in a valley of uncertainty. Cognitive load never decreased, sleep and leisure time were impacted, and the benefit of that wheel-spinning on the next day was minimal if any. It's hard to make the time to plan like this after a long day when you are sprinting for the end, but it's harder still to arrive ready to face tomorrow without having done it.
Our strategy for standups for all is to have daily ones for leadership and weekly ones for everyone else (small team though). Each of them have the "4 P's". Daily has Plan (for the day), Participation (who do you need to collaborate with), Progress (for the day), Problems. We use geekbot and have it ping people at the start and end of the day, though some people choose to only answer the morning or evening ones and just do all 4 questions then.
The weekly updates are Progress (from previous week), Plan (for next week), Problems, and Pulse. Pulse is mainly a gut check on how you're feeling about things and if you're feeling in-sync with the rest of the team.
I've been very happy with this overall. I think you run the risk of people not being fully truthful in problems and pulse so you have to pay attention to those and be creative about eliciting those opinions via other means.
my favorite statement was this:
> This works because it frees me, mentally, of the work I didn’t get to (it’s not on today’s list anymore; it’s tomorrow’s problem)
I struggled to "leave work at work" when there were incomplete tasks still lingering in a valley of uncertainty. Cognitive load never decreased, sleep and leisure time were impacted, and the benefit of that wheel-spinning on the next day was minimal if any. It's hard to make the time to plan like this after a long day when you are sprinting for the end, but it's harder still to arrive ready to face tomorrow without having done it.
There will always be more to do, but this is currently my best way to free myself of those obligations or nagging items, by far!
Our strategy for standups for all is to have daily ones for leadership and weekly ones for everyone else (small team though). Each of them have the "4 P's". Daily has Plan (for the day), Participation (who do you need to collaborate with), Progress (for the day), Problems. We use geekbot and have it ping people at the start and end of the day, though some people choose to only answer the morning or evening ones and just do all 4 questions then.
The weekly updates are Progress (from previous week), Plan (for next week), Problems, and Pulse. Pulse is mainly a gut check on how you're feeling about things and if you're feeling in-sync with the rest of the team.
I've been very happy with this overall. I think you run the risk of people not being fully truthful in problems and pulse so you have to pay attention to those and be creative about eliciting those opinions via other means.
Appreciate you writing this!
Absolutely! No one solution is a panacea. Glad you've found something that is working for you!