Day 4: Epics as Buckets

Hello again,

Yeah yeah, I didn't post yesterday.  Sorry about that.  I am going to try and shoot for about three posts a week, if at all possible.  Don't want to get into the trap of posting and not doing (a common complaint of mine with avid/rabid Facebook users).  I believe last time I said I would go into more detail about my concept behind the different "Buckets" I have created for myself intellectually to organize my weekly activities.  Let's dive into them now.

Buckets:  AKA - Epics from Agile

• General Categories to Hold Tasks/Ideas
• Used to pull tasks from during your Sprint Planning
• I created a "Theme" for each day, that corresponds directly to these Buckets
• These map to Epics in Agile, but in my case I create a backlog for each Bucket individually (JIRA has a generalized backlog that holds all of the tasks, and displays what Epic they belong to as a color code)

So, what Bucket's did you choose?

Great question.  Thanks for asking virtual me.  I chose a set of five themes for each of my days.  The first half of my day is always the same.  Get up.  Get my kids up.  Wave breakfast in their general direction.  Get them to school.  Work out for half an hour.  Write/narrate for three hours til lunch.  Then in the afternoons I do my Domestic Engineering tasks.

When I was first trying to figure out how to be as effective and successful as possible at the daunting task of running a household, I felt a lot like a hungry man staring into a fridge who doesn't know the first thing about cooking.  You know there's a lot of food in there, but you are not exactly sure how it transforms from its present state - boring things in bags - to a sumptuous meal on your plate.  For me I decided I would simply break down everything I needed to do into a general set of categories that mapped to what was important to me and my family.  Are these the perfect five categories that everybody should have?  No, hell no.  But they are mine, and I need to start somewhere.  Will I possibly change them after a few months of trying to work with them?  Yes, possibly.  Why, because that's all part of being Agile.

Okay, enough talking - onto the initial Buckets I chose:

1. Home Improvement:  This is everything from fixing the leak in the faucet, to remodeling the bathroom.
2. Daughters:  Mindfulness and Development:  Teaching my lovely daughters how to manage their stuff, how to call friends and socialize, good study habits, and so on.  You know, the "parenting" part of the job.
3. Career Development:  This includes researching how to publish books, improving my narration skills, networking with other authors or voice talents, etc.
4. Go Someplace New!  The fight against stagnation.  Each week I am going to attempt to go someplace I have not been before.  Why?  Because the brain, the creative  brain needs new stimulus, or else it dies.  This is my attempt to shake it up.  Also, a good excuse to ride my motorcycle.
5. Daughters: Fun and Adventure:  Can range from going to the beach, visiting Cannery Row, dressing up in silly costumes and running through the woods, making music, playing a game together, making YouTube videos (they are trying to convince me to make a 'YouPlay' video with them) and so on.

Confused why you don't see "Laundry" or "Dishes" on the list?  The answer is simple - I should be doing those each day.  I also didn't put "get dressed" or "eat food" on the list.  Those are daily tasks that I always need to do.  I wanted my Buckets to be the things I always seemed to put off for later in my old life.  The things I always knew I should be doing, but never quite got around to.  Imagine if I actually, you know, started doing some of them?

I know.  Terrifying.

But worth it I hope.  So far so good.  In the last few days I brewed beer for the first time in years, cleaned my yard, planted seeds in the earth with my daughters, and served a few pretty good meals al fresco.  I also did some errands along the way, and it was good.

Talk soon.  And please feel free to leave as much feedback as you wish.  I really appreciate peoples thoughts, and it is good to hear from others that have gone through similar changes, and what worked and didn't work for them.

Cheers!