"No plan survives contact with the enemy."Well, we have met the enemy, and the enemy is us. Actually, it's not all that bad, it's just that things never go as smoothly as your pen and paper plans would make them out to be. Despite that, I feel this first Sprint is off to a decent start, despite some bumps along the way.
Sprint One: "Headstart"
- Sprint Length: Two Weeks
- Sprint Highlights/Important Events:
- Great America Dance Performance
- Wife Travels to China
- Handle Insurance
- Week One:
- Home Improvement: Yard Work, Stage Two
- Daughters - Mindfulness: Find a Book at Reading Level
- Career Development: Update Audible Profile
- Go Someplace New: Coffee shop in Saratoga
- Daughters - Adventure: Go to Library
- New Recipe: Dahl & Rice
- Week Two:
- Home Improvement: Kitchen Cabinets - Sort Them!
- Daughters - Mindfulness: Backpack Management
- Career Development: Submit 3 Audible Auditions
- Go Someplace New: New Pub in SV
- Daughters - Adventure: Go to Beach
- New Recipe: Skillet Mac & Cheese (Jasper)
The great news is that Sprint planning went really, really well. My whole family got involved, and sat around offering suggestions, helped me add tasks to our Buckets, and actually suggested new recipes they wanted me to try out. We then retired to the hot tub to brain storm and go over what the next two weeks would look like!
In short, it was Domestic Bliss.
I was feeling pretty good about it actually. However, Monday ended up being a school holiday where I live (Scotts Valley is apparently sufficiently Christian that schools get Easter Monday off as well) so that threw off my career development goal for the day, as I spent more time chasing kids than I had planned for. "No problem", I thought, "Tomorrow is their first day back after break, what could go wrong?" This is where (thankfully), I remembered to look at my day planner, and OH SHIT! I had to chaperon and drive for a field trip for my 5th grade daughter the next day.
First lesson learned about the differences between the Workplace Sprint and the Domestic Sprint: Check Your Calendar! Truth be told, in the office you would have something like Microsoft Office (AKA: Microsoft Orifice) reminding you of your meetings, and you would simply take that into account when planning your Sprints. For whatever reason that escaped my mind when I was planning my first Domestic Sprint. This then combined with my idea of dedicating certain days to certain tasks (I still like this idea BTW) meant that when I had a pre-planned, on the schedule already event I was required to do, it was in direct conflict with whatever Sprint tasks I had given for myself that day. Whoops!
So, yeah, I'm going to have to slip those stories until next Sprint. But hey, that happens in the workplace as often as it does at home, so onward. Today, Wednesday, was my first real success. The kids went to school. I took a Morning walk to clear my head, get the blood flowing, reflect on my goals, and then I went home and wrote for a few hours. I then accomplished my Sprint Task of taking my kids to the library and getting them to check out some various books for their school projects. I also (bonus) picked up some books on Home Brewing, Vikings, and Airships.
The important thing to remember, I keep telling myself, is that Agile is an adaptive process with the ultimate goal of improving itself with each iteration. Don't be too hard on yourself if reality doesn't exactly match up with your beautiful plan. That is often the way the cookie crumbles. Or the way the software develops. Or the way the Sprint sprints.
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