If you are not a software developer or project manager, you may not know about Agile. But you should, because it's a great framework for managing your personal life. 6 project management tips you can use to organize your life. 6 project management tips you can use to organize your life. Project management is the profession of getting things done. Our tips will help you apply a project manager's perspective, skills, and tools to organize your own life. Read more.
You may think you don't need a personal project management system. Top 5 project management tips for beginners. Top 5 project management tips for beginners. If you're taking on the role of project manager for the first time, here are just five project management tips to help you. You start Read More Let's take a look at what Agile actually is, and then see how it can help you.
I've also created some worksheets to help you institute agile principles in your personal life. Download the Agile Personal Management worksheets. and follow along the steps!
Agile is a project management method that is used primarily by software developers. It has also been introduced in other fields, but it will always be anchored to development.
The Agile Manifesto succinctly summarizes the ideas behind the movement:
That might not make much sense. Reading the 12 principles behind the Agile Manifesto will make it a bit clearer. However, if you want to sum it up, you can think of it this way:Agile focuses on flexibility and quick results.
Those results aren't always 100 percent perfect. But agile teams continually refine. They make incremental changes quickly and keep moving toward their goal. They are also ready for change:they may need to modify their goals or tactics often. But that doesn't faze them. Efficiency and communication are also highly valued.
As we look at a few ways you can make your personal life more streamlined, you'll start to take a closer look at how the system works.
If you haven't downloaded the Agile People Management Worksheets , grab them now.
In software development, the main objectives of a particular project are established by the client. They share with the development team what they want from the final product, and the team works to create it. In Personal Agile, however, you set your own goals.
What kind of goals should you set?
I recommend identifying three to five goals that you want to pursue in your life. They could be related to almost anything. To give you an example, my current goals might look like this:
As you can see, there are a variety of life areas represented, and the goals range from complex and burdensome (“increase financial security”) to simple and enjoyable (“Read more books”).
Think carefully about your goals and be sure to write them down somewhere. But don't feel trapped, one of Agile's greatest strengths is its ability to easily handle changing goals.
Agile is great at keeping things simple. Bob Hartman's fifth principle of Simple Agile is "Do the simplest thing that works - then stop."
This applies equally to everyday tasks. Zen Habits puts it this way:Identify what's important to you and eliminate everything else. Look at the goals you identified in the previous step and think about the possessions, habits, and routines that don't support those goals.
Are there things you're doing that you don't need? Priorities with which you do not feel very convinced? Possessions You Don't Really Need Eliminating clutter is good for you, but why? Eliminating clutter is good for you, but why? Decluttering is a great way to start the year feeling fresh, and it gives you a great sense of accomplishment, but there's more to it than that. This simple habit can improve your life. Read more ? Get rid of them!
You can order objects, processes and priorities. And that's a great way to start living an agile life. When you focus more of your life on your goals, you'll get faster, higher-quality results.
While agile teams are flexible, they also spend a significant amount of time planning. Daily check-ins, weekly reviews, and similar activities are common in agile teams. These planning sessions can be relatively informal, but they make sure everyone knows what's going on.
You can incorporate this part of Agile into your personal life in a variety of ways. Bruce Feiler instituted stand-up meetings and morning checklists into his familiar routine. They had great success with it..
One of the planning features you can easily take advantage of is the sprint:a short period of time where each person has a single task (or a small number of tasks) to focus on. You could institute weekly sprints to help you reach your goals.
Do you want to start your own business? Do a paperwork review, where you spend a little time each day to find the forms you need. By the end of the week, you'll be that much closer to starting your business. Other tasks won't distract you, and you'll put your energy toward an important goal.
If you're looking for a new job, an application sprint might make sense. Learning a new skill is well suited to the sprint format. Whatever your current sprint is, focus on it when you have some extra time during the day. By actively concentrating on a specific area, you will be more likely to make progress in that area.
Checklists are also common. Use checklist templates and tools to avoid mistakes. Use checklist templates and tools to avoid mistakes. When we are busy or stressed, we quickly forget the basics. This human flaw makes checklists so effective. We show you how you can create your own checklists to save time and money. Read More Do you find yourself not knowing what to do on a work break? Make a checklist of things you can do in 15 minutes. Do you have trouble getting out in the morning? Use a checklist to document all the things you need to do before you leave.
These types of planning can feel like they actually take more time than simply continuing with your current practices. And for a while, that might be true. But as you get better at them and make changes, you'll find that they increase your efficiency.
This is a big part of Agile. The processes, priorities and objectives are always in a continuous process of updating. Perhaps your needs have changed:you have discovered that you are not wasting enough time to learn new skills. Or you realize your methods aren't the best:early evening is not a good time to clean and organize your home.
Whatever the reason, take some time to think about how you can improve what you're doing. If you have missed a process or goal, now is the time to recommit. Periodically reviewing your processes and goals will help you adjust your personal management system so you can do what you want.
You can schedule a weekly brainstorming session or just keep a mindset of continuous improvement. (You can use a journal template How to Start a Journaling Habit With 7 Simple Templates How to Start a Journaling Habit With 7 Simple Templates If you have a journal template, you have a great advantage:you don't have to figure out what Writing templates save time and they also reduce startup friction. Read More
Now that you understand the four steps to building an Agile personal management system, it's time to get started. Download the Agile Personal Management worksheets. and fill them. They will help you identify goals, create checklists, and successfully upgrade your system.
Above all else, remember that Agile is about being flexible and efficient. Don't put a process where you don't need it. Don't use a tool that is more complicated than it needs to be. Keep everything as simple as possible and focus on your goals. You'll be an agile productivity master in no time.
Let us know how it goes! We would love to hear from you. And be sure to chime in with your best tips on how to incorporate agile principles into your personal life.
