Sprint #1 is off and running! For this month, I have a couple of expected outputs:
The idea of “sprints” comes from the world of programming (more precisely, from the management philosophy called Agile). A sprint is typically a 2-4 week time-boxed period in which a specific amount of work is to be completed. Each sprint should produce some type of deliverable. As for the purpose of a sprint, I like this definition from the article linked above:
The purpose of sprints is to break down a project into bite-sized chunks. This enables the team to plan a single sprint at a time and adapt future sprints based on the outcome of the sprints already completed.
For the coming year, I am going to try breaking the year down into 12, 4-week sprints (one for each month). At the end of each sprint, I will conduct a sprint review to discuss what was achieved during the sprint. I will also conduct a sprint retrospective, in which I will analyze how well the sprint went according to my initial predictions. I believe that making predictions and then honestly checking one’s results against those predictions is the best way to determine how accurate one’s model of reality is. Said another way: if your results don’t match up with your predictions, then your model of reality needs some tweaking.
I find making my predictions both public and explicit is the best way to keep myself honest. As such, I will do my best to document each sprint both beforehand and afterward so that I can learn from them.
As for the content of the sprints, I will be focusing on 2 key areas:
(I will also be doing something similar for my day job, but will not be tracking that in this log)