Kevin W. Gisi

Note: Earlier this week I wrote a post on The Problem With Pomodoro, where I described my own concerns with the Pomodoro Technique. This post is designed to discuss positive alternatives that still employ an agile perspective.

While shrinking your time into 25-minute focused chunks might not work for you (whether because of your work environment, or the way you manage focus), there are certainly techniques that you can apply to improve the way you spend your time.

Determining Features

As a young kid, I used to have a terrible time keeping my room clean. We’d have long weekends where I’d sit in my room, unable to make any progress because the work to be done was so daunting. The floor was buried in clothes; the clothes were buried in toys; and the toys were buried in books. It was almost impossible to get anything done. But once my parents suggested “Just get your desk clean; worry about the rest later,” things started to click.

I hardly knew it at the time, but I was beginning to take an agile approach to the room-cleaning project. And that strategy continues now – when I’ve got a long email to write, it can be intimidating. Instead of trying to spend a long chunk of time struggling through, I hit “Compose”, and quickly write out:

Effectively what I’ve done here is divided a large “project” into three key “features”, just like you would with an Agile project, but on a micro level. I now have three small features that need to be completed – specifically, writing three paragraphs, from the small caps-lock cues I gave myself. These tasks themselves will take only a few minutes to complete. While I may not complete them all at once, I will get a sense of satisfaction each step of the way.

The central conceit of this technique is that we are always pleased when we get something done. Unlike the Pomodoro Technique, where the achievement is the completion of an arbitrary quantity of work-time, we instead have a deliverable (be it a paragraph of an email, a passing test in an application, or a clean desk), that we can take satisfaction in.

Managing Focus

I find that trying to control my mind can be stressful – we are actively bombarded with new information every day, and are passively trained to have a very short attention span. Actively trying to force ourselves to focus on a solitary activity can be a real and damaging additional stressor. Focus is important, but balancing it with an Agile approach to time-management can result in a less stressful lifestyle.

When you choose to divide your projects into micro-tasks, consider whether or not you get distracted. To what extent can you effortlessly focus? Some of us can write a chapter of a book without distraction. For some, writing an email is the best we can do. Some of us get distracted mid-tweet. The key to successful Agile task-management is a good understanding of how much you can focus before it becomes a stressful challenge.

Divide your tasks into chunks that you can handle. Personally, I’m quite scatterbrained, and so dividing emails into paragraphs gives me the flexibility I need to avoid fighting with my own thought process. The key is to objectively look at the times when being focused becomes a stressful activity, rather than a productive one, and to adjust your tasks accordingly. To the extent you can work at a consistent, yet comfortable pace, you can be productive, without having to force yourself into mental habits that go against your regular brain activity.

Agile Time Management—A Misnomer

The lesson here is that time-management does not offer us an intrinsic reward. As humans, we get intrinsic pleasure from accomplishing tasks, and so the real term should be task-management. So make sure to follow these steps if you’re looking to improve your productivity:

• Consider your ability to focus without stress
• If anything is beyond your focus range, split it into smaller features
• Take pride in having deliverables whenever you work
• Enjoy the focus you have, and keep things stress-free

Enjoy your work, and keep it manageable, and you’ll be productive!