#mayo writes with scrum

[littlestsnicket]

sprint review wednesday! 2/2 tasks completed last week! and i read way more than half of harrow the ninth, i have less than 100 pages left including all the extra stuff at the end, i think that’s about 40 pages of actual story left.

idk about the tasks for this week. i am not feeling it in a specific ‘my brain has been consumed by tlt but in a private non-fannish way’. but i do want to push myself to stay in the writing habit. so going to write something. anything.

(also what i ended up doing last week was rereading the disparate scenes i had written for the witchyr app fic idea i stole from @kuwdora and adding a bit of silly geraskier conversation. which is… i’m not writing that. doing it justice would be like a book series and i’m not saying i would never do that, i would in fact like to be someone who did that, but that is not at all on the list of things i intend to buckle down and actually write any time soon. but ugh i do really want to write a story where it’s cyberpunk themes with all the 80s/90s trappings pulled out so it looks like a version of what we might think 2030 would look like now, where we’ve solved some things and other things have gotten worse. idk i yearn for a very specific sort of sci-fi that i think would be easier to write myself than try and articulate sufficiently. kuwdora’s idea was already too big and i’ve gone and made it so much worse :D )

[zenspacedesks]

The Morning Huddle

Sir Richard Branson writes: “Living up to my love of screwing business as usual, I like to take a different approach to meetings. One of my favourite tricks is to conduct meetings standing up, I find it to be a quicker way of getting down to business, making a decision and sealing the deal” and we can’t agree more!

Times are changing and so as major businesses as we see small firms and corporations do more to take care of their employees. And we are not just talking about the trendy Silicon Valley startups. From reinventing organization design to improving employee experience, the latest workplace trends show that work can be less of a drag.

Standing desks, better health programs and ping pong tables are certainly in. Cool offices with comfy chairs and huge conference areas are a thing now to compete and attract great talents. But there certainly is more to stylish office furniture than good taste. The idea behind it is that brainstorm sessions and group discussions carried out in a conducive environment are supposed to foster productivity and collaboration. But why is it that team meetings are seen as one of the biggest time-wasters within organizations?

Team meetings are counterproductive and costly when done wrong the way. And this is why many forward-thinking leaders are ditching the old-school boardroom talks for the more agile standing meetings. Virgin Records CEO Richard Branson conducts walking meetings, while mobile games company Genera, likes to shoot hoops with the team, and many more businesses are doing the same.

Zen Space Desks Quattro Lifting System has been adapted to several electronic height adjustable conference tables around Australia. And now, is available with a stunning piece of Australian Hardwood, finished with a stringer through the middle to create a conference table for 10 people, that can quickly be turned into a ping pong table! Check it out in our store Here

Stand-up meetings or morning huddles are regular and consistent sessions that run for not more than 15 minutes and are usually done standing. Talking or listening while on your feet versus slouching on a chair promotes alertness keeps meetings short and focused. The huddles that teams implement today are said to have come from Agile and Scrum methodologies that are still widely practiced by software development teams.

Check out this conference desk featured in a Sydney office Real Estate agency. The concept is to allow real estate agents to show proximity of homes to local parks, schools etc. Have you ever offered your client whether they’d like to sit or stand at a meeting?

There are several studies that have looked into the positive effects of stand-up meetings on work dynamics. One remarkable findings in a 2014 study by Washington University researchers, Knight and Baer, is that group activities performed away from chairs encourage productivity and creativity.

Sit-down meetings were also compared to stand-up meetings in a University of Missouri research. This paper revealed that sit-down meetings took 34% longer for groups to finish tasks than its counterpart without any significant difference to the quality of group decision making.

Furthermore, daily-stand up meetings were perceived positively and were seen to help a lot in resolving issues and information sharing in a recent study on agile project teams from several countries including UK, Poland, Malaysia and Norway.

Healthcare professionals at a children’s hospital have also benefited from 10-minute morning huddles. A UC Davis study found out that communication among various hospital units, patient admissions, employee satisfaction and patient safety have improved after the implementation of daily huddles.

There is compelling evidence to back up standing group meetings to productivity, but being constantly on your feet has greater implications to individual health and well-being, emphasising the benefit of having a fast moving electronic conference table. Apple CEO, Tim Cook strongly believes that we ought to break that couch potato habit and move more in order to live longer.

Many published scientific researches revolve around this topic. Dr. James Levine at the Mayo Clinic investigated physical inactivity and sitting for long hours and the results also proved that such living conditions lead to health problems.

We are seeing more and more companies moving toward more flexible work environments and doing their share to encourage more activity based working by providing electronic sit stand desks. Try standing up as you type a report, and then observe the sensation and your overall output. If you are still feeling cynical, just look to Ernest Hemingway, Virginia Wolf and Winston Churchill for a bit of motivation.

Probably the most influential of the allied leadership, Sir Winston Churchill, would use nothing but a Standing Desk whilst hatching battle plans which essentially would end the war. Churchill was a stubborn man and would insist on standing whilst working – a conventional sitting workstation simply would not do. Source: The Economist

Morning huddles can also be incorporated into any regular team catchup. You don’t have to do exactly as software developers do in Scrums. The trick is to tweak meeting styles and refine the process to suit your unique business needs. Pay attention to criticisms and feedback. When a staff complains about writing minutes and bad knee symptoms, perhaps it’s to time to switch to an adjustable conference desk and other tools to streamline the task. The important thing is sticking to daily standup components that include consistency, setting time limits, being on-point and tackling the three key questions head-on.

Just like any new project, successful morning huddles involve a sound strategy and planning. Don’t be calling meetings overnight and expect people to understand. It takes work and practice in order to glide through the process and find the rhythm, here are a few final tips highlighted by Rob Kelly in his ‘Getting Things Done’ series of blogs:

The basics:

Time of day: It should be done as early as possible, ideally first thing in the morning.

Length of meeting: 5 to 15 meetings depending on the size of your team.

Number of Attendees: Anything larger than 7 – 10 people should be split into more than one meeting, keep it tight.

Who attends: Everyone

Who runs it: Choose a team leader for different topics.

Where does it take place: While increased in technology allow us to do this of Skype or the phone, the idea of the Morning Huddle is to get everyone together, and here at Zen Space Desks we can’t recommend doing the Morning Huddle more than at your electronic height adjustable conference table

Bonus tips:

Give it a week. It may be tough for some people to adapt.

Start at odd times: Try scheduling it at a time other than on the hour, i.e. 7 minutes past 9am. Why? People will remember it more and probably show up a few minutes early.

It helps you with the rest of your day: A quick huddle, weekly or daily will help your team how to spend the rest of their day.

The largest sit stand desk we’ve made, quite possibly the largest in Australia. A 3600x1200mm desktop, finished in Natural Zebrano and powered by the Zen Space Desks Quattro Lifting System. A dynamic way to keep your team alert during boardroom meetings.

The post The Morning Huddle appeared first on Zen Space Desks.

from Zen Space Desks https://zenspacedesks.com.au/the-morning-huddle/

[befoundonlinemarketing]

Principles and Books for Looking into the Digital Future from Lee Aase

When asked to share digital trends and predictions to kick-off the inaugural Minnesota PRSA Digital Skills Workshop, Lee Aase, Director, Mayo Clinic Social Media Network, took an alternative approach.

I’ll share the trends that I’ve observed, and the books that I have read or heard at least two times, but generally more. And link you to the Audible store, while the future I cannot foretell these principles will serve you well.

Digital media is changing fast, so Aase, a leader in utilizing social media, shared insights for getting your mind moving in new directions. Along the way, he shared some of his favorite audio books, and  joked if you subscribe to the one book per month plan on Audible, you will be set for the next year. (Note – one book is free.)

Principle 1: Extrapolation is the Best Starting Point for Prediction

We start our research by looking back at digital media. Aase reminisced about the big three TV networks and newspapers. Their monopoly over the news and advertising was staggering until Ted Turner came along and created CNN. Eventually, the internet meant new production and distribution was democratized.

These two revolutions have turned both news and advertising on their heads. Just look at the value of Facebook, which far outweighs the traditional media giants.

The books to consider to open your mind to digital opportunities include:

Free the Future of Radical Price by Chris Anderson (It’s free on Audible!)

Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams

Cognitive Surplus: How Technology Makes Consumers into Collaborators by Clay Shirky

Principle 2: Improbable Events Will Have Outsized Influence in Your Life

Aasee told the story of how Mayo Clinic came out of an improbable event. A  tornado that destroyed much of Rochester, MN moved a group of nuns to ask the doctors Mayo to help with a hospital they wanted to build.

Now, the Mayo Clinic was rated the best hospital by U.S News and World Report.

Disruptive innovation comes in several forms. Consider the introductions of the iPod, Flip camera or IPhone. How did they change your world?

At TopRank Marketing, we know disruption can prove to have great value. Trying new disruptive techniques or tools challenges the team and often provides the client with new and better outcomes.

Books to consider:

Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton M. Christensen

Principle 3: Mindset Matters More Than Skill

As a digital marketer, it is important to remember these basic skill sets for presenting yourself well:

Speaking skills

Digital production skills

Writing skills

Writing represents you when you are not present, says Aase, so use an active voice and avoid cliches.

Key to remember — have the mindset that you can do new things.

Book to consider:

Mindset: The new Psychology of Success by Carol s Dweck, Ph.D.

Principle 4: The Growth Mindset Creates Optionality

As a trailblazer in social media, Aase uses the mindset, “Proceed until apprehended!” He was one of the first to use platforms like Facebook and Twitter in a medical setting.

As an example, when Mayo Clinic doctors separated conjoined twins Aase applied the the principles from David Allen’s book, Getting Things Done, the art of stress-free productivity:

Collect. Process. Review. Do.

The Creative Catalyst of inbox Zero

The Two-Minute Rule

“Is this actionable?”

Do-Delegate-Defer-Delete

What’s the next action?

This stressful event led to  new options with additional press and his first Tweetcamp.  

More books to consider:

The Lean Startup by Eric Ries

Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time by Jeff Sutherland

Principle 5: Think Analogically

Social media is now part of the DNA of Mayo Clinic. Aase’s team provides guidelines, best practices, training and consulting to their healthcare professionals. As the head of the Mayo Clinic Social Media Network (#MCSMN) he uses social media to lead a revolution in healthcare.

Principle 6: Develop a “Barbell” risk profile

At the heart of any success is almost always a willingness to take risks.

Books to consider:

Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life by Scott Adams

Principle 7: Pursue Personal Growth

Take care of yourself, personally, suggests Aase. He advised subscribing to The Tim Farriss Show podcast, and reading (listening to) these books:

The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet  by Nina Teicholz

The 4-Hour Body by Timothy Ferriss

What marketing digital disruption will you predict? Or lead?

Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®, 2017. | Principles and Books for Looking into the Digital Future from Lee Aase | http://ift.tt/faSbAI

The post Principles and Books for Looking into the Digital Future from Lee Aase appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

Principles and Books for Looking into the Digital Future from Lee Aase posted first on http://ift.tt/faSbAI

[christopheruearle]

Principles and Books for Looking into the Digital Future from Lee Aase

When asked to share digital trends and predictions to kick-off the inaugural Minnesota PRSA Digital Skills Workshop, Lee Aase, Director, Mayo Clinic Social Media Network, took an alternative approach.

I’ll share the trends that I’ve observed, and the books that I have read or heard at least two times, but generally more. And link you to the Audible store, while the future I cannot foretell these principles will serve you well.

Digital media is changing fast, so Aase, a leader in utilizing social media, shared insights for getting your mind moving in new directions. Along the way, he shared some of his favorite audio books, and  joked if you subscribe to the one book per month plan on Audible, you will be set for the next year. (Note – one book is free.)

Principle 1: Extrapolation is the Best Starting Point for Prediction

We start our research by looking back at digital media. Aase reminisced about the big three TV networks and newspapers. Their monopoly over the news and advertising was staggering until Ted Turner came along and created CNN. Eventually, the internet meant new production and distribution was democratized.

These two revolutions have turned both news and advertising on their heads. Just look at the value of Facebook, which far outweighs the traditional media giants.

The books to consider to open your mind to digital opportunities include:

Free the Future of Radical Price by Chris Anderson (It’s free on Audible!)

Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams

Cognitive Surplus: How Technology Makes Consumers into Collaborators by Clay Shirky

Principle 2: Improbable Events Will Have Outsized Influence in Your Life

Aasee told the story of how Mayo Clinic came out of an improbable event. A  tornado that destroyed much of Rochester, MN moved a group of nuns to ask the doctors Mayo to help with a hospital they wanted to build.

Now, the Mayo Clinic was rated the best hospital by U.S News and World Report.

Disruptive innovation comes in several forms. Consider the introductions of the iPod, Flip camera or IPhone. How did they change your world?

At TopRank Marketing, we know disruption can prove to have great value. Trying new disruptive techniques or tools challenges the team and often provides the client with new and better outcomes.

Books to consider:

Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton M. Christensen

Principle 3: Mindset Matters More Than Skill

As a digital marketer, it is important to remember these basic skill sets for presenting yourself well:

Speaking skills

Digital production skills

Writing skills

Writing represents you when you are not present, says Aase, so use an active voice and avoid cliches.

Key to remember — have the mindset that you can do new things.

Book to consider:

Mindset: The new Psychology of Success by Carol s Dweck, Ph.D.

Principle 4: The Growth Mindset Creates Optionality

As a trailblazer in social media, Aase uses the mindset, “Proceed until apprehended!” He was one of the first to use platforms like Facebook and Twitter in a medical setting.

As an example, when Mayo Clinic doctors separated conjoined twins Aase applied the the principles from David Allen’s book, Getting Things Done, the art of stress-free productivity:

Collect. Process. Review. Do.

The Creative Catalyst of inbox Zero

The Two-Minute Rule

“Is this actionable?”

Do-Delegate-Defer-Delete

What’s the next action?

This stressful event led to  new options with additional press and his first Tweetcamp.  

More books to consider:

The Lean Startup by Eric Ries

Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time by Jeff Sutherland

Principle 5: Think Analogically

Social media is now part of the DNA of Mayo Clinic. Aase’s team provides guidelines, best practices, training and consulting to their healthcare professionals. As the head of the Mayo Clinic Social Media Network (#MCSMN) he uses social media to lead a revolution in healthcare.

Principle 6: Develop a “Barbell” risk profile

At the heart of any success is almost always a willingness to take risks.

Books to consider:

Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life by Scott Adams

Principle 7: Pursue Personal Growth

Take care of yourself, personally, suggests Aase. He advised subscribing to The Tim Farriss Show podcast, and reading (listening to) these books:

The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet  by Nina Teicholz

The 4-Hour Body by Timothy Ferriss

What marketing digital disruption will you predict? Or lead?

Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®, 2017. | Principles and Books for Looking into the Digital Future from Lee Aase | http://www.toprankblog.com

The post Principles and Books for Looking into the Digital Future from Lee Aase appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

[littlestsnicket]

updated sprint board. i’m, uh, gonna finish the fic next sprint? the only task left in the backlog is for editing.

retro/planning notes under the cut

last sprint was not great from a strictly scrum metric point of view (completed two of three tasks, and pulled in a fourth one that i did not complete), but i felt like i was so productive relative to the amount of other social things i committed to doing and that my taxes are done and i watched a bunch of evangelion since i have tickets to see the movie ending this evening. getting writing done is definitely more important than scrum metrics, but i do think a lot of the productivity is coming from taking these commitments semi-seriously so it is something i should keep an eye on to make sure i don’t give up on that.

but also, flexibility is very important. i wasted a bunch of time being stuck on the thing i carried over from last sprint (which is still not done), but pulling something else in and making real progress on it did help me get unstuck and now i am pretty sure i know what’s supposed to happen with all of the things that are left.

i probably have more thoughts but my brain is a puddle of goop. (menstruating is very stupid) (i am feeling a bit better now that i’ve eaten lunch)

also making vague plans for what i will work on next :)

[littlestsnicket]

i was going to pick up writing with scrum stuff this week, but i’ve been sick (sinus infection) so it seemed like too much. extended the write every day even if it’s just a sentence challenge for another week. i’ve only missed one day so far, so that’s cool.

[littlestsnicket]

hm, wednesday sprint review/retro/planning time. 0/2 tasks achieved. was thinking about it this morning and having deeply conflicted feelings of both needing a break and wanting to push myself to write more.

but then! i decided what i really needed a break from was having or pushing myself to pretend to have an end goal. so, new plan. i’m taking a break from this and making a commitment to write something every day for the next three weeks. i have the little ticky boxes in my bullet journal already, it will be good!

the rules are that i have to write at least one new sentence. messing with word choice in existing sentences is the only thing that could possibly be construed as writing that doesn’t count.

and this is probably the best way to deal with the shifting priorities of truly unexpected armand brainworms, the radskier idea for @kuwdora that i am really really really excited to explore but am not confident is going to shape up into a fic i actually want to edit and make have story elements like pacing (which is ok! i’m allowed to write things i don’t have the patience to edit, and i’m also allowed to either share them anyway or not), and woevember.

and starting strong with like 700 words of absolutely contextless dialogue snippets for the radskier thing. there’s 900 words in the doc. i started last night. yeah, i don’t know what happened either.

anyway the scrum stuff has been extremely useful for me and i will definitely be back to it but it’s time to do something else for a bit.

[littlestsnicket]

wednesday sprint review/retro/planning time: 1/3 tasks complete last week, bad week for planning excellent week for productivity! was inspired to finish, edit, and post the corset fic, and i watched the whole 1st season of iwtv. which i had been struggling to do for months (but i did say i would manage it as soon as the weather turned and i was right).

would like to get through a really messy first draft of manic pixie dream jaskier before shifting into asoue mode for woevember, but given the still unclear scope of this fic that’s probably ambitious. especially since i want to watch the next season of iwtv, like, right now.

going back to google docs. i’m optimistic about ellipsus in a long term sense but the strain soymimikyu and i were experiencing due to the comments function being glitchy is just not tenable at this point. i really should send support an email about my problems and hope for their future. i would really like to like it but it’s not there yet.

[littlestsnicket]

wednesday sprint review time: 3/3 tasks complete this week!! i did it! did i complete one of the tasks this morning? yes. but it still counts! baffled at how i did this when i didn’t start any of the tasks until monday evening, but yay!

notes on short terms plans and using ellipsus under the cut

corset kink fic is coming along nicely. i am really really happy with what i have written and have reached the horrible point of ‘hm, i’ve hit all the emotional beats i though i needed but there needs to be more sex for pacing reasons’. that really means i need another emotional beat but i don’t know what it is yet. i’ll figure it out eventually but i am not terribly optimistic about completing that task this week, but we’ll see.

i also put this fic in ellipsus, which has been… most of it is fine but i need to enter some support tickets and if they don’t fix them or explain their use cases better i may decide it’s unusable. the biggest problem is the way the comments nest—the comment thread literally displays in a random order so having any kind of back and forth with your beta reader is a huge problem. also the draft and merge feature? seems really cool in theory but the way it actually works is insane and makes no sense? there doesn’t seem to be a conflict resolution process? when you go to the merge screen it will diff the files but then you can’t edit? you’d have to go back and make your edits in the draft and push the whole thing to main. which… no. especially since you can have multiple drafts. that could make sense as a use case if you could only had one draft, but no! i do not understand?!? and you can’t just not use the draft functionality because you can’t make comments in the main doc (which is both how i leave myself notes as i’m writing and communicate with soymimikyu during beta reading). but the biggest problem, especially in mobile view is how hard it is to easily see what draft you’re working out of. and it doesn’t hold state in terms of what draft you were in if the page reloads. which, fair, that’s hard, but then you need a lot more visual hints of what the state is. i made a whole bunch of changes in main instead of the draft i thought i was working from, and then since the merge conflict resolution sucks it was very messy. and if it had been a longer fic…

anyway… i’ve not given up on this yet, but it may be in a come back to it once they’ve worked some things out thing.

i reread what i have of manic pixie dream jaskier, and on the one hand i really like a lot of it and that gave me renewed motivation to work on it, but on the other hand, it is a fucking disaster in terms of pacing and structure and having a cohesive point. it’s ok. we’ll get there. i’m going to attempt to write what i currently think the end should be and see if that helps. it usually does.

hopefully it’s not suspiciously nice out this weekend and i actually do writing and iwtv watching :)

[littlestsnicket]

it’s wednesday that means it’s updated sprint board time!

3/4 tasks done for last week which given how ‘i’m going to finish literally nothing’ i felt on friday/saturday feels very impressive. i got excited about maybe finishing and over committed. but we are so close now! also got excited and added a bunch of tasks for the projects i want to do next.

retro/planning notes below cut

starting by pausing for a moment and looking at the word count. this thing is 17k. i know that’s not long by a lot of people’s standards, but for someone who’s writing habits were built around obsessively editing drabbles, this is totally insane.

on the one hand, i think the amount of commitments i made really pushed me to do more than i would have otherwise. on the other hand, that was a lot. i couldn’t have planned on wednesday that i was going to achieve approximately nothing on thursday/friday/saturday, but i probably could have/should have done a better job accounting for that most of these tasks were things that i had put off doing for a reason and i wouldn’t be able to get done quickly.

i think i had already mentioned this, but smaller, better defined tasks! sometimes ‘write whole scene’ is a totally reasonable commitment. other times, scenes are more complicated and should be broken down smaller. trying to make things roughly the same size so i don’t have to point them.

i would love to be able to start posting next wednesday. i want the whole thing to be done first and for me to be able to post chapters every other day, but this is potentially achievable. i think. but my parents are visiting this weekend so i’ll have a lot less time than i usually would.

[littlestsnicket]

sprint review wednesday! 1/1 tasks completed last week, with a very unexpected gideon drabble. i didn’t think i was going to write tlt fic, but never say never. maybe i will even write more while i anxiously wait for the next book to come out! but witcher fic this week.

more commitments than i’ve been making recently cause i don’t think i will need to do yard work, and i don’t think i have other plans. (idk which weekend i made tentative plans with @soymimikyu (you’re getting tagged since you keep making fun of me for spelling your username wrong and that’s the only way i’m sure it’s right :D ). if it was this weekend i may bale to work on fic and finally watch iwtv. (or poke around the tlt tag.)) and, most importantly, i want these things finished!

[littlestsnicket]

ahh! forgot to do an update yesterday! 2/2 tasks complete last week, only making 1 extremely vague commitment this week because nona! and rennfaire! and i really need to sit down and write the vote fwd letters

some notes under the cut

last week i ended up adding a whole bunch to what is titled “corset fic (oops)” and i moved the file from g-docs to ellipsus so that’s been a fun experiment. going to mess around some more with the draft and merge functionality this week.

so apparently i am going to actually finish and publish kink fic? is this really kink fic? probably… all good kink fic (imo) has character exploration. also a reminder that it’s a lot easier to write sex when you’re not in your own head about evoking but not mimicking someone else’s writing style. but there’s not that much left… just a few beta notes and one bracket that just says ‘more sex’—which could mean anything in terms of writing effort—and soymimikiu may have distracted me with a research question, but i’m quite happy with what i’ve written and i think i’ll get this done relatively quickly. i’ve been meaning to write fic like this since the one moment in the books where anna henrietta is digging her fingers into dandelion’s arm and stroking him like a pet. yeah… that is a dynamic that does things to me.

more than halfway through nona and it’s eating my brain. i had a realization about the key ‘mystery’ of the book and i can’t decide if i hope i’m right or not. i don’t usually like… engage with stories in a way that i’m trying to work out what the plot twist is but the locked tomb books are so complicated i kind of have to to make sure i am paying enough attention to understand what is happening. these books are insane and brilliant and the way they are crafted… ugh (affectionate).

[littlestsnicket]

sprint review wednesday! 1/2 tasks complete from last week. was making good progress on the second task and was then hit by absolutely paralyzing decision paralysis so sticking that back in the backlog and we’ll get back to that later…

retro/planning notes under the cut

visiting my parents for labor day, so don’t want to make any specific writing commitments. (beach! beach! beach!) and having a reading task worked so well last time in providing the tiny bit of motivation to go get the book instead of find more things to scroll through on my phone when i ran out of tumblr, so doing that again.

manic pixie dream jaskier fic has spiraled out of control (i have also semi committed to sticking with the working title, it makes me happy). it had already spiraled out of control but then i was writing a scene where they visit the elven quarter and went ‘and here is where i work out all of my netflix specific elf headcanons about human-city assimilated elves’ and my brain froze. and not just in a ‘wow that’s a lot of nebulous thought to iron out’ way but also in a ‘this fic is already 5k and was supposed to be a silly little thing what the fuck do you think you’re doing’ way. so, uh… taking a step back on that and doing some planning, because i would like to finish this fic instead of, well, not doing that.

(relatedly, rewatched episode 2 of season 1 to make sure i was getting mr ‘respect doesn’t make history’ right, and ahh how excited he is and how he does react to threats in a way that i think is really indicative of privilege and someone who’s not really been in a position of real threat before, and how he can be so callous and wildly empathetic nearly at the same time… baby jaskier is a lot. i adore him. and reverse engineering a foil for him in valdo has been very interesting.)

i really do also want to get back to the lemony and klaus fic relatively soon. maybe i will take a break and work on that this week? we’ll see.

[littlestsnicket]

sprint review wednesday: 0/1 tasks complete last week. to be fair i achieved a lot of non writing related things (deposit for new windows is in the mail, something i was doing procrastination style research on for months and finally buckled down and got done and i completely reorganized my office and replaced my desk!) (and i cleaned my whole house to host a tea party and hosted a tea party!)

don’t have much to say about planning, other than that i should have a bit more time to actually write this week.

[littlestsnicket]

TIL that photographing journal pages is a lot harder than i suspected and the lighting at my office is particularly garbage for it.

anyway, i was talking to @kuwdora about trying to harness all of the productivity skills one picks up to put processes in place to allow yourself to be more creative, so i made a commitment to experiment with using my scrum master skills into making it easier to finish this fic.

the first task was to decide on a backlog management tool. my primary concerns were portability and that i like tactile things, so i went back to basics and decided against using a backlog management tool at all. so now my backlog lives in my bullet journal.

more scrum related rambling under the cut:

in my professional opinion, the point of scrum is to make (and deliver on) clearly defined commitments. i’m still working through how much commitment making i want to do, because writing is a hobby and i don’t want it to feel like a job, but it’s also a hobby that i want to get better at and make easier for myself to still do when i’m tried or have decision paralysis or whatever else stops me from writing. we’ll see how it goes.

if nothing else, just going through the exercise of making a backlog was helpful. since i usually write such short things, i don’t have a lot of coping mechanisms for dealing with a 35 page google doc and the start at the beginning and hope you get to an interesting note or piece of beta reading feedback was getting daunting and unproductive.

now that i have provided some introduction, i’ll move on to an abbreviated team charter, since team is just me (and maybe @soymimikyu, my beta reader, but mostly just me).

mission statement: discover and use effective processes to write more and finish the fucking fic!

scrum rituals:

sprint: i’m going to try single week sprints starting/ending on wednesdays. i think making smaller commitments for a shorter period of time is going to work better for me, but i can come back to this if i change my mind.

daily standup: i was initially thinking, no i’m not doing that, but i’m going make a commitment to look at the sprint board at least once a day

refining: i don’t think i need dedicated time for this. if i try using scrum for something that has more undefined scope this might be useful, but i don’t expect that i will add anything to the backlog (just break down some of the stuff under needs refining into smaller pieces)

retro: i do want to set aside some time on wednesdays to reflect and see if this is working from a process perspective

review/planning: usually those don’t really go together, but i think they should. this gets glossed over a lot in practice (in my experience) but the purpose of a sprint review is to update the backlog based on stakeholder feedback, and given the lack of stakeholders outside of myself and my beta reader, update the backlog and make a new commitment for next sprint do naturally go together.

we can skip the conflict resolution bit too. (conflict resolution is that it’s my fic and soymimiku’s opinions about parentheticals are silly.)

i think that’s enough defining to get started. i’m a huge process nerd so i’m kind of excited about this. we’ll see if it works!

[littlestsnicket]

sprint board update!

3/4 tasks complete this week. i didn’t actually finish the fic, still need to fix the transition into the ending, but all the beta feedback is addressed and i’m confident i’m not going to have an ‘oh i wish i had set this thing up better’ moment so i’m going to start posting anyway!!! aaaahhh!!

the doc meta-data says i’ve been working on this on and off since last july, and i really credit this scrum thing for giving me the push i needed to actually get this done. (extensive cheerleading from @soymimikyu and @kuwdora was also critical, but that’s less something that changed in the last month or so) (although it is actually also credit to talking to kuwdora about this thing i wanted to try that i’m actually doing it)

sprint review/retro/planning notes below the cut

considering my parents were visiting all weekend and i was feeling kind of garbage last wednesday and thursday (i’m feeling so much better than i was in early january but still having weird bouts of stomach upset-ness), i’m actually shocked i got as close to finishing as i did. yay!

don’t feel like i have that much to say though… i am a simple person and moving sticky notes around can really be the little tiny push i need to sit down and focus and get things done. i think for me personally (especially since this is a hobby and i’m not trying to train myself out of my desire to obsessively edit as i go even though i understand why that is bad if you want to be efficient) the task based mentality is a lot more helpful than a word count goal. and also that a major thing i was stalling on when i started was sitting down and rewatching the bits of the show i needed to… the tasks make that sort of research feel like an accomplishment in and of itself instead of something that needs to happen before an accomplishment occurs. the immediacy of a reward (even if the reward is just moving a sticky note) is hugely helpful.

want to give myself a bit of a break, allow time for fic posting (which always ends up being a tiny bit more involved than i anticipate), and swapping my wardrobe for summer, and preparing for work trip, so no actual writing tasks in the upcoming sprint—just some commitments to sit down and brainstorm.

going to have to get rid of my little nest of completed sticky notes :( but it’s getting too big and the project is done.

anyway! reclaiming productivity culture to do more hobby instead of more work!!