Goal Setting

The entire Monthly Method is based on the idea of intentional living, committing to a small number of tasks that are truly important to you

sturgeon's law

Step off the hamster wheel with Agile and Sturgeon’s Law

Sturgeon’s Law states that 90% of everything is crap.  It applies to books, restaurants, TV shows, movies, tweets, YouTube videos, and everything else humans produce. I spent some time thinking if it was true in my life. And… I tend to agree. When was the last time you encountered something outstanding? Something that was so …

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agile sprint

The Secret to Beating the February Slump: An Agile Approach to Personal Productivity

How is your February going? Let me guess. When you go to a gym, it’s less busy. There is less activity on productivity subreddits. Your YouTube feed stopped recommending goal-setting content. Atomic Habits is gone from Amazon’s recommendations list.  It’s a clear sign that New Year’s resolutions are dead.  Why do New Year’s resolutions die?  …

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Applying Agile to New Year’s Resolutions – Part 3

Welcome to the final Part 3 of the New Year’s Resolutions series. Today we’ll discuss finalizing your New Year’s goals and resolutions using the remaining Scrum principles. Recap of our progress so far Let’s recap where we are. We’ve gone through Part 1 and Part 2 of this series. So far, we’ve done the review …

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Applying Agile to New Year’s Resolutions – Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 of Applying Agile to New Year’s Resolutions! Let’s discuss how you can apply agile concepts of sprints, sprint capacity, and backlog review to setting up your goals. Problem #1: A year is too long. You don’t feel a sense of urgency when you set a goal for the year. And without …

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new year resolutions

Applying Agile to New Year’s Resolutions – Part 1

It’s that time of year when a lot of us are thinking about new year’s resolutions. I think it’s a wonderful opportunity to think about next year. But there are some common problems that I see with the traditional way of setting new year’s goals. I decided to dedicate the rest of December to addressing …

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deadline

The magic power of external accountability

Let’s talk about external accountability and how it can help in achieving your goals. External accountability is the secret sauce behind so many services. Personal trainer and coaches When you hire a personal trainer, it’s not necessarily their knowledge that gives your results. The main reason why personal trainers can be so effectives is that they …

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prioritize goals

How to prioritize goals

One of the clients in our October Sprint mentioned that he’s struggling with prioritization. He doesn’t know which goals he should focus on. This is a common problem. Let’s address it. How to prioritize goals? Why can’t we prioritize goals? The story we tell ourselves We think we don’t know the how. We think we …

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happy path

The Happy Path Concept

Happy Path in Software Development As a product manager, I learned about the Happy Path concept from my manager. This is how it works in product management. The Happy Path When building a new product, you first focus on the happy path. The happy path is a journey a user of a product is taking, …

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The one-way to-do list

This is the method that I use when I’m in a dark time of my life. When there is burnout. When the mood is simply not there. When a regular to-do list doesn’t work me. This tool is great for when you don’t have any motivation. You’re so tired even to be thinking about complicated …

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motivation

On Motivation

I’ve received a question from one of my podcast listeners, “What is your opinion about motivation? Is it helpful or is it just temporary?” I think it’s definitely helpful. It is temporary but my overall opinion is that the importance of motivation is highly overrated. I think motivation is a trend that is popular right …

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