I'm Still Standing
Hey all,
Last year I wrote a post about how much I liked standing up by myself. I'm updating now b/c I lost the original image, and I've been asked about it since.
A couple years ago, I had a period of working from home, alone, and missed the camaraderie & mental organization of my daily group standup. So I codified my practice and came up with a simple sheet that I would fill in every morning. It had:
- Date
- Yesterday (what I did yesterday)
- Today Planned (what I plan to do today)
- Today Happened (what unexpected things crossed my path today... usually jot them down as they occur)
I'd then fill it in, stand up, and read it out loud. Oddly enough, it helped me focus, tremendously.
I later added:
- Float (a place to note things that need to happen soon, but don't necessarily fit on the top-5 to-do list)
I then went back into the public workplace and brought this with me, filling it out before our daily standup and bringing it with me to each one. Other people had their own methods, but for me, the act of sitting, then writing WITH A PEN, got a mind-body-organize-and-get-centered thing going on that got me off on the right foot every day. Then I could plunk it on my desk and use it as a to-do list. Each standup sheet complete's its life-cycle when it's used as input for the next one.
I've contemplated making a simple web app that handles all this, but it hasn't floated to the top of my priority list yet. Besides, for me at least, brain to hand to pen is really nice circuit.
My printer is on the fritz but I'm attaching a PDF of what I use if you'd like to download it and give it a try. Also, bonus! You can see what I'm doing today as I've attached my standup for the 12th!
