Bistari, Bistari - Weekly progress

Think ahead, plan a little and play by the ear - one week at a time

In my previous post, I spoke about the ‘50 day rule’.

Illusion of Time - The 50 Day Rule

The point of that article was to point out how little ‘real’ time we have to get anything done. The logical conclusion from that analysis should be then - i’ve got to make every one of those days count!

A bunch of my 1:1s (as recent as the ones I had a week ago) revolve around motivated devs who are unhappy with how little they are getting done or questioning if they are being productive enough. The number of times I have had this conversation ever since I became a manager always amuses me…

Part of the problem, I always find, is that motivated devs tend to micromanage themselves. They are their own worst critics!

Devs try to make progress on multiple fronts and want to get as many things over the line as possible in as little time as possible. Reality check arrives at the end of the day when it becomes apparent that everything did not go to plan. Nobody likes that feeling and people become frustrated with themselves and sometimes at their environment.

This is really not that different to having an unrealistic set of targets for becoming healthy and then finding that you bit off too much.

I will go to the gym 5 days a week, do cardio on my rest days, eat 200 gms of protein a day and drop 30lbs in 12 weeks. — #StoryOfMyLife

^^ That plan is not practical. It won’t really work. It will probably do the opposite and stress you out.

If you can afford it and you actually hire the services of a qualified gym instructor - The first thing they will push you towards is realistic goals and the benefits of steady and sustainable progress.

When climbing mountains in Nepal - the wise Sherpa keep telling enthusiastic tourists “Bistari, Bistari” - “Slowly, slowly”.

You cannot climb mountains - literal or figurative - by dashing at the goal. You have to take it slowly and systematically.

My own system for approaching my work week is to focus on 3 tasks a week.

It’s that simple.

After a lot of trial and error - I have found this is the most sustainable number of real tasks I can have for myself per week. It’s a number that tells me that the ball is moving and things are getting done!
It’s a number that lets me (and this quite important if you want to build a career in anything) take the weekend off!

The more complicated part of this goal setting is not the number of tasks but rather which tasks. It goes without saying that if I choose trivial tasks or completely insurmountable ones - the system will not work.

I focus on picking 3 tasks that take up a considerable amount of my mental bandwidth.
I find that things that worry me or bother me have a much bigger impact in my assessment of my productivity rather than regular aspects of my job.

If I can knock off three things that were bothering me, in a week - my outlook on how productive I have been, completely changes.

In practice, I manage this in a google doc that I have been writing in (wait for it..) for 597 weeks (I numbered my weeks.. that’s how I know).

Here is an entry from 2022 (which involves some of my personal goals as well) as a reference:

Week 561 - Jun 26, 2022

• Progress from last week:

  • [Work] Week 4 at Ava Labs, made some headway in figuring out what was the issue with <redacted>.

  • [Work] Met with nearly everyone in the broader team.

  • [Work] Finally have a set of HW assignments to take on. 

• For next week:

  • [Work] Need to look at setting up something regular with every EM and PM in org.

  • [Work] Finish the HW tasks.

  • [Work] Make sure my 401k stuff is set up correctly. I think I locked myself out last time.

  • [Personal] Need to review if I should be investing in Series 1 bonds. 

  • [Personal] Swetha is still frustrated with <redacted>. Must focus on being more supportive. 

This takes me 10mins - and it’s a ritual I repeat every Sunday.

It has helped me look ahead and plan a productive week for years. I would highly encourage you give it a shot as well.