Productivity
🙂
I made a solid start on setting up my Notion pages for Kanban. I’m using a board view similar to this example. My idea is to base my swimlanes on the areas of my life that I give regular time blocks in my schedule, so things like administration (task management and other paperwork), housekeeping, food management (planning, shopping, and cooking), and, of course, my substantive projects. This week I’ll continue my Notion setup.
People skills
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How to Win Friends and Influence People gives me some thought provoking principles and lots of examples to analyze. The edition I listened to was published this year, a revision of the first edition by the author’s daughter. Her aim was to make only the minimum changes needed to match modern sensibilities.
The book was more concrete and motivating than I expected, and I can see how it became so popular. This part toward the end stuck in my mind: “If you and I will inspire the people with whom we come in contact by giving them a realization of the hidden treasures they possess, we can do far more than change people. We can literally transform them.” It’ll be interesting to compare the advice from different authors on conversation and influence to uncover any conflicting perspectives, which will help me decide on my own approach.
Programming
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In Designing the Requirements, Chris Britton draws from other engineering disciplines to improve the software requirements process. His approach reflects my view that requirements, design, construction, and testing are tightly integrated. I’m not as confident as he is that improving the requirements process and returning to up-front design will minimize the changes you face later in development. But I think his framework is worth looking into, especially since I’m always interested in the engineering aspects of software development.
