Asynch
WARNING: I have a STRONG preference for ASYNCHRONOUS communications.
NOTE: This preference might not be at all normal for others … asynch means NOT in synch … the asynch preference, like left-handedness is what is normal for some people. I am not suggesting that others make asynch normal for them; I am only stating the fact that you must realize why the preference asynch communication is normal for some of us. This page is an explanation.
With a very, very, very few exceptions, synchronous conversations/gatherings tend to BORE me … and this boredom is significant, not just some little thing I can accomodate without a damned good reason – it is the ONLY time that I am bored.
The frustration with attention to either the sheer nothingness or the effort of thinking of some response in sychronous communication usually builds and leaves me feeling extremely angry … and certainly tremendously relieved to get away when the meeting is over, ie I would prefer a root canal. I am always bored to the point of being stressed and in physical pain in meetings, social events, parties with friends or family gatherings. Always.
Conversely, I never feel alone because there billions of humans to interact personally [but not necessarily immediately] with via messages, emails, exchanges on issues or dev channels, through the review of git repositories or papers with code/data … also, as a Christian, I ALWAYS feel the distinct presence of my Creator. ALWAYS … so I am never ever ever LONELY – but I generally tend to prefer ending a conversation, even when I have initiated that conversation.
I also have a very strong preference for anonymity. I no longer have any interest in being recognized or liked … I am never alone – but spending time with people almost always costs me. Since I do not require ANYTHING to be happy, things like like power, wealth or fame are of no value to me …. and this impacts my time management and time horizon.
It’s important to NEVER look in the rear view mirror
Never spend time with people who are looking back … never live in a setting sun world; always look to rising sun and the dawn of what can be created in a new day. For similar reasons, never aspire to living life in a perpetual party or state of consumption and comfort-seeking, as either an entitled tourist, a nursing home patient who requires care or some kind of victim whose happiness is driven by others. Of course, you can/should pay attention to sleep hygiene, take breaks to move or break up the flow, perhaps even lay down to take a powernap and when you are so exhausted that you cannot concentrate, but you should live looking forward to the exercise and training that you still have left to do.
Always have a pyramidal planning horizon
- VISION … love your Creator / your WHY, live mindfully in prayer
- PLAN … considering your vision and actions, constantly re-strategie
- D0 … implement your strategey, devise tactics, training, get ready
- CHECK … review, re-measure before cutting or striking tactically
- ACT … do the most important thing possible, do it right NOW
The important part of this pyramid is to plan the 10,000 most important moments of your 86,400 second day … as you do this, then set the thoughts of daily actions in the context of your long-term 10,000 day vision of life.
You vision will always inform what your are going to be planning, doing, checking, action upon … and your actions will always, to an infinitestimally small degree always re-calibrate your vision. You should generally aim to gather intelligence … and intelligence, like all information, can only have value when it surprises you, makes you uncomfortable and causes you to adjust. Get comfortable being in slight discomfort or unease, so that you are agile and able to constantly rebalancing … as if you were a toddler just learning to walk.
You actions will affect your intelligence gathering and what you are measuring, monitoring or listening to most closely … just as your ability to monitor, observe, check, measure, listen will impact what the slightly larger tactical sense of what are doing or implementing or what battle you are moving toward … what you can confidently do or implement or achieve will affect your general strategic outlook and planning of the next phase … and your planning will impact your vision, your WHY, your conversations with your Creator … but the mindful Life is resting in a state of constant, involuntarily reflective awareness.
It is worth repeating for emphasis. Your WHY drives your PLAN drives your DOING drives your CHECKING drives your ACTIONS … and your actions influence what you check which influences how/what bigger things you do as your confidence in doing things affects your planning and strategy and the success/failure of those plans drives your vision.
The mindful life is a matter of constant, unceasing nowness, spent in reflection on this pyramid structure.
The scale of the pyramid is something that you can play with or make work for you. I used to do project management using holidays, eg Super Bowl Sunday, Thanksgiving, as key dates for big milestones … the holiday was a way for everyone involved to think about a push to achieving milestone, because people are social creatures and they do not necessarily really think in terms of days – instead, they tend to think in terms of parties, vacations, events, celebrations, family gatherings … longing for special times to be spent with very best friends and lovers.
In my life as a monk, however … a 10,000 days horizon with 100 day projects works better, so projects are 100 day things … but that because I can work on what I choose to work on. I don’t tend to especially recognize or celebrate holidays as a person, any more; they tend to surprise me, “Oh – that’s right tomorrow is the Fourth of July!”
I tend to prefer looking ahead, at the 10,000 day vision, in a state of mindful contemplation of upcoming wars, battles, fights, training and preparation. A 100 day push is not just the next 3 months, 1 week and a couple days for getting re-organized/regrouped – it’s also three sets of four week sprints, with two week half-sprint and couple days for getting re-organized/regrouped/re-scoped/re-planned for the next push or set of sprints … of course, I can adapt when things change or opporunties arise, but I tend to kinda like my 100-day planning windows AND the convenient numerical fact that 10,000 days is 100 100-day planning windows … of course, others might find a different framework than 10,000 works better.
Compare different time scales to find what works for you.
Just please do not treat time/project management as unnecesssay … please do not go through life, just living one day after another, killing time … think in terms of the BIG WHY, with the Plan, Do, Check, Act reflective cycle … which drives each DAY.
- 1 day, 10 days, 100 days, 1000 days, 10,000 days (27 1/3 years)
- 1 day, 7 days, 49 days, 343 days, 2401 days (6 1/2 years)
- 1 day, 5 days, 25 days, 125 days, 625 days (1 2/3 years)
- 1 day, 3 days, 9 days, 27 days, 81 days … maybe you have cancer
Keep your horizon, until you KNOW that your horizon has changed – you will KNOW when the end is definitely sooner … and when that end is DEFINITELY sooner – your planning horizon will, but you can still think about it in the same five order time horizon.
VISUALIZE the architecture of the future of your life
Think in terms of the LONG TERM … your idea of the long term might vary … for me, I think about the next 10,000 days or approximately 27 years and 4 and 1/2 months … there are practical reasons why 10,000 days makes sense for me. 10,000 days is roughly in line with what is the AVERAGE life expectation is for someone of my age and my level of health/fitness, ie someone in their early 60s with no immediately threatening health conditions.
After all, a good proportion of people in their early 60s already have some showstopper medical condition, something that demands regular daily medication OR they really need a marijauna supplement or stiff drink or two or three every day to deal with stress OR are perhaps are a cancer survivor still on heavy pharma therapy regime OR already have some heart condition or hypertension issue OR might already be a Type II diabetic. The point is that AVERAGE life expectancy for the ENTIRE populations of 62 year old males is about 20 years, but the life expectancy for HEALTHY males is probably closer being around 90 ON AVERAGE.
Of course, there are no gaurantee … so we enjoy working on what matters to us and by working on these things, we get to LIVE life NOW … without ever thinking that we are old so we DESERVE to live like a tourist, or some senile retiree just on an AARP vacation … rather than building for the next 10,000 days.
PLAN concretely for the next 1000 days … but these strategies will change
The point of planning is to DRIVE looking forward … of course, you will adapt, steer, guide, revise, but you will need a destination or as you develop your PLANS for the next 1000 days … this is the foreseeable vision part of the PDCA cycle
DO in the next 100 days
Using something like an AGILE work breakdown structure which you will manage and check in the next 10 days, IMPLEMENT the next phase of the plan in the next 100 days … roll up your sleeves and do the necessary sprints, thinking about what your objective will be over the next three or four months. This is roughly analogous to the growing season in farming.
CHECK the impact of your 10 day sprint
Develop your daily workflow with 10 day sprint horizons.