Sunday 17 February 2013

Getting things done

One of the tenets of agile delivery is that communication is valued over documentation. It's a great thing to hold to, and helps you spending too much time writing about what you're going to do, instead of just doing it. It also helps you maintain flexibility; if you haven't spent months writing about what is needed, then you're more likely to do what's needed now, rather than what was needed when you started.
But valuing communication over documentation doesn't mean that there's no documentation.  Agile story walls are a flexible way of tracking what's going on at any given point. They're fantastic in an office, but not that practical in your home. In fact, it would almost count as clutter. 
Does anybody really have space for this at home?
What we need is a just enough approach to tracking what needs to happen to go from an idea to done. And that's where getting things done comes in. 
Getting things done is a time management technique that takes your to do list and makes it more effective. To do lists are great, but have a lot of traps. Some people write lists, but don't prioritise. Some people mix high level projects with low level tasks. Others underestimate the amount of effort involved in achieving a to do item. Often, you can get to the end of the day and have a list of incomplete items. 
The getting things done approach allows you to group your to dos by project, with each item prioritised within. This gives you the very next thing you need to do to get a thing done. There's plenty of scope for flexibility within the system, and loads of tools for managing it. I'll look at ways of setting up a getting things done system in my next post.


Thursday 31 January 2013

Listmania - summer

First things first, I am a summer person. I loathe being cold and I detest getting on a train filled filled with people who smell of wet coat and used tissues. Summer is my time of year. So on to the list...

Five things I love about summer 

Lovely place in summer. Not so great when it's cold and wet.
  1. I love going to the beach in summer. In Melbourne, most of the rain happens in winter and spring, so by summer, the water quality is at its best. I love watching people do the hot sand dance, and its converse, the cold water on sensitive bits shudder. There's no time of the day that the beach isn't great. From before breakfast, right through to dusk and night, the beach is a great place to be.
  2. Frangipanis. As seen here: 
  3. Stone fruit and berries. Fresh, made in to jam, gelato, stewed, so many ways of eating my favourite fruits! Oh and basil and coriander are going gangbusters in the garden, too.
  4. I love twilight. At the height of summer, the sky in the horizon turns the most beautiful colour, while the sky overhead is dark enough to see stars. It beats the hell out of the quick descent of darkest night in winter. 
  5. This might be a bit unpopular, especially with people who have timid animals, but I really enjoy fireworks, and in summer, they seem to be everywhere. 


Five summery things I can do without

  1. The beach can get pretty crowded. I like it when it's nice and empty. That photo is a November beach, which would be just about perfect it weren't for what the Agile Professional calls "spanner water"*
  2. Extreme temperature variations in Melbourne just about do my head in. This is what January looked like this year. I like my weather a little more consistent. Incidentally, today is freezing, turn the heater on type conditions.
  3. I hate being at work and looking out at beautiful weather, which then changes just before home time so the trip to the beach for dinner gets cancelled. Avoiding this has been one of the key benefits of being made redundant four days before Christmas.
  4. The grass in the back yard dies and the whole area becomes a hot dustbowl instead of the green oasis I want it to be. I'm slowly putting in more trees to try to avoid this, but we rent, so I don't want to overspend. 
  5. Bushfires. No explanation needed. 

What do you love or loathe about your season?

Tuesday 29 January 2013

Cleaning the oven

Cleaning the oven is one of those jobs that people tend to put off, until finally, armed with a can of Mr Muscle, three newspapers, extra tough rubber gloves, a bucket, four or five sponges, and a couple of hours, they attack it. And then put it off again until it reaches critical mess.

Living the steampunk dream. No glass doors = no stress about baked on grease.


Despite, or maybe because of my dedication to doing just enough, I don't work this way. For starters, I don't like Mr Muscle. It seems almost impossible to get all of the residue out, and that means nasty fumes every time you turn the oven on for the next few weeks. Secondly, it's all a bit too much like hard work.

Top 5 tips for oven cleaning

  1. Wipe down the stove top every time you do the dishes. Assuming you rinse at least some items before loading the dishwasher, this works even if you're not a slave to the kitchen sink. 
  2. If you skip a wipe and something gets burned on, use our old friends bicarb and vinegar. 
  3. Wipe out the interior with a damp microfibre cloth once a month. Do it more often if you have a tendency to cook rotisserie chickens in there, a bit less if the only things that ever go in are loaves of artisanal bread. Or drip-free vegetarian foods. 
  4. If things get really sticky in there, fill a heat-proof bowl with water and put it in at around 180 - 200 Celsius for half an hour beforehand to steam the gunk free. Cool things down before wiping it unless you fancy adding melted microfibre cloth to the mess.
  5. When the oven trays start looking a bit dirty, soak them in a sink filled with hot water and laundry powder for a couple of hours. The stains will wipe off with a damp sponge or microfibre cloth. 

Sunday 27 January 2013

Everyone's talking about...

It's coming in to spring in the northern hemisphere, so spring cleaning is getting a bit of a working over. I'm not an advocate of spring cleaning; it's just in time, not so much just enough. In fact, it's often not even just in time, which means repeated effort. That said, Mother Nature Network has hints on high impact tasks that make a difference to how clean your house feels. Check it out here.

Our budding artist went all out with a ballpoint pen and the couch earlier this week. I found this tip on how to clean it up. It's taking a long time, but it is working. The downside is that I'm starting to associate cleaning the couch with fish and chips. The up side is that I'm not paying a fortune to get the job done. Is there anything that vinegar can't do?

Getting things done with small people around the house can be tricky. Planning with kids has some ideas that are both sensible and straightforward. I know it's not a new post, but it totally holds up.

Now I'm off to tackle a flat space reclamation. Wish me luck!


Listmania

Along with getting the house and gardens sorted out and running smoothly, I really want to get a blogging routine going this year. In keeping with my need for accountability, I've decided to join in with Home Life Simplified's weekly link up, List mania.

For the first time ever, I'm on time for week one. So, here we go.


Currently I am:

Reading:

A little sci-fi trash piece by Mercedes Lackey called Invasion. So far it's about super powered people fighting alien Nazis. What more could a person want? On a more serious note, I'm also reading the guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge. The alien Nazis are a lot more fun. 

Listening to:

Right now I'm listening to the tennis. Music wise, I'm loving Alt-J, Grimes and Major Lazer. 

Laughing at:

Nailed It as a meme. Google it. You won't regret it.

Swooning over:

Not sure if I'm actually swooning, but I really like the Expedit bookcase at Ikea and covet some apothecary jars from Provincial Living. 

Planning:

How I can use apothecary jars from Provincial Living to decorate the mantelpiece. 

Eating lots of:

Blue heaven milkshakes. I hadn't had one for years, and in the past week I've had four! I'm also ashamed to confess to buying hot cross buns already. In January. The shame!

Feeling:

Very tired! 

Discovering:

Finding a job is going to be more difficult than I imagined. The last time I was looking for work was seven years ago. Getting my resume up to scratch is proving a struggle. What achievements? I just did my job!

Looking at:

Photos of beautiful kitchens and bathrooms. I probably should avoid this while renting. It's like interior design is addictive. 

Wearing:

Lots of skirts and t-shirts with havianas. Wearing real shoes is going to be a come down when the weather gets cooler.

Cooking:

I made some fantastic bread rolls and Asian-spiced chicken burgers on Thursday night. There's been a few really good prawn curries on high rotation, too. And on Monday I made strawberry cupcakes. There's no such thing as too many strawberry dishes. 

Wondering:

If my the photos I have for sale on Fotolia will make me any money. And what to shoot next that might increase my chances of making some sales. You can find a couple here and here. Hopefully my portfolio will grow quickly.

Trying out:

Warning: nerd alert! I'm trying out astro photography using my telescope. And I'm loving it!



Saturday 26 January 2013

Sorting the bookshelves

Once upon a time, there was an agile career woman who kept beautifully organised bookshelves. Happily she went on to extend her family a little. Sadly, this meant the bookshelves became a debacle.

Your books deserve better than this
The smallest member of the family developed an interest in books very early. In response, we moved the books up one shelf. And then he grew. The books went up again. Thank goodness he got bored with pulling books off shelves at this point, as the top heavy nature of the bookcases was getting a little on the dangerous side.

The problem with a little bit of disorganisation is that it seems to attract a whole lot more disorganisation and clutter. And where there's clutter, doing just enough is a lot harder. Something had to be done.

As a reader, I want my books sorted alphabetically by author so I can easily find what I want to read.

The acceptance criteria for this is dead simple. It's done when the books are on the shelf, sorted by surname, ascending. Very easy to test.

Unfortunately the number of books had increased significantly, and I couldn't fit them all back once they were standing up nicely. While I'd love to buy another bookcase, it's really not in the budget at the moment. Clearly some of them had to go.

Surprisingly, it hasn't been that hard to choose what to get rid of. Books that were once absolute favourites just didn't seem quite so appealing on reflection. In reality, a lot of them have become clutter. I've packed them in plastic boxes and listed them on fishpond.com.au - my favourite Australian online booksellers.

With the clutter out of the way, getting the books back on the shelves was a doddle. All of the spines are facing the right way, fiction and non-fiction are separated, everything is in alphabetical order. Dusting is going to be a whole lot easier from now on. I could go a step further and sort the non-fiction by subject then author, but the point is to do just enough. So I'm calling this one done. 

Friday 18 January 2013

The word on the street

A weekly round up of articles I've enjoyed over the past week.


How much time do you spend cleaning up your online life? It's easy to see when the house needs decluttering, but the digital stuff can be hidden. Get some great tips on giving your data a bit of a tidy up - www.everydayfamily.com/blog/4-tips-for-decluttering-your-digital-life/

Most of these hints are common sense, but I love the idea of a five item rule. www.news.com.au/news/how-to-easily-declutter-your-life/story-fnejnq21-1226551926262

Over at Slow your home, Brooke takes a slightly different tack on the whole getting organised thing. The less clutter you have, the fewer organisational tools you'll need. Her tip on being as organised as you need and no more is very agile! Check out www.slowyourhome.com/2013/01/14/o-organised-enough/

Over at Kidspot, there's advice on not sweating the small stuff. We all know someone who lives in an immaculate home; maybe you are that person. If you're not, it's not a problem. Just do your best and embrace the disorder where you have to. blogs.kidspot.com.au/villagevoices/messy-home/

Decluttering isn't just about physical or digital mess; you can declutter your processes. Have a look at There Was A Crooked House for hints make the mornings smoother. therewasacrookedhouse.wordpress.com/2013/01/15/creating-a-smoother-day-evening-routine/

Being agile

Keeping the house running smoothly is not my forte. I'm not one of those people with a beautifully lit, flawlessly styled, immaculately clean homes. If you're looking for that sort of site, keep searching.

This site is for people who want to try a new approach to getting organized. One that isn't perfect, but is good enough. This is about applying project methodology to the home and getting it running the agile way.