This is going to be a post of #self_reflection, about 2023 as well as about 201* / 202* for myself.
I have just realized there is one kind of activity that used to play a large role in my life, professional and personal. And this activity has practically vanished in the last few years.
It is when there is a task, which:
⒈ Is scoped well enough to have a reasonable definition-of-done,
⒉ Is on me, or on a small group of people including me, and
⒊ Is on the critical path, and the team is looking forward to it being done.
When this scenario occurs, almost nothing but completing this task matters.
I am not only allowed to; I am supposed to and encouraged to cut all communication for several days, ignore email / chats / meetings / whatever, work with whoever we agree to work on this together, in any shape and form that we please.
And by "I" above I mean the small-ish focus group of a few people who are equally and highly motivated to get this task done.
The task would generally be single-digit days long. Maybe a week. Two max.
As soon as the task is declared done, everybody is happy, we get a day or two of well-deserved rest, and then the team gets to business as usual. That is, until the next task such as this one emerges. And, ideally, such tasks should emerge relatively frequently.
A prime example of when this took place in my life was back in 2016. That year the #ICPC finals took place in Phuket. We flew to Thailand a few weeks beforehand and got a lot of targeted work stuff done.
All in all, that was an amazing experience. And what we've built saved our team a lot of maintenance time, and had years-long uptime. It may well be in production today, but that company is long since acquired, so I can't say for sure.
Back then, in ~2016, some ~20% of my work time was spent this way.
Back in ~2010, some ~50% of my work time was spent this way.
Back in ~2005, when I was working both the job and my graduation work, some ~75% of my work time was spent this way.
Today, in ~2023, this number would be under 5%.
In other words, I'm lucky if this "get things done flow" is with me for three weeks in a given year. The average would be ~2.5 weeks annually. Some years, at least when it comes to the work I am paid for, all this "deep work flow" put together would fit one week.
The weirdest thing is that virtually everyone I work with would agree that the above "mode of operation" is how great things get done. A few folks get together, declare what they consider important to get done in the next week or so, and disappear until this important thing is done, or at least is "done enough".
No daily-s. No retro-s. No interruptions whatsoever. Just get that freaking thing done.
My understanding of why this shift happened is long and convoluted. This margin is too narrow for it just yet.
Today though, as 2023 comes to an end, I am genuinely curious: How hard would it be to consciously get this percentage up?
Way, way up, to where it should be.
I have just realized there is one kind of activity that used to play a large role in my life, professional and personal. And this activity has practically vanished in the last few years.
It is when there is a task, which:
⒈ Is scoped well enough to have a reasonable definition-of-done,
⒉ Is on me, or on a small group of people including me, and
⒊ Is on the critical path, and the team is looking forward to it being done.
When this scenario occurs, almost nothing but completing this task matters.
I am not only allowed to; I am supposed to and encouraged to cut all communication for several days, ignore email / chats / meetings / whatever, work with whoever we agree to work on this together, in any shape and form that we please.
And by "I" above I mean the small-ish focus group of a few people who are equally and highly motivated to get this task done.
The task would generally be single-digit days long. Maybe a week. Two max.
As soon as the task is declared done, everybody is happy, we get a day or two of well-deserved rest, and then the team gets to business as usual. That is, until the next task such as this one emerges. And, ideally, such tasks should emerge relatively frequently.
A prime example of when this took place in my life was back in 2016. That year the #ICPC finals took place in Phuket. We flew to Thailand a few weeks beforehand and got a lot of targeted work stuff done.
All in all, that was an amazing experience. And what we've built saved our team a lot of maintenance time, and had years-long uptime. It may well be in production today, but that company is long since acquired, so I can't say for sure.
Back then, in ~2016, some ~20% of my work time was spent this way.
Back in ~2010, some ~50% of my work time was spent this way.
Back in ~2005, when I was working both the job and my graduation work, some ~75% of my work time was spent this way.
Today, in ~2023, this number would be under 5%.
In other words, I'm lucky if this "get things done flow" is with me for three weeks in a given year. The average would be ~2.5 weeks annually. Some years, at least when it comes to the work I am paid for, all this "deep work flow" put together would fit one week.
The weirdest thing is that virtually everyone I work with would agree that the above "mode of operation" is how great things get done. A few folks get together, declare what they consider important to get done in the next week or so, and disappear until this important thing is done, or at least is "done enough".
No daily-s. No retro-s. No interruptions whatsoever. Just get that freaking thing done.
My understanding of why this shift happened is long and convoluted. This margin is too narrow for it just yet.
Today though, as 2023 comes to an end, I am genuinely curious: How hard would it be to consciously get this percentage up?
Way, way up, to where it should be.
❤6🔥2👍1