Release NotesMaking time for your project

leaving time for you

Rachel Andrew@rachelandrew

rachelandrew.co.uk

My job4 Operations

4 Filling in baffling forms from the government

4 Marketing

4 Website copy

4 Front-end development for our sites

4 Working with accountants and bookkeepers

4 more forms from the government

I also …4 research and teach emerging CSS

4 speak at 30 or so conferences a year

4 write books, regular columns, magazine articles

4 make the dinner, be a mother, try to stop the house turning into something from an episode of Hoarders

4 train for and run half & full marathons

I know something about time management

“Goals are dreams with deadlines”

1Diana Scharf Hunt

“One worthwhile task carried to a successful

conclusion is worth half-a-hundred half-finished tasks.”

1Malcolm S. Forbes

Start with something smallIt will show you how to ship.

Making time

“Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci,

Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein”1

Life’s Little Instruction Book, compiled by H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

“In truth, people can generally make time for what they

choose to do; it is not really the time but the will that is

lacking.”1

Sir John Lubbock

Make your project a first class citizen

Don't treat it like a hobby.

Try to schedule a regular slotPlan in advance the things you will be doing when you next get to work on the project.

Use your down time wiselyWhat can you do while ...

4 waiting for a train

4 on an airplane

4 commuting to a day job

4 waiting for children to finish sport or dance practice

“It has been my observation that most

people get ahead during the time that others waste.”

1Henry Ford

Always be ready to jump into your project

If you are an employeeBe very careful not to mix work and your own product.

Even work done in your own time and at home can sometimes be claimed to belong to your employer.

Check your contract.

Organise tasks by where they can be completed or the state of mind you need for them4 at my desk

4 offline

4 to listen to (podcasts etc.)

4 needs focus

4 tired/distracted

Always be ready to work offline

Store the things you need along with the to do item

Optimise for your situation

Productivity tips are often situation-specific.

Optimise your environmentHow quickly can you switch into your

project?

Say NoTo things that won't help you meet

your goal.

Beware the entrepornYou can do a lot of reading that feels like it is work, but is really just indulging success fantasies. Look for reading and listening material that is ...

4 actionable

4 relevant to your stage of business

4 relevant to the type of market you are in

Follow people who are good filter of informationFind people who are a step ahead of you in a relevant type of business on Twitter, or who curate email newsletters of information.

Use them as a filter for material.

Saying no to family and friends

Sharing your goalHelp those you care for feel part of

your progress

A realistic scheduleHelps your family see there is an end in

sight

They might even help keep you accountable!

Schedules & Lists

You need a to do list

4 gives you somewhere to put things you need to remember

4 helps you see progress

4 keeps you honest in regards to getting the most important things done

4 means you can pick up quickly in downtime.

“In a nutshell, the idea is to start with the end-goal in mind, then divide it into smaller and smaller

increments.  Plan all of the actions in detail beforehand, then get to

work.”1

Brian Casel, The Cascading To Do List

What is needed to ship your product?Decide on a launch date then outline everything you can think of:

4 research

4 development

4 documentation

4 pre-launch marketing

Break it down into monthly sections

If your launch date is 6 months away create six lists

As you work, create two week sprints4 What do I need to do this week, and what is coming up next week.

4 Don't forget to plan in time for other stuff

Each day you are working on the project4 create a 24 hour to do list

4 this should contain the actionable things to do today

4 each will move you towards completing this sprint

I don't know how long anything will take!

You need to accept a level of inaccuracy in your schedule. That doesn't mean it

is pointless.

Why are time estimates important?Even if you mostly work alone schedules and time estimates are valuable, they mean you can ...

4 pre-announce a product or feature

4 work more effectively with others

4 understand what things are coming up that need preparation in advance

Work more effectively with other people.

Hire freelancers in good time, help others on your team plan their

workload

Booking launch advertisingTake advantage of an industry event or

conference

Help your family stay on board

Let them see that the end is nigh!

Keep motivated as you progress towards an end

datePicking away at something with no end date is a rapid route to never launch

Most people are terrible at estimating time4 we tend to be over-optimistic

4 we want to please the person asking

4 we want to encourage ourselves that it “won’t take long”

4 we forget to factor in everything else in our lives

You can improve your time estimation skills

Even when faced with things you have not done before

Find out how long things really take4 estimate how long a task will take

4 track how long it really takes

4 compare reality against your estimate

Using the Pomodoro Technique to find out how bad you really are at estimating1. Decide what you need to do today

2. Assign a number of “pomodoros” to each task

Do the work1. Log how many pomodoros it really takes to do the

work

2. Log any time spent not on the defined tasks

3. Do this for a week

4. See the patterns that emerge.

This technique gives you an understanding of where

you estimate poorly

Don’t allow the fact that unexpected things happen make you feel that there is no point estimating time.

When the scope is overwhelming

You have too much to doYou can:

4 extend the completion date

4 remove features, tighten the scope of the product

“The longer it takes to develop, the less likely it is

to launch.”1

Jason Fried, Basecamp

Ship something smallTest the water. Is this a problem people

will pay to have solved?

What can be pushed to post-launch?

Identify the one problem your product solves

Solve that problem in the simplest possible way

The problem we solved4 A web designer build a ‘static’ (html and css) site for

a client

4 At the last minute the client wanted to be able to edit the site themselves

4 Perch v1 was a simple, drop-in editor for those situations

We left out4 image resizing

4 new page creation

4 a developer API

4 … and much more

The missing elements will seem like a big deal to you. If you solve the problem

you state to solve, that is enough to start with.

A presentation tool where I can’t design my own

theme?

Launch and BeyondHow to manage a growing product

“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

1Winston Churchill

Our timeline for Perch4 We launched Perch at the end of May 2009

4 At launch we were still 100% booked out on client projects

4 Income from Perch was initially reinvested into Perch

4 January 2013 we made the decision to stop taking on new client work

A product should be given more time as it represents a higher % of your income.

Never promise a specific timeframe to customers

If your product is a side project there are many

reasons you might need to delay a feature

We don’t publish our roadmap4 It allows us to be flexible and react to customer

needs and changing trends in web design.

4 It means that customers are not relying on the launch of feature X in order to complete a project.

4 It means that we can hold back a feature until we are absolutely sure it won’t cause anyone a problem.

Collect Use Cases not Feature Requests

Find general solutions that will benefit many customers rather than adding very

specific features

Understanding the problem means we can help the

customer now and optimize the solution later.

Delight customers by solving their problems and letting them know when

you have done so

Make frequent, small releases

Protect the Core Use Case

Products benefit from clarity of purpose and

ownershipDon’t be afraid to say no

Don’t be led by a noisy minority

How many people need that feature?

The happy majority are often silent

Make sure you don’t bias development towards one or two noisy people!

Remember to enjoy the journey

“The worst days of those who enjoy what they do are better than the best days of those who don’t.”

1Jim Rohn

Thank you!Slides & Links: https://rachelandrew.co.uk/presentations/productivity

I’m @rachelandrew

Photo credits (CreativeCommons):- https://www.flickr.com/photos/thewestend/5045898169/- https://www.flickr.com/photos/spapax/4864045598/- https://www.flickr.com/photos/zamboniandrea/170324255/- https://www.flickr.com/photos/matt_gibson/3281131319/- https://www.flickr.com/photos/vylen/10774724274/- https://www.flickr.com/photos/24557420@N05/7159618610/