The Art of Agile Living
The Art of Agile Living
Conquer Procrastination, Hit Deadlines, Reduce Stress
About the Book
In the fast-paced, ever-changing world we live in, it's easy to become overwhelmed by the myriad tasks and responsibilities that seem to demand our attention at any given moment. The Art of Agile Living™ provides a transformative solution, offering a simple and powerful approach to taming the chaos that often defines our daily lives. Drawing inspiration from the Agile methodology which revolutionized the $700B software industry and experience of two highly-regarded Agile experts, this book offers a practical and adaptable framework that can be applied to any area of your life—be it work, home, family, or leisure.
The Art of Agile Living is not about managing tasks; it's about embracing a new way of thinking and living. It’s about regaining your focus. It's about adopting a daily ritual that brings structure, clarity, and meaning to your day, allowing you to achieve more and reduce the overwhelm that so often plagues our modern existence. By implementing the Art of Agile Living method, you will gain control over your time, your projects, and ultimately, your life, enabling you to prioritize and accomplish your goals with ease and satisfaction. Employing the core principles of simplicity, transparency, and focus, you will find the balance and productivity that you have been searching for.
Follow along with short explanatory videos available on YouTube - A2Agile, Playlists, The Art of Agile Living.
About the Authors
Reader Testimonials
Dr. Mari Kira
Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of Michigan
Many books offering advice on how to take hold of your life simply manage awake feelings of guilt and inadequacy. Not this book. It gently understands your struggles when trying to tame the chaos of the relentless overlapping demands of work and private life. It shows you steps to organize your tasks and life, taking you on a journey from chaos to Kanban. And all you need to take along to this journey is your thorough expertise of what you need to get done, and some post-it notes and pens.
Richard Sheridan
CEO & Chief Storyteller, Menlo Innovations
A short read packed with practical ideas, The Art of Agile Living, has all the tools you need to get you out of your crazy life and keep you there. Using lessons we've successfully applied on complex software projects at our company for over two decades, Helene Gidley and Tom Meloche teach you how to bring these lessons home and get the whole family participating. Move from overwhelmed to in-control and have fun doing it!
Gabe Bautista
Entrepreneur
As an Entrepreneur and consultant, one is always looking for ways to increase productivity and simply get stuff done. The environment is noisy and many claim to have the latest "life hack" . Tom and Helene are among those few that I listen to and whose advice I actually put to use. I was familiar with some of the agile methodology but they have helped me to acquire a deeper understanding of the concepts in PRACTICE. Which as we know is where it matters.
Table of Contents
- Praise for The Art of Agile Living
- The Art of Agile Living™: An Introduction
- Audience
- How to Use This Book
- Special Features and Benefits
- The Art of Agile Living, An Evolution
- A Different Approach to Manage Tasks
- The Start of Something New
- Goodbye, Overwhelm: A Florida Condo and a Visioning Ceremony
- Things Get Complicated
- Agile to the Rescue! and a Trick Called Kanban
- Working From Home: A New World
- A Radically Different World
- The Tool That Solves It
- The First Giant Leap
- Where Did This Idea Come From?
- The Art of Agile Living in 7 Steps
- Key Takeaways
- Step 1: Define Your Work
- Here’s What You Do:
- The Story
- And That’s Step 1!
- Why Physical Paper?
- Key Takeaways From Step 1
- Step 2: Estimate Your Work
- Here’s What You Do:
- The Story
- A Great Idea, Gone Bad
- I Learned Something Transformative
- Why Estimating is So Powerful
- How to Do a Solid Estimate
- Why Smaller is Better
- What My List Looks Like
- When is it “Done”?
- Prevent Multitasking
- When You Delegate, Don’t Estimate
- It’s a Kind of Magic
- Key Takeaways From Step 2
- Step 3: Order Your Work
- Here’s What You Do:
- The Story
- So What About All These Sticky Notes?
- Two Ways to Organize
- Launching the Perfect Monday
- Don’t Miss Your Big Scheduled Items
- The Myth of the 8-Hour Day
- Start With Six
- Key Takeaways From Step 3
- Sidebar: Out of Sight, Out of Mind By Bryan Todd
- Sidebar: The Eisenhower Principle
- Step 4: Do Your Work
- Here’s What You Do:
- The Story
- One Thing, and One Thing Only
- Physically Mark It and Move It
- Expect Surprises, and Add Them to Your List
- Get Your Life Back: Delegate!
- Key Takeaways From Step 4
- Sidebar: A Princess and a Hippopotamus
- Step 5: Review Your Day
- Here’s What You Do:
- The Principle
- Break the Barriers to Completion
- How to Finish Out Your Day
- Key Takeaways From Step 5
- Step 6: Update Your Backlog
- Here’s What You Do:
- The Story
- Enter the Backlog Planning Sheet
- Break it Into Pieces
- This is Actually Ideal
- And Not Just One Sheet!
- Longer Term Items
- I Might Want To Do Someday
- Still, Beware of Multitasking
- Your Weekly Planning Ceremony
- Recheck Your Estimates
- Go Hippo Hunting
- Key Takeaways From Step 6
- Step 7: List Your Outstanding Items
- Here’s What You Do:
- The Story
- When Work Involves Others
- A Special Note, Just for This
- Key Takeaways From Step 7
- Sidebar: The Corkboard Trick By Bryan Todd
- The Power of Pairing
- First Element: Keep it Physical
- Second Element: Make it Social
- Your Agile “Workout Buddy”
- Key Takeaways
- Variations on a Theme: The Art of Agile Living for Family Get-Togethers
- Agile to the Rescue, Again
- And Then, a Surprise
- Watch as the Idea Spreads
- Key Takeaways
- The Doorway Effect
- This is Virtual, Too
- Your Computer is a Culprit
- Stickies, Everywhere
- Keep it Physical, Keep it Safe
- Key Takeaways
- The Checklist and the Ceremony
- Enter the Checklist
- Without a Ceremony, It’s Useless
- The Crucial Mistake
- Bring on the Copilot!
- Choose NOT to Do It
- Choose to Hand it Off
- Key Takeaways
- A Day in the Life
- Defining Done
- Those Unfinished Tasks
- My Daily Ceremony
- Dealing with Interrupts
- Daily Retrospective
- Key takeaways:
- In Closing: A Solution You Can Stick With
- Those Old Abandoned Methods
- Designed to Help You Stick to It
- You CAN Take it With You
- All the Right Motivators
- Key Takeaways
- Resources
- Acknowledgements
- Helene’s Acknowledgements
- Tom’s Acknowledgements
- About The Authors
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