We hold retrospectives with teams all the time, encouraging them to inspect and adapt their ways of working together. And there are regular times of product inspection; in Scrum, we have Sprint Reviews with stakeholders.
As this new year dawns, consider applying this same practice to you, personally. Take a moment to hold a personal retrospective. Set aside some uninterrupted time – say, 30 minutes – and consider a few important aspects:
What is going well?What could be better?Where are you over-investing?Where are you under-investing? What are you ignoring?
You can use the Wheel of Life concept, originated by Paul J. Meyer in the 1960s, to consider a wide view of your life across several categories.
Then, consider actions that you intend to take:
Protect things that are important and going wellGrow things that are important and need more investmentLet go of things that are less important or harmfulBe grateful for things that are beneficial and healthy
As with teams, we recommend that you only pick a few actions to focus on, and then make those small enough that you can do them in a short period of time (like a week).
What better way to start the year?
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