A while ago, I made a LinkedIn post about how senior+ engineers need to focus on long running initiatives. Since the results from these initiatives take time to materialize, it is often difficult to find the motivation to make progress on them.
I'm just reviewing a tool called Timestripe and I saw the article title on Daily.dev. I didn't expected that two will have so many similarities.
Have you explored the tool so far? Do you think that in some way it is similar to the system you have developed?
At the end of the article I saw that you use two tools Apple Notes and OneNote, and my question is are you using a Task or Project management tool to handle those deadlines are to remind you of them? Or you rely entirely on having a limit on active initiatives and regular reviews?
Hello Mario! I rely heavily on weekly and daily reviews to remind me of deadlines. It’s not a perfect system. Do you use any project management software, and do you have any recommendations?
Right now I’m using ClickUp to keep all tasks that I have to finish, all the tasks I have delegated and all of the knowledge sources I would like to deep dive into. (For knowledge source I mean only courses and book that I need more time with to deeply grasp)
I’m also a big fan of Sunsama, where I do plan my day-do-day schedule. I really like that I can easily spot that I try to overdeliver on some of the days. However, I still can’t find a good way for me to plan weeks and months, even with the weekly objectives in Sunsama I can’t somehow connect them to ClickUp tasks in an intuitive system. I experiment with various techniques and methods but nothing clicks so that it can stay for long enough.
Sorry, I just got around to reading the article. I loved the article, thanks for sharing! I really liked how the template forces you to be mindful of urgency vs importance of each task you're planning to undertake. I might try and steal that strategy into my system :)
We spend some time in logging the work/tickets we've done in hours/fractions of hours in Jira. It also normally takes ~30min in a week (or a little less).
If you have a system like this, how would you think of making the mandatory tracking of the 30min planning + the 5-10 daily planning? As part of other tickets you'll be working on, or a separate task?
Wow, this looks almost exactly like the system I started using for the past few weeks, it’s good to know that it works for you on the long term ;)
The only thing I do differently is planning happens at the beginning of the day/week - a lot of my “side quests” require communication with other people and more often than not they ping me in the mornings on “can we chat today?”
This is exactly what I needed.
It's just impressive
I'm just reviewing a tool called Timestripe and I saw the article title on Daily.dev. I didn't expected that two will have so many similarities.
Have you explored the tool so far? Do you think that in some way it is similar to the system you have developed?
At the end of the article I saw that you use two tools Apple Notes and OneNote, and my question is are you using a Task or Project management tool to handle those deadlines are to remind you of them? Or you rely entirely on having a limit on active initiatives and regular reviews?
Hello Mario! I rely heavily on weekly and daily reviews to remind me of deadlines. It’s not a perfect system. Do you use any project management software, and do you have any recommendations?
Hello :)
Right now I’m using ClickUp to keep all tasks that I have to finish, all the tasks I have delegated and all of the knowledge sources I would like to deep dive into. (For knowledge source I mean only courses and book that I need more time with to deeply grasp)
I’m also a big fan of Sunsama, where I do plan my day-do-day schedule. I really like that I can easily spot that I try to overdeliver on some of the days. However, I still can’t find a good way for me to plan weeks and months, even with the weekly objectives in Sunsama I can’t somehow connect them to ClickUp tasks in an intuitive system. I experiment with various techniques and methods but nothing clicks so that it can stay for long enough.
Thanks so much for sharing! This is the first time I’ve heard of these tools - will definitely check them out.
Thanks for sharing your behind-the-scenes process, Bhavana. So cool to learn from you and I love jamming about this stuff
We need to compare our systems one day!
Absolutely. I also shared a bit more into my process in my article this week. I think you'll like it!
https://read.highgrowthengineer.com/p/how-i-plan-my-week-as-a-senior-engineer
Let me know what you think
Sorry, I just got around to reading the article. I loved the article, thanks for sharing! I really liked how the template forces you to be mindful of urgency vs importance of each task you're planning to undertake. I might try and steal that strategy into my system :)
Hehe, thanks Bhavana and no worries on the delay
I’m feeling like this becomes more and more important as you hit staff, tech lead, and even EM (like my current role).
There’s so much non-sprint long term work you really need to make progress towards, but it’s not something you can just crush out in a day or two.
That’s where long term planning, tracking, and consistent execution comes in. It’s critical to the success of your career, your teams, and your org.
This was a great reminder for me, Bhavana.
Thanks for sharing 👏🏼
It's a great article!
We spend some time in logging the work/tickets we've done in hours/fractions of hours in Jira. It also normally takes ~30min in a week (or a little less).
If you have a system like this, how would you think of making the mandatory tracking of the 30min planning + the 5-10 daily planning? As part of other tickets you'll be working on, or a separate task?
THE PEOPLES SOFTWARE ENBINEER GRACIAS
Hopefully, you can share a notion template or your management tool config according to this interesting method.
Wow, this looks almost exactly like the system I started using for the past few weeks, it’s good to know that it works for you on the long term ;)
The only thing I do differently is planning happens at the beginning of the day/week - a lot of my “side quests” require communication with other people and more often than not they ping me in the mornings on “can we chat today?”
Very true! I usually respond with, can this wait until tomorrow? 😊