The 3-Minute Solution to Procrastination – 99U

Now knowing I only have a three-minute commitment I just do the thing I was procrastinating about! I just make that a policy! Just do that one thing– you know what it is– it’s the thing you’re thinking about right now. Don’t think in terms of patterns. None of this: “I always” or “I never ” because those globalizing thoughts will never serve you. They will scare you and make you a pessimist. Keep your life creative and simple: what needs to be done now in these three minutes? That’s all you ever need to ask, and you’ll never have anything like procrastination bother you again.

The Surprising Benefits (and Pitfalls) of Being a “Jack of All Trades”

If you ever hit a wall at your current job, you can jump ship and swim to the shores of variety island. A Jack of All Trades gets their pick of work as long as they’re competent enough. While you’re working one job, you’re practicing other skills, making yourself ready to find excitement doing something new whenever you need it. No more boredom and no more ruts. Who knows, you might even encounter a field Read more…

Joint Finances: Why I Share My Money With My Husband – The Simple Dollar

And while that may be true — that it doesn’t hurt him — keeping financial secrets never seems like a good idea. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t commonplace. According to a CreditCards.com poll from earlier this year, one in five adults has spent more than $500 without telling their spouse. Meanwhile, another 6% of adult participants admitted to having a secret checking or savings account.

Separate accounts and secret spending seem like a recipe for disaster — and that’s one thing I love about keeping everything out in the open. Not that I am tempted to splurge, but I think the fact that we are totally transparent with one another makes it easier to stay on track.

Some Thoughts on the Parable of the Fisherman and the Banker – The Simple Dollar

Think about that nice life that the fisherman describes again. “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos: I have a full and busy life, señor.”

That life is a pretty cheap one. He catches most of his own food and probably has a garden to fulfill the rest. He doesn’t need a mansion for this lifestyle. He sips wine in the evening, but it’s probably wine given to him by friends and he likely gives them fish in exchange for it.

Remote work: an engineering leader’s perspective

Team productivity is difficult to estimate for knowledge workers, especially in an agile environment where objectives are loosely defined both in quantity and in quality.

However, it is possible to:
Use proxy metrics to compare test teams (within the area of impact) to the rest of the product team;
Use proxy metrics to compare productivity in the overall team before and during the experiment;
Complete a qualitative assessment survey at the end of the experiment.
All three come with caveats and are very noisy measurements. Fortunately, because we’re number freaks, we’d been tracking several metrics all along.