Your Agile Home: Recent Episodes
Yvonne Marcus
Welcome to Your Agile Home, the podcast to help you develop flexible home management solutions. Hi, I'm Yvonne, and I'm on a mission to help moms develop flexible home management solutions that leave them with more time for themselves, happier families, less money spent, and a more productive week.
Be sure to join Your Agile Home over at youragilehome.substack.com for free (and exclusive!) content.
You can support this podcast here: Patreon
The number one question I get is: how do I get my family to buy-in?
Getting children to buy-in is the easiest thing you will do because they will love being asked their opinion and their feedback.
The importance here is the follow-through. You have to actually take your children's input and feedback into consideration.
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You can support this podcast here: Patreon
This can the hardest buy-in to get because your partner already has a way of doing things and may not be open to new ideas.
Don't try to implement any new software.
Don't take on more projects than you can realistically complete.
Make your first sprint smaller than you think it needs to be.
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Patreon
2 Ways you can use the Pomodoro Method
- The traditional Way
Set a timer and get to work. I use Egg Timer. I set it to Pomodoro and work til the break and take a stretch before getting back to it for the second cycle.
- The reverse Pomodoro
You do something fun for the longer stretch of time and then get something done in the shorter stretch of time. This is great for days when you have the blahs.
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Today, we are talking about how to manage team members with negative attitudes. Listen, we've all dealt with them before. Heck, I've even been a team member with a negative attitude. It's no different at home.
Here are my tips for managing it.
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Make space for bad days
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Ask how you can help them have a better day
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Ask someone else to help them attack the problem
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Use positive reinforcement
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Go do something you'll both enjoy
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Occasionally, I like to try new tools so you don't have to so that's why I want to take a minute today and talk about the Commit30 journal.
I was having trouble with habits. Honestly, I can assure you that motivation just wasn't enough. I needed a planner that was going to hold me accountable. I had tried to do it digitally, and it wasn't working. My brain just needed something that was more tangibly. I'm very glad I went with the Commit30. In January, I tracked meditation, and I was successful for all 30 days. In February, I tracked my protein shake and BAM! I'll check back in with you in a few months to let you know how it's still going.
I find that it is best to track 1 habit at a time instead of trying to track ALL the habits all the time.
See you in a few days.
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Your backlog is a place to keep a list of all the projects you want to do in your home.
Today, we talk about a few places you can store that list.
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Trello - great for visual learners
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Click up.
Affiliate deal hereClickUp - 30% off of Unlimited and 15% off Business for their first year**
- Google Sheets/Excel
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patreon.com/youragilehome
youragilehome.substack.com
I get a lot of questions about how we plan our sprints.
The basics are:
We break down the tasks and determine how long it will take.
Recently, we decided to install a pot rack over our island. We determined it would take 2 sprints each equalling 2 weeks.
We planned out the steps that would take place in each sprint.
Planning, measuring, cutting, assembling, hanging, sanding, painting, etc.
Steps 1 - ?? happened in sprint 1.
The rest happened in sprint 2.
Then you have a completed project.
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Investing in yourself is vital, and I've been trying to do a lot of it during this pandemic.
Have you been investing in yourself?
Here are some ways you can invest in yourself:
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Set up a space for you
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Get Organized
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Hire a coach
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Start a side hustle
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Play a brain game
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Find a mentor/be a mentor
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Boost your health & wellness
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Prioritize your self-care
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Take a class
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Read a book
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Winter is a time that can be difficult for everyone. So what's in my winter self-care basket?
First, I'd like to remind that a self-care basket is a basket or a couple of baskets where you keep the things you need for self-care located together in order to make sure you have them available when you need them.
My winter baskets include [contains affiliate links meaning I make a few dollars if you click the links and purchase. It helps support this podcast]
Aveeno Absolutely Ageless
Aveeno Absolutely Ageless Night Cream
Aveeno Absolutely Ageless Eye Cream
Carex Therapy Lamp
Animal Crossing New Horizons
Minecraft
Minecraft Dungeons
My Time in Portia
TikTok
What do you use for your Self-care?
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We love playing games in our home and educational games and toys are especially our favorites
Some of our favorites:
[Includes affiliate links]
Roller Skates
MagnaTiles
Binoculars
Tangrams
Drums
Guitars
Art Supplies
Coloring Books
Color By Sticker for Kids
Sneaky Snacky Squirrel
Count Your Chickens
Clumsy Thief
Minecraft
Epic Books
Homer
ABCYa
Atlas Mission
Be sure to join Your Agile Home over at youragilehome.substack.com for free (and exclusive!) content.
Bullet journaling is something I picked up because of my forgetfulness and ADHD. Now, the minute I think of something, I pick up my bullet journal and jot it down.
I also use it to track my habits and goals.
I also use it to assign a day and a time to my to-dos so that I know that I'm actually achieving what I set out to do.
Using my bullet journal also allows me to review and track my goals and habits at the end of the month.
Be sure to join Your Agile Home over at youragilehome.substack.com for free (and exclusive!) content.
New Years usually brings on discussions about goals and goal setting, but how do you set Agile goals?
We need to be continually making progress towards our goals, whether the goals are big or small.
Make sure to evaluate your progress at the end of the sprint and make adjustments in your plans as you're moving forward.
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Why I Use "I" Statements
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No one else can make you feel a certain way
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Doesn't Place Blame
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It makes people feel valued and like their opinion is valued
I statements are especially important when creating user stories and setting up Your Agile Home and Sprint goals through Scrum.
Quiet time with my noise-canceling headphones.
Exercise
Playing video games - especially ones like Animal Crossing where you're building community
Writing in my gratitude journal
Taking a shower
What helps you boost your mood? Email me and let me know!
Brain dumping is so important when it comes to creating your backlog and for keeping yourself from becoming overwhelmed.
What are the steps for an effective brain dump?
-Find a quiet spot
-Write down everything that comes out of your brain without a filter
-After you've gotten everything out of your brain, prioritize what you've written down.
What does being done in Agile mean?
It means that your team - or your family - is aware of what the expected deliverable is and it is delivered. It is all about transparency.
The quality of work meets the description of the product.
Over time, the project may become a part of your sprint again, as you realize some pieces are not working.
You're creating a culture of ideas and empowering even your youngest to make decisions.
We're getting near and dear to my heart talking about all of my favorites.
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ClickUp. You've heard me talk about it so often. Use my affiliate link to get a 30% off of Unlimited and 15% off Business for their first year.
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My expo marker and whiteboard. I use it for EVERYTHING.
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Microsoft To Do Lists
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My Dakboard hooked up using a Raspberry Pi.
What is an Agile Roadmap?
When we look at what we want in life, we want to have a map of where you are going and what you want to do.
This helps you to set your goals and to meet them. You need to be specific.
With a roadmap, there is continuity of purpose. Everyone will be on the same page to reach the goal.
We've been talking all about scope creep and today we are going to talk about avoiding it!
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Document the requirements
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Set up a change process.
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Create a clear project schedule.
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Verify the scope. Make sure everyone is on the same page.
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Engage the project team. You want to know how changes will affect them.
It is important to avoid scope creep because it can take longer than you budgeted, cost more than you budgeted and can lead to burnout.
These are the top 4 causes of scope creep.
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Lack of clear and detailed scope is the number one reason for scope creep. The project will morph on its own without a clear scope.
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You aren't proactive with issues and roadblocks.
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Disagreements on how to handle change.
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Poor estimation - time, money, etc. Everything was not specified at the beginning.
Listen to today's episode to learn what scope creep is, why scope creep is a problem, and how to avoid it.
Scope creep occurs when you start adding things outside your predetermined definition of "done"
If you suffer from scope creep, you may notice that:
- your definition of "done" is changed
- you end up adding to your project's budget
- your timeline will have to be increased
I'm not the first or last person to tell you that multitasking is bad for you, but I can tell you that single-tasking is the #1 thing that helps me complete my home projects.
How do I do this best?
I started creating baskets in various places of my home so that I wasn't constantly going up and down the stairs and multitasking.
I tune out from my phone and don't have multiple tabs open on my computer.
Do you multitask or single-task?
Get started on your Agile transformation with my free course.
Click this affiliate link to try ClickUp and get a 15% - 30% discount.
Here are all of the things that you absolutely need to put in your home ClickUp spacease.
- Backlog - all of your dreamiest projects!
- Recurring Tasks (and assign them out)
- Personal Information (easy to display for babysitters etc like hospital and doctors numbers.)
- Food & Meal Plan
- Finance
- Holidays (So they don't sneak up on you)
A lot of the time our Scrum meetings are not just daily logistics, but we're also talking about moving our sprints forward. Here are different ways that I keep track of that information.
- Whiteboard
- Ipad
- Post - It Note
Make sure you also talk about anything you completed the day before and any roadblocks that you are currently experiencing.
If you want to learn more about the daily scrum, check out my course.
The tasks we are talking about today are more frequent tasks that don't fit into a sprint. These are very specific.
List them all out and let everyone pick their favorites. Then deal with what is leftover democratically. Revisit periodically as your children get older.
If you want to get started on your Agile transformation, check out my free course.
Do you want to try out ClickUp? Click here for my affiliate link and you'll get a 15% - 30% discount!
- Know what's on our sprint
- Get it on my radar/schedule
- mark delegation so I'm not thinking about it
- easily prioritize the backlog
- evaluate your projects
I have so many resources for this and want to help you! Send me an email and we'll get you set up.
Taking the time to understand how stress works will help you handle all the stress that 2020 has brought upon us.
Listen to today's episode and learn some tips and tricks for managing stress and communicating effectively.
Learn More About Valerie:
Valerie Friedlander is a Certified Life Coach and Energy Leadership Master Practitioner. She specializes in helping high-achieving women with children to reach their personal and professional goals with greater ease and enjoyment. In addition to her coach training, Valerie draws on her studies in sociology, neuroscience, addiction recovery, and spiritual discernment to support her clients in reducing patterns of stress and anxiety while increasing focus, follow-through, and fun in all areas of their life. Clients have called her a "motivational unicorn" and "mindset magician" (which she loves because she is also a huge nerd with a passion for analogies.)
https://valeriefriedlander.com/
Start your agile transformation with my free course.
User stories are so important to propel the conversation forward to find out what is really needed for each project.
Here's how to create a user story:
- Define the End User
- Specify what they want
- Describe the benefit
- Add acceptance criteria
This is important because it is a factual way to state a problem without any blame or negativity.
Join my free email course to start your own Agile transformation.
We're talking about the base things you need in order to have the best possible life. You start with the bare minimum and you can move up or be agile to change quickly.
Find your non-negotiables.
This is the thing that you need to do to make sure your life is successful.
Design the leanest version of that life.
Figure out your worst-case scenario.
Plan ahead to cover your worst-case scenario.
Figure out what your anxieties are and how you can plan for them.
Your information radiator is more than what's on your calendar or countdowns. You can find out more information on my mini-course for your daily standup.
I use ClickUp for this. (Affiliate link) You can get 30% off of Unlimited and 15% off Business for their first year.
I split it up to a professional space and a personal space.
My professional space has this podcast, my blog, my products, my strategy and my back end admin stuff.
My personal space has home stuff.
We split up our projects into sprints.
Inside each sprint, you set up the tasks. Within each task, include all of the tools that you will need.
Self-care is not the answer to burn out or overwhelm from your to do list.
However, your to do list is preventing you from having meaningful self-care.
A running to do list that is never-ending makes it hard for you to feel like you actually accomplished anything for the day.
Instead of taking a break that you need, you feel bad because your list still has things on it.
You need to have less things on your list. You need to delegate so that you can get to your goals.
Sign up to start your Agile Transformation here!
The holidays are coming and we all need to get things out of the house before new toys come into the house! This is the first year we involved the kids.
We do it in a couple of phases so that the kids don't get emotional.
Have clear parameters with your kids.
Don't set your expectations high and leave them to do it. Don't micromanage. The goal is to get them ready to part with their stuff. If you start stepping in, it will not go well.
Agile got me out of my parenting burnout. This is the exact course that got me out of parenting burnout.
But first, you have to go through some things before you get to Agile.
What is burnout? It is a complete overwhelm with mental, physical and emotional exhaustion.
What are the signs of burnout? You are yelling; have less of an attention span; frustration; irritation; body aches; and fatigue.
First, you must admit that you are experiencing them.
Then, make a plan. Find ways to lighten your load immediately.
Block out meaningful time for yourself.
You need to ask for help.
Agile came in to help me because it helped me to prioritize and minimize my overwhelm and my list. Agile helped me to delegate through self-assigning tasks.
With projects and tasks, every person involved has their own idea of how things will go in their mind. We will talk about how to best communicate.
What is scope? Scope is everything you need for the process to be delivered.
What is scope creep? This is when something else comes in and derails you.
One of the biggest problems is when your backlog isn't prioritized.
Use an Agile system like ClickUp (affiliate link). If you click this link, you will receive 30% off of Unlimited and 15% off Business for their first year.
What causes scope creep? Listen to this episode to hear how to fix it.
Join my free course on Agile here!
Today, we are joined by my dear friend Bev Feldman, a blogger and mom who is passionate about sustainability.
We're in this crossroads, where if we don't change something soon the whole world is in trouble.
I wanted to make sustainability and eco-conscious living was approachable. I didn't want it to seem unrealistic.
Start where you are. It can be something as simple as shorter / cooler shower. You don't have to buy new things. Take a look at what you already have.
A lot of things we throw away, can be reused within our own houses.
Try to use sustainable swaps, including using different ecommerce companies, like switching off from Amazon.
We talk about waste, budget, smart homes and the easiest way to do it all.
So much pressure is put on individuals, and that isn't fair because there is only so much we can do in terms of production and packaging. But at the same time, vote with your dollars.
Want to know how to handle the holidays in a pandemic? Join me for my free webinar.
Halloween starts our holidays. We order pizza, trick-or-treat, hand out candy and watch a movie while the kids stay up late.
Thanksgiving we do just one side of the family.
Christmas, we find a local lake to walk. We do an annual advent calendar. We do the 4 books of Hannukah. We do the 12 books of Christmas. We celebrate with everyone on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day is a laid back, relaxing day.
We figured out what would work for us each year and then we adjust and add new things sometimes.
You don't have to jampack your calendar before Christmas. A lot of things are still available until January 4, so do some things after the holiday, like decorate cookies.
Halloween 2020 is going to look a little different this year. To find out how I'm handling Halloween click here.
Every year, we plan our costumes early. That way we can start buying or making things early.
Go to your local warehouse and buy your candy in bulk early. Get candy that isn't wrapped in Halloween wrapping. Only buy the type of candy your family can eat if there are leftovers.
Plan your route in advance.
Keep the excess candy to use as treats or rewards.
Here at Yvonne Marcus Consulting, we believe that words matter and we are coming to you today with an apology. It was brought to our attention this weekend that we have been using a term that is ableist.
We want to make the effort to do better now that we know better.
This means that The Daily Stand Up will now be referred to as The Daily Scrum - which was the original term that was meant to be used for the daily meeting.
Get my Daily Scrum mini course for just $17 right now!
So what are the best practices?
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Respect the Time Box
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Meet in person.
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Come on time and prepared.
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No multi-tasking during the meeting.
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Include self-care needs.
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Schedule this at the best time for everyone.
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Have fun!
Check out my free 3 Pillars Mini-Course!
Family Game Night is my favorite.
Our favorite educational game is Count Your Chickens. We also love Sunny Day, Rainy Day; Clumsy Beef; Sneaky Snacky Squirrel; and Uno. We also enjoy Ticket to Ride's geography focus.
We love Candyland and Creationary, as well.
Go from Agile zero to Agile hero with my new free 3-day mini-course!
One day, our kids saw a bear climb over our neighbor's fence. This scared them.
We then started to try to explain to my daughter how the bear will not come in and get her. It didn't seem to work.
So, we decided to make Bear Spray - water and lavender oil.
You can get started on your Agile transformation by signing up for my free 3-day mini-course.
Today, let's talk about the 3 ways we use our whiteboard.
First, we use it for our brainstorm process. It makes it visual.
Second, I use our whiteboard for meal planning.
Last, we use it for countdowns for medicines so that no doses are missed.
As you get started on your Agile journey, check out my free course.
When we talk about kids' room maintenance, it's important that we include the kids. We have a routine where the kids pick up most of their things.
Make cleaning and maintenance a part of your routine.
Of course, there are going to be some things that collect. Try to keep them in one portion of the room.
I break down my maintenance into once a week, once a month, and once a quarter.
Today, I'm joined by Katelyn Bowden to talk about image-based abuse for our children.
Image-based abuse is anything from sextortion, leaked nudes, revenge porn, faked nudes, deepfakes, and more. We have to talk about online safety and relationship abuse for teens as well.
A lot of kids don't realize that the metadata of photos can exist longer than the "24-hour" window. There are so many ways to disable the screenshot notification and save images on Snapchat. It's one of the most unsecure ways of sharing nudes.
We talk about ways to protect yourself and your children.
For more info on your personal identification information, listen to our episode with my friend Jason Faulhefer.
We dig into a good response if someone were trying to sextort you. Most of the time they don't actually have any information, nor is it very marketable.
Use a password manager like OnePassword or LastPass.
We also dive into agency and education around consent.
Katelyn is the CEO and founder of the BADASS army- a nonprofit organization dedicated to fighting NCP and other forms of image-based abuse.
Learn more about Katelyn at badassarmy.org
Sign up for my Three Pillars of your Agile Transformation that will jumpstart you on your Agile journey.
You need a backlog so that you have a running list of what needs to be done to make you see success in your target.
In your first meeting, write down all of your ideas for things that come up.
Get clarification on what each person needs for each idea.
Prioritize the items on your list.
We are trying to make them into bite sized pieces to fit your sprints.
Do the things at the top of the list!
Seasonal lists are great because they are filled with things that YOU love to do!
2020 looks quite different, but many seasonal activities can be done social distanced or safely in your own home.
Sit down with everyone in your family and have everyone name two things that they want to do.
These are perfect to have as intentional moments.
Sign up for the 3 Pillars to Your Agile Transformation which is crucial for this episode. You'll go over your meal plan every morning and know exactly what you'll need.
On Sundays, I fill in the meal plan. We do some days the same every week.
Look at what you need prepped for the weekly dinners and add that to the schedule.
Next, look at the ingredients we have and what needs to be bought.
We try to keep our meals seasonal.
How do you set a 90-day plan?
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Determine a very specific focus.
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Set your priorities.
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Set your goals using the M.O.S.C.O.W. method.
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Determine how you will measure success.
What are your goals for the next 90 days?
Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check us out and support our Patreon.
We are all on a mission to go a bit more paperless. These are my top apps.
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My Google Calendar. This is so important to put it in our calendar as soon as the appointments are set.
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GoodNotes. This is where I journal, bullet journal and brainstorm. This is the place I go for lists and processing.
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Evernote/OneNote.
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Microsoft ToDo.
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Amazon Alexa App. This is the best place for my grocery list. Everyone can add to this list because they know how to speak to Alexa.
Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check us out and support our Patreon.
It's important to have something that winds you down in the evening.
I like to watch television with my husband.
I write my gratitude list.
I go outside and enjoy our balcony.
I do my nighttime hygiene routine and then my husband gives me a scalp massage.
Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check us out and support our Patreon.
Executive function helps with your self-regulation tasks. When you struggle with executive function, you have trouble with planning, focusing attention, remembering instructions and juggling multliple tasks at a time.
There is less on my plate with Agile and I know what to expect.
Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check us out and support our Patreon.
I'm a bit late to the bullet journal train, but I have been using this on my tablet.
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I put my weekly schedule on there. It's important for me to see it as a spread.
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I put our meal planning on there.
3, I put my gratitude journal there. I try to be as specific as possible.
Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check us out and support our Patreon.
Today, I'm chatting with my friend Rose Lounsbury about minimalism.
Overwhelm and burnout are common feelings that lead people toward minimalism. Once Rose got her house "under control" a lot of the stress and overwhelm caused by her home was gone. She could finally relax.
We discuss how to decide what you need in your life. Change the questions that you ask yourself.
Reduce the amount of things you need. That cuts down on what you need to organize and keep clean.
If you're unsure or you need training wheels, get a "purgatory" box.
We also discuss how things changed with the pandemic.
We wrap up talking about where is the best place to start. 1. Start somewhere easy. 2. Start with your own stuff.
Learn More About Rose:
Rose Lounsbury is a keynote speaker, coach, and Amazon bestselling author who helps busy people reduce stress, improve wellness, and create more joy and balance in their lives through simplicity. After blogging about her personal journey toward a simpler lifestyle, Rose was inspired to leave her classroom teaching job and help others find the freedom that comes with owning less stuff. Rose spends her days speaking, writing, and helping her clients and online students create more open spaces in their lives. If you want to know how many towels she owns, you can watch her TEDx Talk, which has over 400,000 views. Rose’s advice has been featured on USAToday.com, and she’s been a guest on Good Day Columbus, WYSO, WVXU, Good Morning Cincinnati, and Living Dayton. She lives in lovely Dayton, Ohio with her husband and wild triplets. You can visit her online at RoseLounsbury.com.
Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check us out and support our Patreon.
Agile helps with so many life skills. Here are a few.
Focus - Agile helps our family have focus on tasks and to reach our goals.
Communication - We are learning how to give and receive feedback.
Critical Thinking - We are looking at things and making up creative solutions based on what we know and can infer.
Self-Direction - This happens because we are self-assigning tasks.
Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check us out and support our Patreon.
A Home Management Schedule keeps everyone on the same page. For example, laundry is listed on the days it happens. It makes us all accountable to the laundry happening.
We all have tasks we don't like to do. You don't have to do that chore, but you have to find a system to get it done.
Your Home Management Schedule keeps the overwhelm away.
Listen for an example of my Home Management Schedule.
Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check us out and support our Patreon.
If you’re ready to learn more about the three pillars of making the Agile transformation in your home – check out my new freebie at yvonnemarcus.com.
This is a matrix created by Dwight Eisenhower. He had so many jobs that required tough decisions.
There are 4 boxes.
Top Left: Urgent & Important
Top Right: Not Urgent & Important
Bottom Left: Urgent & Not Important
Bottom Right: Not Urgent & Not Important
This is important to sort because sometimes you get caught up in pretty but not important.
Look at the kinds of things that will create success for you and your family right now.
Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check us out and support our Patreon.
If you’re ready to learn more about the three pillars of making the Agile transformation in your home – check out my new freebie at yvonnemarcus.com.
You can absolutely agile without technology. Many people use post it notes or white boards.
Many of these tools you are already using.
My favorites are:
Google calendar
Whiteboard (for sprint planning)
Dakboard
Kids Magnetic Daily Schedule
ClickUp
Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check us out and support our Patreon.
If you’re ready to learn more about the three pillars of making the Agile transformation in your home – check out my new freebie at yvonnemarcus.com.
The MoSCoW Method is what "Must be, Should be, Could be and Won't be included in your project".
It helps define your priorities. It helps manage what you need to do.
Make sure that it happens in this order.
Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check us out and support our Patreon.
If you’re ready to learn more about the three pillars of making the Agile transformation in your home – check out my new freebie at yvonnemarcus.com.
It can feel hard setting up a morning routine, but having one can make your day successful.
I get my basic hygiene ready.
We do our daily stand up.
We switch off on getting kids situated at school, depending on what the daily schedule is.
I work from 9 - 11:30 every morning.
Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check us out and support our Patreon.
If you’re ready to learn more about the three pillars of making the Agile transformation in your home – check out my new freebie at yvonnemarcus.com.
This is the best way to get your work seen.
Use a shared calendar.
Share your iCal link.
Use a physical calendar in a high-traffic area.
Ready to help make your life and home more Agile? Check out our Resource page. (Some links are affiliate links)
Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check us out and support our Patreon.
If you’re ready to learn more about the three pillars of making the Agile transformation in your home – check out my new freebie at yvonnemarcus.com.
You need to be able to fill your cup and prepare for your daily chaos.
HOMEWORK: Sit down and think about what makes you happy and how long it takes.
For me, I need 30-60 minutes daily.
My favorite self-care things are:
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candles
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essential oils
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my Cricut
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crochet
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getting a manicure
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mobile gaming
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my bujo
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my Nintendo Switch
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baking
Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check us out and support our Patreon.
If you’re ready to learn more about the three pillars of making the Agile transformation in your home – check out my new freebie at yvonnemarcus.com.
Today we have an amazing guest - Jeremy Marcus, my husband.
As a software engineering, Jeremy had experience using Agile at work, but he had not used it at home until we started using it as a family.
Listen to the episode to hear about Jeremy's favorite parts about using Agile at home, how our children transitioned to an Agile home, and more.
If you’re ready to learn more about the three pillars of making the Agile transformation in your home – check out my new freebie at yvonnemarcus.com.
Trello is visually appealing. The layout is like Kanban. It is best if you are a single person or you don't have any recurring multi-step tasks.
ClickUp is agile. They use sprints and prioritizing and it is great for assigning tasks to others. There are checklists for your checklists, y'all.
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If you’re ready to learn more about the three pillars of making the Agile transformation in your home – check out my new freebie at yvonnemarcus.com.
Boundaries are vital to your mental health.
The three you need to pay attention to are:
- Time - What is draining you?
- Space - What physical set up works best?
- Budget - Where does your cash go?
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If you’re ready to learn more about the three pillars of making the Agile transformation in your home – check out my new freebie at yvonnemarcus.com.
It will help you go from where you are now - stressed and overwhelmed - to ready to start agile.
It speeds up your completion time
It helps you improve quality - the quality of your solutions and the quality of work you are putting out
Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check us out and support our Patreon.
If you’re ready to learn more about the three pillars of making the Agile transformation in your home – check out my new freebie at yvonnemarcus.com.
Agile creates less friction in your life
Agile builds in opportunities to remember to have fun
Agile allows for more spontaneity
Agile makes for less arguments
Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check us out and support our Patreon.
If you’re ready to learn more about the three pillars of making the Agile transformation in your home – check out my new freebie at yvonnemarcus.com.
There are three key things you will learn when you complete your retro at the end of your sprints:
1) The things you want to start
2) The things you are going to stop doing
3) The "continue process"
Two of these are going to be harder than the other-the start and the stop list-because humans are wired to continue doing what we're used to doing.
For our area, the conversation was not "if" schools were reopening, it was "when?" so our discussion had to center about when we would we be comfortable sending the kids back to school.
Things to consider:
Comfort level - is everything contained enough in your area?
Economic questions - can you afford the limit to your productivity
Mental and emotional toll - parental burnout is real
You need to consider all of these factors, but remember, you may not be comfortable with all of the answers to these questions.
Once you've made your decision, you have to prepare your student for what they will be facing. Maybe it's a different timeline for school each day. Maybe it's daily temperature checks. Whatever it is, start getting your student ready now.
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We all bring different attributes - each organized in our experiences. It is a reciprocal loop. Regardless of our beliefs and upbringing, connection is a basic need. Competition is counter to human nature.
When connection and differences are deliberate, harmony is stasis.
This makes the local community better, the bigger community better, the country better, and the world better. That's how change happens.
In order to get specific results, you need to start out identifying it. Start imagining the end result and the feelings you will have.
When you start something, initially, there is no visible change. There is a critical point in any collective energies where things change. It's a sudden jump. The more aware we are, the more impactful it is.
The more people who are a part of it, the more it works.
You learn how to ride a bike in stages. In each stage, balance is created by something different.
Scrum is just like that!
You start out where you are right now. This is the tricycle of your life.
Next, you'll start actually looking at change. This is the training wheels stage.
Eventually, you will be efficiently using scrum, relying on your own body for balance.
Balance happens when every person in your family has a say and the value of their time is equal.
Ready to help your family get Agile? Sign up for the free email course The Three Pillars to a Successful Agile Transformation at yvonnemarcus.com.
Agility is not just about speed. It's about the ability to change course seamlessly if you need to.
You do end up with faster completion of home projects because of a number of reasons.
You know you can shift how your project looks.
You end research and decision fatigue because of your sprints.
Your backlog items are no longer available for context switching.
2-week deadlines mean something needs to be done within 2 weeks.
This will create more happiness and success because things will be flowing in the direction you want.
Ready to help your family get Agile? Sign up for the free email course The Three Pillars to a Successful Agile Transformation at yvonnemarcus.com.
There are several reasons why that support why you should have your family's daily stand-up meeting in the morning:
-People are generally more alert in the morning
-It will happen more quickly
-You'll get more participation
-You're already in logistics brain
If you're ready to learn more about the three pillars of making the Agile transformation in your home - check out my new freebie at yvonnemarcus.com.
Today we are going to discuss a fun thing we Agiled this year: our spring garden. We decided to plant a garden, not only to save money (these two kids aren't eating any less these days!), but also to spend some time as a family getting our hands into the soil.
So how did we agile our spring garden?
First sprint: start the planning
Sprint two: design
Sprint three: buy plants and plant them
Sprint four: water, weed, watch, and wait
Ready to learn more about becoming Agile? Head on over to yvonnemarcus.com and sign up for my free email course.
This year might be a bit different, but we want to talk about what we will do every year.
Your schedule will be different. Routine is good, but logistically it isn't always possible to have the same schedule.
Make a calendar of who needs to be where and when. Discuss this in your daily standup. (Get your freebie here.}
Move bedtime, but don't forgo it.
Go with the flow. Read the day and read your body. Know that it's okay to move along and continue going through the motions.
Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check out our Patreon.
Today, I'm joined with my friend Jason Faulhefer and we are going to talk about how to protect your family and their private information during this modern age. PII is personal identifiable information - like security questions, social security info, etc.
It is important to look at the terms and conditions for the technology you have in your home, like Amazon Alexa, Siri, etc. A lot of times they will disclose that they share information with third party companies.
Understanding the risk - what you should and shouldn't be asking - is important.
Know the laws, especially as it pertains to your children.
Anything on the internet lives there FOREVER. It stays on the internet.
The biggest things that Jason has done to protect his family is:
Use a Password manager
Freezing his children's credit
Not using social media to share information about the family.
Educating his family on how to spot scammers and phishers.
Jason shares some eye-opening things that you might not realize about the internet. A good rule of thumb is: "The more convenient something is the less secure it is."
Everything is driven by an app and phone safety - like protecting your Sim card is also important.
Do you have questions? Ask in my Facebook group!
Links:
Protecting Student Privacy While Using Online Educational Services
FEDERAL LAWS ENABLING PARENTS TO PROTECT THEIR CHILDREN’S PRIVACY : FERPA, PPRA AND COPPA
When you're on vacation, you aren't necessarily thinking about your sprints and daily standup, but it is important to stay in the flow. We break ours into 3 phases - packing and planning, on vacation, and return to normalcy.
During our packing phase, we make sure to be as thorough as possible, writing everything out. We think of the things we want to do when we get there. Put every person's "must do" on the sprint. Add in things like down time, as well.
During the return to normalcy section, we talk about what we are going to do when we get home so that we aren't just overwhelmed. We do things like unpacking, laundry, stocking the pantry, etc.
Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check out our Patreon.
We all need hobbies!
Make sure your hobbie is not an income stream.
It is going to help you plan to have time for yourself.
Talk about that time in your daily standup. Get your freebie.
It will fill your need for self-care.
You will keep your sense of self and your identity.
It will provide results that you can see - releasing oxytocin!
Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check out our Patreon.
Last episode, we talked about introducing Agile to your partner and now we are going to talk about if there is resistance.
Resistance will be natural because you are making a big change.
Stay the course.
Don't push your partner.
No new technology should be introduced during this time.
At the end, you want to look at it and see what did or did not get completed and ask why, instead of blaming.
Make sure they feel heard.
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This is the number one question we receive. I know so many of you are excited to try it but have no idea how to get people on board. It can be difficult.
Don't get too deep into the semantics. Focus on what it will do FOR your family.
Ask for a trial period.
Accept feedback when it comes to how Agile will work for your family.
Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check out our Patreon.
During this pandemic more of us then ever are working from our homes. Many of us were not prepared to make this change, so I wanted to share some tips with you.
You do not need separate office space. Just treat your shared room (like bedroom), differently during the work day than when you're not working.
Set a schedule.
Batch your tasks so that you're not switching gears.
Try to have as much flexibility in your schedule, prioritizing by what needs to be moved on to someone else in your company earliest.
Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check out our Patreon.
Many of you are going through the biggest school transition you and your children have ever gone through with Covid-19. You are doing a great job!
This episode is about regular every year big school transitions like back to school after a break.
Kids often like the familiarity of the routine. If you can keep your routine as close to the school year as possible, it will be best.
Build education into life events.
Ask them about the things that they are watching and searching online. Keep curiosity open.
Manage your own expectations of what this time will look like.
Give them plenty of free time.
Start to get them back into their regular schedule before they return to school.
Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check out our Patreon.
For those of you who don't know what these tech terms mean, I'm going to break it down.
Your dev team are the people who are putting together and developing the solution. The stakeholders are the people who will be using the solution and process.
For us, ownership brings about strong reactions. There may be resistance and exuberance. You want this!
Solutions and feedback will happen in real time - right away!
It is totally okay to make small tweaks during your sprints, but don't make any giant changes mid sprint. Don't throw anything out. You need to try it for 2 weeks to recognize what is and is not working. This is an important step on your path.
Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check out our Patreon.
The sprint retrospective is so important, even in families.
It supports the team and identifies conflicts.
It helps to improve processes by knowing what to improve.
Share views to help maximize ownership.
It creates a road map for what to start, stop, and continue.
It fixes priorities.
It helps to identify problems early.
It builds trust.
Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check out our Patreon.
Today we're talking about home projects - anything that will improve your home life.
We were just working on an entryway solution.
You start in your sprint planning by identifying what is the goal.
Write all the items that belong on backlog like research through completion.
Prioritize what needs to happen.
Get started on the first priority.
Make sure you have a time box - deadlines so that you don't get stuck in research and suffer from decision fatigue.
Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check out our Patreon.
What is Dakboard, anyway?
It's a website that allows you to set up a display for your daily schedule and sprint goals.
(If you have any questions about the technical connection, see how Scott Hansleman did it or buy it preloaded.)
I love Dakboard for many reasons.
It can display everything we need to know.
It's super easy to edit.
Everybody knows what is on everyone's plate so people can pitch in.
Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check out our Patreon.
Daily Standups are a time to build in your self-care time and time to reflect and receive feedback.
In the Sprint Planning Phase you will be mapping out projects and the Sprint Retro is going to be the feedback stage. Before you dive into either of these, you need to take a moment for yourself to reflect.
If you do not plan for quiet reflection, something else will fill that time.
Express those thoughts to everyone else in the meeting. That way you can talk about them quickly and effectively where everyone is already listening.
Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check out our Patreon.
We always talk about dinner plans during our daily standup.
I feel the dinner decision meme so hard. The decision really doesn't seem important for me, but it is for everyone else.
When the kids started attending school, we decided to do a sprint and set up food days so that the kids knew what day of the week it was based on the food theme.
We give options that they can decide on their own. For example, on Taco Tuesday, we put everything that they could want on the table and they get to pick.
Dessert is always given and it is never discussed. They can eat it first. This keeps our meals peaceful.
We like to Agile dinner because it is an immediate feedback loop. It makes it easy to change things around and be flexible with dinner plans.
Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check out our Patreon.
Today, I'm chatting with my friend Emily D. Baker, a lawyer for online business owners.
We chat about how she shifted from a district attorney to a business owner and how she moved out of feeling isolated and out of the loop as a parent.
We dive into what she does for her clients, including contracts and consulting.
Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check out our Patreon.
Most of us have children and school will be a part of our lives for a very long time. I like to discuss school activities during the daily standup. Let's agile your school!
Send things back to the school as soon as you get them - spare changes of clothes, permission slips, etc.
Have routines down - the getting ready for school routine, library book return routine, etc.
Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check out our Patreon.
This can be a crazy time in any parents' day!
We discuss our schedule in our Daily Stand-Up. Any things that we have to do to prep for drop off or pick up are prepared together the night before.
How do you handle drop off and pick up? Let us know in the Facebook Group.
This might sound crazy, but when you've had the same fight or argument over non-preferred tasks, this is a game changer.
We keep everything on our kids' scrum board. One of us parents sets up the list for the day. This allows us to demonstrate what needs to be done without nagging.
It builds a trust in routines for your kids as well.
It avoids frustration from both parents and kids.
This is the visual board we use for our kids: SchKIDules 153 Piece Visual Schedule. (aff link)
Are you ready to streamline your day and get more done? Sign up for my free Daily Stand Up Meeting Cheat Sheet.
Quality time with your partner is invaluable and it can be really easy to run out of ideas or put off your quality time because life is busy.
Listen to this episode for some ideas of quality time with your partner.
What is your favorite thing to do with your partner? Let us know in the Facebook Group!
Large projects can seem overwhelming, so it is important to break them down into smaller sprints.
First, break a big project down into much smaller pieces, just like we talked about in our Bite Sized Goals episode.
Usually, the first sprint is going to be prep. Planning out what you're going to need to do and what you're going to need to get to make this happen.
Put the things that you want to do but that are not necessary on the backlog. That way you can get to them later.
Your main goal is to get to the minimal viable results - the least that can be done for it to be a success.
What is your biggest struggle in planning a large event? Let me know in the Facebook Group!
It's tough, y'all. I'm not going to lie to you, but working from home with kids home is possible and can even be productive.
Listen to today's episode and learn 4 things that we do to get work done while the kids are home.
And be sure to check out my freebie Your Daily StandUp Cheat Sheet and learn how to have a more productive day.
It is very hard to have equitable partnerships when one person carries the mental load - the organizing and managing of all of the daily tasks.
The Daily Stand-Up is so important for us to have an equitable partnership because we are sharing the mental load.
Ask yourself who is in charge of XYZ. If the answer to all of the questions is one person, then your partnership is not equitable.
This is one of the many reasons we chose to Agile.
Do you need guidance on having an equitable partnership? Ask your questions in the Facebook Group!
Self-assigning means picking a task that you like to do and doing it. You do not have to do something you don't like to do if someone else in your house likes to do it.
Sit down with your family and talk about all of the tasks that need to be done. Everyone picks tasks that they want to do.
Your children will pick tasks that they like to do. You can teach them how to do all of the tasks that are non-preferred as well. But their main tasks can be their preferred tasks. You can do that through showing them and leaving instructions if you are not going to be doing a non-preferred task. There are going to be days that you are sick or busy and they will have to pick up the slack.
Picking tasks that they like mean that they won't dread doing "chores."
The main reason we self-assign tasks is that things get done. If there is a task that everyone doesn't like to do, it can become a rotating task.
How do you handle chores and tasks in your household? Would you benefit from self-assigning? Let us know in the Facebook Group?
We do allowances differently. They happen no matter what, instead of as payment for chores. Chores are a part of our Agile household, and we do it no matter what.
Learning money management is important for our children. We use FamZoo and their allowances automatically go into their account. The app is easy to use.
We give $1 per year of age and we make sure we have constant feedback on how they use their money.
How does your family handle allowance? Let us know in the Facebook Group!
One of the main reasons I started using Agile in my home was because I was tired of the societal norms that mom had to do #allthethings and carry the full mental load.
It builds in the ability for everyone to say what is on their plate, presented as facts, and allows us to have a feedback loop to improve. It's about doing it together as an entire family.
Self-assigning tasks mean no one person is in charge of everything. This system sets up a cohesive unit where we have different brains working on tasks where they are most effective, increasing communication and overall family happiness.
If you have any questions, let me know in the Facebook Group!
The Daily Stand-Up is probably one of my favorite meetings in agiling my house. This is a time where we can connect and talk about what's going on in our lives and in our day.
It is so important when trying to make the house more equal in both physical and mental labor. This helps you to avoid conflict of schedule, as well.
Every day, we have work that isn't visible to our partner. The Daily Stand-Up is a great time for you to connect and make that visible to each other.
The Daily Stand-Up is the time for you to let your self-care needs to be known.
If you have any questions about the Daily Stand-Up, post in the Facebook Group.
Work-life balance is hard and the truth is that it is not achievable all of the time. Sometimes you need to be more focused on something like a work project or on being present with your family.
The balance comes out over time. It is okay to focus in on one area for a time.
Be okay with some slack. Set your family's priorities for the week.
How do you feel about work-life balance? Let me know in the Facebook group.