CADENCE - Importance of a schedule

I shifted to Singapore few months back. Despite having a pollution free environment and following a healthy diet, I started feeling unhealthy. While preparing for a training presentation, my mind got struck at a word. The word was CADANCE which means a rhythmic flow of a sequence and its benefits in software development. I thought to try a bit of AGILE- SCRUMS and KANBANS concepts to my life.

It took me few days to understand as how to manage myself using SCRUMBAN.

What I did

I went back to my child hood and remembered that we used to have a time table for a week. Everything from class lectures to what we will have in my breakfast, lunch, dinner and between the meals was decided by our teacher on Sunday, and was circulated to us by putting the same on Notice Board of different buildings. It was so easy for each one of us to know that what we will be doing in that hour of the day. There was no ambiguity and everything was easy to manage.

In no time, I had my weekly plan on excel sheet, the tool I use most to manage and delivery programs and projects.

How it helped me.

1. It reduced my need to plan each day, which saved me a lot of time.
2. My efficiency improved, as I knew that my activity was time boxed and only limited time to perform an activity like buying grocery, GYM, working an extra hour to learn something new.
3. Most of my bad habits could not find enough time in my scheduled and I realised that I made some good habits that I was struggling to get it from some time like Brushing before sleep, washing face after I come from office, doing exercise, swimming, reading an article from economic times, Connecting with people on LinkedIn etc.
4. My important tasks started getting prioritized, as I had limited time so could get away with those 80 percent of the time-wasting tasks and could concentrate only on those 20 percent which helped me in improving my proficiency.
5. Improved my self-confidence and will power. Getting an activity competed in the prescribed time and in a much efficient way next day, gave a sense of satisfaction and confidence to improve every task I was performing.
6. Finally, it helped me in achieving my gaols – reduced 3 kg in a month, read two books on Agile, learned a course from utube on digital marketing, learned more about design thinking etc. Also, I saved some good money this month, which I did not planned but realised later.

What’s important to note:

It is good to have a schedule but it’s equally important to have change. In a very recent example Roger Federer took the much-needed break and came back so strongly that he could not believe himself.

So, follow a schedule but keep changing. – Wish you a happy living.

Will appreciate your comments and feedback

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