Keeping the routine alive

When you develop a new habit in your life, it can become a routine over time. The benefit is that you don't have to think about it much. You just do it, maybe even on auto-pilot. You can even become unconscious of your routines, which is okay too. For instance, you don't need to be fully alert when brushing your teeth.

However, some routines deserve proper focus and attention for the best results. An automatic ritual is not good enough.

That is one reason why, as a Scrum Master, I'm always looking for new ways to facilitate retrospectives for Scrum teams. And since I'm my own one-person Scrum team at home, that holds for me personally as well.

New month, new format

I spent some time reflecting on January during my monthly retrospective this weekend. I chose the FLAP retrospective from FunRetrospectives. FLAP stands for Future Directions, Lessons Learned, Accomplishments, and Problem Areas. I have hardly used this format, so how would it work for me this time?

I ended up in our storage room, where two big sliding doors provide an excellent workspace. I created four quadrants with some painter's tape and labeled them with the four FLAP categories. With plenty of sticky notes at hand, I started examining last month. I used three colors to distinguish between private life, author life, and work life.

Here are a few examples per life area from this interesting exercise...

Future Directions

• Quite a few pleasant personal events are coming up: celebrating carnival in Oeteldonk (that's what they call 's-Hertogenbosch during those days, quite another story), a trip to a wellness resort with my wife, my daughter's and my dad's birthdays, and last but not least moving my son to another town for his next traineeship.
• I plan to expand my book offering, including e-books and downloadable templates.
• At work, I'm going to spend more time on client assignments.

Lessons Learned

• I started reading The Four Foundations of Golf, which taught me valuable lessons about managing my expectations when playing.
• As an author, I learned much about email marketing when investigating tools for my Scrumpy Dad website. I also learned about signing and shipping my books by doing so.

Accomplishments

• Thanks to more mindful eating habits, the Christmas kilos are gone. I also started cooking more often, which is a fun way to surprise my wife when she gets home from work.
• At work, I handed over my responsibilities to my successor so I can now dedicate myself full-time to coaching and consultancy assignments.

Problem Areas

• Healthwise, I still want to improve my sleeping. Most nights are fine, but some nights, I'm awake for 1-2 hours, and then I skip yoga in the morning. I want to find a way to tackle these broken nights so I can enjoy my early morning yoga routine.
• As an entrepreneurial author, I have lots of ideas. I need to create more focus to finish what I started and set priorities more explicitly.

From insight to action

After inspecting last month, it was time to adapt my plans for this month. Inspired by James Clear's book Atomic Habits, I designed my improvements to make them easy to execute and tight to existing events or triggers. For instance, before bed, I take my notebook to jot down the day's highlights. The notebook is waiting for me at the desk where I leave my mobile phone to charge overnight- how convenient.

In summary, the FLAP retrospective proved valuable for reflecting on a month gone by. Using a new format supported me in coming from a fresh perspective. I'm also keen to learn how the new approach to setting my improvements will work. But that's for another retrospective and another story...

What do you do to keep your routines alive and effective?

Take care and till next time!

Kind regards,

Herman / Scrumpy Dad

I help people find their purpose and stay loyal to their goals and values to create more happiness in their lives.

You can start immediately by getting your copy of A Scrum Master's Guide to Happiness.