1. Routines

These routines are supposed to be simple, easy to follow and helpful.

1.1. Start up routine

  1. Check task master, pick 3 tasks to do today Here, 3 is an arbitrary number and it can be any number you like.
  2. Review meetings to understand what dependencies can be created

1.2. Shutdown routine

  1. Dump all the messy scratchpad notes / quick notes in the capture area Your notes can be quick and dirty, doesn't matter at all
  2. Move promises and commitments to actions items immediately This should ideally be done during the reconcile meeting (refer 1.3. and 1.4.)
  3. Plan tomorrow, write down the things you want to work on next morning This loops back and help you for 1.1. (trust me you'd be grateful to yourself)

1.3. Useful routines throughout the day

  1. Block 15 minutes post every meeting to review / extract / organize the notes Another reason this helps with is clearing any doubts, easier to have a follow up on email right after the discussion in meeting.
  2. If something takes just 5 minutes, do it right away or if more then drag it onto your calendar
  3. Maintain and review a "Waiting for it list" I personally struggle with follow ups a lot, so this is the best thing for me.
  4. Maintain a trail of action items and work done to convey to your manager or at least make a narrative around the work done for the 1-on-1s with your manager.

1.4. Note taking: Rapid capture and action extraction layout

  1. This is agnostic to notetaking on diary or digital
  2. Follow the two pass rule, make messy and quick notes during the meeting
  3. Use the reconcile notes meeting to organize the notes and maintain action items
  4. For action item, start with using action verbs like: I also tend to make a kanban board to put all these items on, easier to track and easier to review.
    • Draft
    • Email
    • Review
    • Build
    • Test
    • Fix
  5. Every action item must have an owner and a verb

2. Frameworks

2.1. FPSA: First principle scope and action

  1. What does "done" look like? (the finish line i.e. definition of success)
  2. Where does the source of truth live? (Artifacts and repositories)
  3. Who owns that? (Stakeholders and dependencies)
  4. What are the constraints? (time, compute, budget, tool)
  5. What are the timelines?
  6. What are the immediate next 3 physical actions Once again "3" here is arbitrary, the essence is to have clarity on actions items
  7. If you have an intern, ask what can be delegated?

Meeting template

Keeping it here so that it is handy for whenever I want it, this template is basically what I have been using for my meetings since August 17th, at the time of writing this note on 2nd September this works well

## Date:
#### Updates
#### Jot downs
#### Action items
- [ ] Do this
- [ ] Do that
  • Update is supposed to be for anything that goes from you to the attendees (stakeholders or team)
  • Jot downs are supposed to be the capture area for anything that comes from the attendees to you
  • Action items are supposed to be extracted from the captured notes during the reconciliation meeting and should follow the rules provided in 1.4.