Just a thought on how to stay focused/organized. In my time with Rally I have learned that agile methodologies apply towards everything in life and it is the main way that Rally operates. In agile there is a concept of getting a Heartbeat or Rhythm to understand your capacity on a regular basis.

Agile is all about focusing in an approximate two week focus. In essence, big ideas are broken down at the point in time where they are relevant. I personally use the Rally tool to manage all of my needs. Our marketing department does it too. In the end, it is all about resource management (Time) versus focus on relevant items. It is one of the great reasons that I wanted to work at Rally. They are poised to help more than simply software developers keep on track.

Alex

Reminds me of this Kevin Kelly post in which he mentions Stewart Brand (of the Long Now Foundation (these days)) organizing life into five year chunks.

While 5 years worked as a planning cycle for the Soviet Union and China (or didn’t work as the case may be), what I found particularly compelling was Stewart and Kevin thinking about how many 5 year chunks they had left in their life, 5 years being the right amount of time for a major life project. And, realizing that there was a finite number of chunks really helped them prioritize what was important to them.

I’d often informally used rhythms as milestone markers, but not so much as a way to prioritize. While I’ve rarely thought of myself as finite, in fact I deliberately have worked against that for a long time, it’s become clearer to me that it’s not so much a weakness but a reality, and I find myself planning a bit differently than I used to.