SNAPlife Podcast by Bill Snodgrass

You are not special. Sorry. Well… okay… everyone is special. But the harsh reality is that, once beyond the compulsory school age, no one cares about all your specialness. Okay… so your friends and family will care. But, if you run your own business, your customer does not care how hard it was for you to do whatever it was they hired you to do. They only care whether or not you did what you were supposed to do in the time you were supposed to do it in, and whether you did it well or not....

At last, we come to the end of this collection of thoughts regarding using the agile project management system to organize and optimize your life. Truthfully, we diluted the full power of agile in this series and bent some of its principles a bit. But, it is an approach—a vocabulary in the least that, if utilized indeed can lead to better living. Beginning with coming to understand our purpose… our why-behind-all-other-whys… we can divide our life up into some number of major projects. Some...

So, does using agile project management to organize your life really work? It can! A student approached early last week and showed me a list of all of his assignments for all of his classes. "Do you think this is a good idea?" he asked. I replied, "Absolutely! You have made a list of all the things you need to do. Now, just organize them from most urgent to least. Put things due today at the top and then order them in the order they need to be done." Later in the week, I asked how it was...

To manage our lives using an agile approach, we need to extend the concept of the sprint to include both once-and-done items related to the aspects of our lives we have defined as projects and also to routine task we do daily or weekly. Things like answering emails are tasks—sprints, if you will—that need to be done on a regular basis. To keep our progress on everything going, we need to fit the routine sprints into the day with and around the project-based sprints. For instance, you may...

If we view life as a collection of projects, and if we decide to organize them within the agile project management system, then we end up with a list of sprints all connected to the various projects. To keep everything moving, you can begin each day with a "scrum" meeting… with yourself. You can look into the mirror and think about all you need to do each morning as you start your day. What is necessary for getting ready for work? You'll need to think about what's coming up at work, then as...

With your life viewed as a collection of projects, and as you begin developing the sprints—the specific todos necessary to complete the project, you will sometimes start a sprint and realize there is some other sprint that needs to be added to the list. Beginning one sprint will sometimes show you other sprints that need to be done. Suppose you are planning a camping trip (a project), and one of your sprints is to get food. Starting that process will reveal that you need coolers and...

Applying the agile project management approach to organizing our lives assumes that life is a collection of projects all taking place at the same time. For instance, at any given time, you might be attending to family, career, education, and… say reception, too… all at once. And, at any give moment, an emergency might pop up, and that would become an urgent project, all in on its own. With so many things all happening, some strategy needs to be in place so that we can move through life from...

If we view life as a collection of projects, and if we decide to organize them within the agile project management system, then we need sprints! A sprint is a specific task that is part of a project. It is a must-do that, when done, can be "checked off" and which leads to the next sprint on the list. In our life, every project can be split up into a sprint list. For instance, the on-going project of managing a household might include grocery shopping. In a more long-term project, a sprint...

When considering what aspects of your life might fit into an agile approach, the conclusion will be… a lot. Anything with a specific, defined outcome fits. A family trip. A new course of study. Remodeling your house or even just a room. Day-to-day aspects of work… All that the "thing" needs is to be a multi-step process leading to some definable outcome.

According to the agile project management system, it is necessary to begin by setting the vision and scope of the project. Applying this to living a happy and fulfilled life is easy. What is the vision of your life? What is your purpose? What, exactly, are you trying to accomplish? What is your life mission? Pastor Craig Strickland, in Memphis, Tennessee occasionally would caution people regarding climbing the ladder of success too hastily. "Sometimes," he would say, "people spend their...

If we think of our lives as a continuous series of projects, one leading to the next and that one to the next, and if we apply the ideas of agile project management, we begin by establishing a vision and scope for each project. Given that the project we are attempting fits in with our life mission, then we are ready to set a scope for that project. The scope of a project needs to establish a clear definition of what is to be done. What, specifically, would it look like to finish the project?...

Whereas "agile" was an approach originally applied to developing software, it is, from time to time, being adapted to other uses. The "Agile Life" series that will follow this preview will look at the processes used in agile and apply them to living life better. So, this is not going to be a series teaching you how to use agile. What it is going to be is a look at the steps in the agile process as they could apply to living better. For instance, in agile, you begin with a project...

Change happens for many reasons. Sometimes, it is the result of a decision. Sometimes it is forced upon you by circumstances you cannot control. Often, the upheaval caused by change is very challenging. Sometimes, change leaves you feeling overwhelmed, confused, and unclear about what to do first. Chances are you have some big-picture idea of what normal will eventually become. But getting from where you are to where you see things going can be difficult. But you can persevere. Just take...

Suppose we looked at life as a project. And what if we decided to manage our life using the "agile" approach? An agile approach—to follow the industry usage, I should just say—agile is a technique of managing a process where the focus is on specific, incremental steps where each step plays a specific and necessary part in reaching the larger goal. (I probably just infuriated the agile experts with this gross generalization!) What if we looked at life that way? What if we managed our life...

A guy spends six hours every Saturday morning working in his yard. And a half hour or more each workday when he gets home. What seems obvious? His yard is a priority. Hopefully, it's also something he likes… You can tell what is important to people in various ways. One is that how they spend their time. The things that are highest priorities will be done first. Lessor priorities next. Lowest priorities will come last, if they ever get done at all. Given more than one option, the chosen...

People sometimes say things with which nobody around them agrees. But, the silence of those hearing the remark fails to convey their beliefs. Just because no one protests or complains does not mean they agree with you. People who disagree might just be keeping quiet because they think a reply is pointless. They think the speaker is, frankly, not worth the trouble to engage in discussion. They think the speaker is hard-headed. Stubborn. Closed-minded. Silence is NOT a measure of agreement!

What is the joyful approach to life? It is being content in the knowledge that everything you did in a day was done in alignment with your mission, with your purpose—a purpose growing out of your deepest beliefs, out of your why behind all other whys. Whereas happiness is a response to things that happen, to things outside you, peace and contentment comes from acknowledging that, on a given day, you did your best to live in accordance to your mission. Peace and contentment come from within....

In recent posts across social media, I've put forth the claim that trying to be happy is to chase a moving target; better to live contently in the assurance that each day has been spent pursuing your life purpose and mission. And further, I've claimed that your purpose and mission grow out of your why behind all other whys—your deepest beliefs as to the purpose and meaning of life. Whereas I describe my own mission for life as creating the circumstances wherein people can become the best...

Why do you do what you do? Hopefully, it is because you have come to understand your purpose in life. Your personal life mission. But, where did that come from? Let's look at an example… A young man at a gas station sees someone coming out the door he just opened to go in. He holds it open and waits. Why? Because he believes it was a nice thing to do. Why? Because he believes people are inherently valuable and worthy of respect. Why? Because he believes… We could keep drilling down, deeper...

So, what about that why behind all other whys? Where does that come from? If it is so important, it ought to be pretty readily understandable. For many, many people, there would be some basic belief. The primal why, for many, would be how they understood their place in creation in relationship to the creator. So it is for me. My personal life mission is this: create the circumstances wherein people can become the best versions of themselves. This comes from my why behind all other whys: It...