Personal Scrum System – A system to help you achieve success by defining Goals and Activities and then planning and managing progress towards them weekly, monthly and yearly.
It helps you make your Goals, Activities, planning and progress transparent. It helps you ensure you are doing the right Activities to achieve the right Goals. It helps you maintain focus and motivation as you carry out the Activities to achieve your Goals.
Guide To The Personal Scrum System
Firstly, Define your Goals. These can be big or small and in any area of your life where you want to make progress. You add these Goals to your Goals List. You should assign some Measures to your Goals to help you understand if you are making meaningful progress towards them over time.
Next, you define the Activities you will do to reach these Goals. You add these to your To Do List.
As you have new Ideas for Goals and Activities but are unsure if you need to do them yet, you can add them to your Ideas List for later. Goals and Activities can change anytime as you discover more about what you need and want to do.
The Personal Scrum System defines events where you plan the Goals and Activities you will carry out in the next period. The events create some regular space where you plan your Goals & Activities.
At the Weekly Planning Event, you plan and forecast the Activities you will carry out during the next week. Activities are moved from the To Do List into the This Week List in your Weekly Plan. As part of this planning, you may add Tasks to help you further plan how to get the Activities done.
At the Daily Planning Event, you plan and forecast the Activities you will carry out during the next day. Activities are moved from the This Week List into the Today List. As part of this planning, you may add more Tasks as needed to help you plan.
The In Progress List holds the Activities you are currently and actively working on. The On Hold List will store the Activities that are waiting on someone or something else before you can continue doing them. The Done List is where Activities and Goals end up when they have been completed.
At the Quarterly Planning Event, you plan and forecast the Goals and Activities you plan to focus on in the next three months. As part of this, you will review the progress made over the past quarter, review your Goals and change them as desired. The Yearly Planning Event serves the same purpose but ensures you are also planning across a more extended period and checking progress at this level.
The Ongoing Planning Event is the ongoing activity of adding details to the Ideas List & To Do List.
The Personal Scrum System is comprised of 8 Lists and 5 Events. Unlike the Scrum framework upon which it is based, there are no defined roles. As the system is designed for individual use, the roles are redundant as you would have to fulfil them all.
Personal Scrum System Glossary
Lists – Make Goals & Activities transparent and manageable.
- Ideas List – Goals & Activities that you are thinking about but have not yet committed to.
- Goals List – The Goals you have set and decided to work towards.
- To Do List – The Activities you have identified to help you achieve your Goals.
- This Week List – The Goals & Activities you have planned for this week.
- Today List – The Activities you plan to do today.
- In Progress List – The Activities you are actively doing.
- On Hold List- The Activities that are waiting on someone or something else.
- Done List – The Goals & Activities completed so far.
Events – Allocated time to review progress and make plans.
- Weekly Planning – Where you plan the Goals and forecast the Activities you will carry out during the next week.
- Daily Planning – Where you plan and forecast the Activities you will carry out during the next day.
- Quarterly Planning – Where you plan the Goals and Activities you aim to focus on in the next 3 months. New Goals & Activities may emerge. Existing plans may change.
- Yearly Planning – Where you plan the Goals and Activities you aim to focus on in the next year. New Goals & Activities may emerge. Existing plans may change.
- Ongoing Planning – The act of reviewing, updating and planning Goals, Activities & Tasks. This can occur at any time.
Other Terminology – Other terms related to the Personal Scrum System
- Weekly Plan – The Goals & Activities you have planned for the next week.Goals – Your aims, where you want to get to. Something you aspire to achieve.
- Strategic Goal – A long-term or “big picture” Goal
- Intermediate Goals – A short to medium-term Goal that will move you towards a Strategic Goal.
- Activities – The Activities you will carry out to reach your Goals
- Tasks – A lower-level unit of Activity that you will carry out. One Activity may have many Tasks you will carry out to get it done.
- Measures – The things you will measure to understand if you are making progress towards a Goal
- Kanban Board – A tool to visualise your Lists to make the easier to view and manage.
Complementary Practices
The following practices are complementary to the Personal Scrum System and can help you make progress towards your goals:
- Learning – Develop the ability to learn and get good at learning new things.
- Focus – Learn how to focus and elimninate distractions.
- Flow State – Get more done by entering a flow state.
- Priortisation – Carefully pick the opportunities you want to pursue.
- Perseverance – Keep going even when the going gets tough.
- Timeboxing – Set a maximum amount of time for an activity to bring focus.
- The Pomodoro Technique – Work in short blocks of time to aid focus.
- The 80/20 Rule – 80% of outcomes come from 20% of causes. Find your important 20%.
- Inbox Zero – Manage your email and stop it becoming a burden.
- Touch It Once – It its quick, deal with it on your first visit.
- Getting Started – Avoid procrastination.
- Maximise The Activities Not Done – Activelty decide the things you will not do.
- Knowing When To Quit – Changing Goals and plans is sometimes necessary.
- The Goal After The Goal – Use stratgic and intermediate goals to stay motivated.
- SMART Goals – Create effective Goals.
- Limit Work In Progress – Get more done by taking on less.
- Just In Time Decision Making – Delay decision making to the latest safest time.
- Traditional To Do Lists Do Not Work – They are too simple. Find a better way.
- Get Help – Going it alone is hard. Know when to get help.
- Say No! – Knowing when to say no, and saying it more often.
- Kaizen – Continuous Improvement – Create regular time and space to improve what you do.
- Invest In Yourself – The best investment will be in yourself and your ongoing development.
- Mentors and Coaches – Get guidance and support from experienced people.
Templates & Tools
A selection of templates & tools to help you get started with the Personal Scrum System fast!
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