So this link got tossed around our developer chat at work the other day, mostly to make fun of the idea and put down its author, but I find myself intrigued to the point that I can’t stop thinking about it. Why not have a set of personal unit tests?
Let’s be blunt; I pretty much suck at dealing with big goals in my personal life. I have a hard time setting them and I have a hard time executing toward them. I’ve given up so many New Year’s resolutions that anymore all I resolve is to stop resolving anything. (The only resolution I ever kept was to “drink more sparkling wine”–that one was surprisingly easy to adhere to!) But I do okay with a sort of lightweight, notebook-based GTD, so I think I’m not beyond redemption.
The idea of a set of small, simple, easy-to-rectify “assertions about myself that I’d like to be true” has a strong appeal to me. Like failing unit tests in a software project, I can start chipping away at them, gradually turning them from corrective actions into automatic routine that just works, and that alerts me when something’s not quite right with the system.
The first step (obviously) will be coming up with some, and figuring out an appropriate way to track them. Hopefully that’s something I can squeeze in this weekend, and then the experiment can begin. I’m curious to see how it turns out.
- Mood:intrigued
- Music:Orbital - “Halcyon + On + On”
2 responses so far ↓
I heard an ad on the radio once. It said
Every day is a test. Those who pass deserve a good beer.
And while I don’t drink, I’ve taken up this approach to life, which is basically this personal unit testing thing. Big goals are silly. If the little goals are met, I think the big ones will sort themselves out.
I’ve done this. Only it was a daily “to do” list that I printed out and check off what I accomplished.
I found the list just overwhelmed me with all the things I wanted to be and depressed me with how little time I had to do all those things.
So, I trashed the list and decided what I accomplish I accomplish and I am who I am. If I don’t write for 30 minutes a day for an entire year (180 hours of lost writing) I likely spent the time in a more fulfilling manner (like trying to each my boy to peddle his tricycle). So I might never finish that novel but without realizing I’ve focused on the greater work.