In October 2013, I wrote the following in Part 1 of my blog’s “An Agile Life” series:

“What if we lived our lives in 2 week increments?

Imagine what it would be like to create a Backlog of all the things you wanted or needed to do in your life including all of your wishes and desires. Kind of like a Bucket list on steroids.

What if you reviewed, prioritized and ordered this list every 2 weeks?

What if you planned out which items on your list (User Stories) you wanted or needed to accomplish in the next 2 week time period (Sprint)?

What if you (and your team/partner/family) committed to completing these items by the end of the Sprint? “

Well, 2+ years later and after a serious New Years Day Retrospective, it is time for a major reboot in my life sprints. Time to create my Backlog again, prioritize my User Stories and work on them in shorter iterations.

Time to post my sprint board on the refrigerator!

Here we go, Day 1 of Sprint 16.01, I’ll let you know how my Retrospective went in early February!

Here’s how you can get started on your Agile Life:

Step 1: Grab some sticky notes and markers and start writing out the items you wish to work on/ accomplish (one per note).

Step 2: Create your sprint board with a sheet of page. Make 3 columns: To Do, In Progress and Done.

Step 3: Determine your sprint duration ( 1, 2, 3 or 4 weeks)

Step 4: Place your items ( user stories on sticky notes) on your sprint board.

Step 5: Review your user story status and track progress each day until the end of the sprint.

Step 6: Conduct a Retrospective on the last day of the sprint.

Step 7: Update your sprint board during for the next sprint’s planning session.

Step 8: Repeat steps 4- 6.

Good luck and may the force be with you!