It is midterm season in my house for both of my daughters. Midterms span two weeks and cover all of their subjects. My oldest daughter, a junior in high school, after numerous years of midterm studying and test taking, has developed her own habits using her hard copy planner for what she needs to study for which subject. My youngest daughter, an eighth grader, is in her second year of midterm studying and test taking, and is still looking for a better method to think about her approach to studying and preparation for her tests. As we were discussing the upcoming midterms, her concern was that there was so much to study, how would she know what to study and how much time to put toward each.

 

So what did I do?

 

You guessed it. I got out numerous color sticky notes and a large pad of sticky paper to create a visual learning backlog.

 

 

I asked her questions to help ascertain which subject was the highest priority for her needed effort, second highest, and so on. That allowed us to set the order of the post-its on the bottom for how she would prioritize which item to grab next from the To Do column in addition to the date of the exam.

 

We also looked to breakdown the big idea of things like “study for Spanish midterm” into the smaller components like: 1. Prepare for Spanish binder check, 2. Practice for Spanish orals, and 3. Study for Spanish midterm so that progress on each component was visible.

 

Is this visible studying backlog her permanent solution from now on? Unlikely. Is it helping her visual and prioritize her work this year for midterms? Absolutely. Did it get me a “Mom, you’re the best!” comment that warmed my heart? You bet.

 

This many years into my Agile journey, I am still always pleasantly surprised by the ways that Agile values, principles, and techniques play out as a positive approach in my day-to-day life. Every time, it is an incredible win – it strengthens a relationship or improves progress toward a goal in my personal life, but also gives me new ideas and perspectives to bring back to my professional work.

 

How have you taken your prioritization and backlog discussions from work and used them in your real life?

 

Leave a comment or reach out and let me know. I’d love to hear about your experience.