A presentation on how I apply the scientific method and the business philosophy kaizen (continuous improvement) to your personal life.

1. KAIZEN FOR FUN AND
PROFIT
Or "How I learned to stop worrying and love change".
Peter Wastholm
· · peter@wastholm.com@wastholm www.wastholm.com

2. KAIZEN
改善

3. GOALS
Don't forget stuff.
Don't reinvent the wheel.
Do things at the right time.
Do things in the right order.
Visualize progress.
Establish positive habits.
Minimize "flutter".

4. "FLUTTER"?

5. THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD
Hypothesize.
Experiment.
Analyze.
Repeat.

6. IMPROVEMENT 1: VISUALIZE WINNING
STREAKS

7. HOW AM I DOING?
Don't forget stuff.
Don't reinvent the wheel.
Do things at the right time.
Do things in the right order.
Visualize progress. ✓
Establish positive habits. ✓
Minimize "flutter".

8. IMPROVEMENT 2: WRITE DOWN TASKS

10. HOW AM I DOING?
Don't forget stuff. ✓
Don't reinvent the wheel.
Do things at the right time.
Do things in the right order.
Visualize progress.
Establish positive habits.
Minimize "flutter".

11. IMPROVEMENT 3: LOG COMPLETED TASKS

13. HOW AM I DOING?
Don't forget stuff. ✓
Don't reinvent the wheel.
Do things at the right time.
Do things in the right order.
Visualize progress. ✓
Establish positive habits. ✓
Minimize "flutter".

14. DEFINITIONS: TASKS, CHANGES AND HABITS
Task: Something we need to do once and never again.
Change: A transition from a current state to a desired state.
Habit: What we need to do in order to stay in the desired state.

15. IMPROVEMENT 4: MAKE NOTES

17. HOW AM I DOING?
Don't forget stuff. ✓
Don't reinvent the wheel. ✓
Do things at the right time.
Do things in the right order.
Visualize progress. ✓
Establish positive habits. ✓
Minimize "flutter".

18. IMPROVEMENT 5: SET UP MILESTONES

20. HOW AM I DOING?
Don't forget stuff. ✓
Don't reinvent the wheel. ✓
Do things at the right time. ✓
Do things in the right order.
Visualize progress. ✓
Establish positive habits. ✓
Minimize "flutter".

21. IMPROVEMENT 6: USE A KANBAN BOARD

23. HOW AM I DOING?
Don't forget stuff. ✓
Don't reinvent the wheel. ✓
Do things at the right time. ✓
Do things in the right order. ✓
Visualize progress. ✓+
Establish positive habits. ✓
Minimize "flutter".

24. DEFINITION: YAK SHAVING

25. : Any seemingly pointless activity
which is actually necessary to solve a problem
which solves a problem which, several levels of
recursion later, solves the real problem you're
working on.
—
yak shaving
The Jargon File

26. IMPROVEMENT 7: IDENTIFY TASK
DEPENDENCIES

27. HOW AM I DOING?
Don't forget stuff. ✓
Don't reinvent the wheel. ✓
Do things at the right time. ✓
Do things in the right order. ✓+
Visualize progress. ✓+
Establish positive habits. ✓
Minimize "flutter".

28. IMPROVEMENT 8: SIMPLIFY RECURRING
TASKS
Automate them.
If they can't be automated, outsource them.
If they can't be outsourced, create reminders.

29. HOW AM I DOING?
Don't forget stuff. ✓
Don't reinvent the wheel. ✓
Do things at the right time. ✓
Do things in the right order. ✓+
Visualize progress. ✓+
Establish positive habits. ✓
Minimize "flutter". ✓

30. LESSONS LEARNED
The best time to make a change is always right now.
Writing things down means less worrying and more planning.
Many small changes achieve great results.
Visualization improves motivation and makes good habits
harder to break.
No "zero days"!

31. TOOLS USED
, version 0.12, with plugins:
, makes it easier to input dates into fields.
, makes it possible to include simple graphs
in tickets and wiki pages.
, allows tickets to block other tickets.
A home-made script to automatically create tickets for
recurring tasks (weekly, monthly, annually).
and for version control.
and shellscripts for automatic testing, installation,
etc.
Trac
Date Field Plugin
Graphviz Plugin
Master Tickets Plugin
Subversion Git
GNU Make