Is Scrum for Your Life a Habit?

Whether you use Scrum for Your Life or some other goal achievement system, have you made it a habit? Do you hold your Daily Scrum at the same time every day and hold your Sprint Reviews on time, every time at the end of each Sprint? If you’re not using Scrum for Your Life, do you review your vision and goals regularly, according to the system you follow?

Getting into the success habit takes time, and while we’ve all heard about the theory that it takes 21 days to make a habit, I don’t think that is true for everyone. For me it often takes longer, and sometimes takes several starts. And if you’re implementing a brand new habit in your life, you need to displace something that is already a habit. Maybe your habit is sleeping in and you could get up a half-hour earlier. Maybe you grab your coffee and the news when you first get up. Replace the news - at least 15 minutes of it - with your Daily Scrum or goal review.

My early days of goal setting were based on a Franklin Planner. I even took a course in how to optimize it’s use, but the switch to digital scheduling made some of that redundant and I lost some of the benefits of the written schedule. There are still aspects of that system I’ve yet to duplicate electronically - especially when it comes to retrieving archived information. But I digress.

Whatever system you use, if you use it regularly, you will find success and be more productive. And when you’re successful and productive, you are happier, especially if your success is aligned with your deepest values.

So, if you still haven’t made success a habit, commit to it today. Set the alarm for a few minutes earlier and do it until that becomes your normal wake-up time. Skip the news and make your own headlines. Do this every day until you don’t have to think about it, whether that’s 21 days or 21 months. In the end, it will become part of your life - your successful, happy life.