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2008-04-01

The Unbearable Overwhelm of
Technical Debt

Technorati
Tags: orcmid, being, technical
debt, prioritization, productivity,
accomplishment, overwhelm

I noticed that recent efforts to increase my level of organization and
productivity have shown up as disorganized and unproductive.  There
is also some sort of overhanging cloud of technical debt in the form of
incomplete projects and activities.  On top of that, I have the
definite sense that I am slowing down and that times of focused
concentration are not so easily generated as in my energetic youth.

Someday has arrived.  I have a number of arrangements that were
carried out at a just-good-enough level where now it seems as if all of
them now have a claim on needing to be brought forward to the
long-promised improved state before I built atop their foundation.
The alternative is even more technical debt, and I find that
overwhelming.

The advice of past mentors and coaches comes to mind.  Two
practices seem to apply here:

Ensure that all of the incomplete activities are written down and
kept in existence outside of my head.  I can then look at them for
the specific next actions that will move them along.

Find the one action that, if taken, will free me from the experience
of overwhelm and provide some satisfaction and accomplishment with which
to move forward.

Writing this post is not (2), so there is limited therapeutic value in
writing this.

I notice one place where I feel blocked in moving ahead without having
it finally settled.  It has to do with the plumbing of my web
sites.   My first reaction is fear that will be too much of a
distraction from all the other activities I have simmering away.  I
suppose that practice (2) would be to apply practice (1) to that
area.  OK, I can go that far.

posted by orcmid at 4/01/2008
10:31:00 AM

Comments:

And I think the
way to make it work is if practice (1) can be done in an agile way. That
is, how little can be done and what is the easiest way to do it?

I
will be moving to a practice of triage, but will work to apply your
practice (1) to the projects that are put away, or to sleep, or whatever
state they are put in.

#
posted by  wla101: 03
April, 2008 19:18

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