The Value of Not Productive Time - a Retrospective on Vacations w/ Derek Huether

Derek meets the ocean.

A Retrospective on Vacations

If you love your work and are very driven, the idea of “vacation” can be a daunting thing. In this episode of SoundNotes, Derek Huether and Dave Prior hold a retrospective on how they each coped with the challenge of non-productivity time over the holiday. If you count yourself among the vacation challenged, this conversation may provide insight into why you need to take the time, why you need to protect the time BUT why your version of taking a break to restore yourself doesn’t have to fit the standard definition of “vacation”.
 

Show Notes

• 00:08 Podcast Begins
• 00:17 Topic Intro - a Retrospective on taking vacation
• 00:52 Derek explains why he took his first vacation in almost 2 years
• 02:07 Pre-vacation anxiety
• 03:12 If you get grumpy when you don’t have too much work to do “YOU NEED TO GET AWAY”
• 03:52 When your sustainable pace is an unsustainable pace
• 04:10 Some of us are wired a little weird and there is no “balance”
• 05:11 Sometimes having too much to do can be a positive
• 06:03 The dopamine rush of getting something done… how much sleep do you really need
• 07:33 Debating the argument for getting “enough” sleep
• 09:14 Derek’s Kanban board for vacation activities
• 11:06 What Derek reads on the beach for relaxation (feel free to roll your eyes)
• 12:00 How “the damn ocean and seagulls” prevented Derek from relaxing with his DevOps books on the beach and how the Beastie Boys saved the day
• 13:20 If you are reading work related books on the beach, aren’t you still at work?
• 14:10 When you take time off from work and your hobbies are work related
• 15:48 Finding your own way to satisfy the need to unplug, take a break and get refreshed
• 16:38 The restorative joy that comes from watching seagulls attack people
• 17:08 Pomodoro Timer
• 17:22 The weight of vacation guilt - for doing work, or for not really taking “vacation”
• 18:20 Why would you want to go on vacation and be remorseful when it is supposed to be a reward
• 19:14 Derek’s trick of reserving play time as a planned activity
• 20:15 Having intentionality and discipline to carve out time for creative fun stuff
• 20:48 Super not productive time may be recovery time and that is part of being productive
• 21:30 Giving yourself permission to be not productive and then protecting that time
• 21:55 What happens when YOU don’t respect your not productive time
• 22:20 “I have to respect it” and take the time without carrying the guilt
• 23:04 Dave’s resolution to get less done in 2017 and trying to create a small vacation every day
• 23:45 Derek’s quiet time (with coffee)
• 25:10 Meditation … it’s not about emptying your mind - it’s about not dancing with the thoughts that arise
• 26:20 Derek’s version of meditation - post-its and coffee
• 26:50 It’s a way of looking at your though and saying “yeah, but not right now”
• 27:02 Wrap up thoughts, it’s okay to suck at vacation, it’s okay to not do stuff, protect the time with discipline, acknowledge that you derive and need the time, and don’t let other people tell you how much time you should take
• 27:56 Podcast End

Links from the Podcast

Visible Ops Handbook http://amzn.to/2jzVqKM DevOps Handbook http://amzn.to/2iTX8FM Ariana Huffington "The Sleep Revolution" http://amzn.to/2k2ySik

Contacting Derek

You can reach Derek on the LeadingAgile site at https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/derek-huether/ On Twitter at https://twitter.com/derekhuether Or on his personal site at http://www.derekhuether.com

Contacting Dave

You can reach Dave on the LeadingAgile site at https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/ On Twitter at https://twitter.com/mrsungo Or on his personal site at: http://drunkenpm.net

Submitting Questions for Upcoming Coaching Q&A Podcasts

If you have Agile related questions you’d like us to discuss in an upcoming podcast, please send your question to Dave at dave.prior@leadingagile.com. You can send the question in the body of an email, or you can send an mp3 of wav of you asking the question and will include the recording in a podcast on your topic.

LeadingAgile CSM and CSPO Classes

For information on LeadingAgile’s upcoming public CSM and CSPO classes, please go to: www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/

DevOps not making you fast enough? Focus on Agile IT Operations w/ Devin Hedge

In this episode of LeadingAgile’s SoundNotes, Devin Hedge makes the case for focusing on Agile IT Operations in order to increase speed within your organization. If you’ve been considering working with (or have already adopted) DevOps, the information Devin shares in this interview may help you discover how your organizations Operations function is limiting your ability to increase flow.

Show Notes
01:08 Podcast Begins  - Introductions
01:36 Background on Devin
02:14 Topic Introduction: Agile IT Operations
02:49 The relationship between Agile IT Operations and DevOps
03:48 Why DevOps is picking up again
04:34 Our new problems are our old problems
05:29 It’s about awareness and maturity
06:37 An indicator that IT Ops is where you need to focus your attention in order to increase your speed
07:02 Speed creates dependencies
08:52 Why IT Operations is the bottleneck
10:18 Agile is not going to fix your lack of solid disaster recovery planning, but it may force you to acknowledge that you need to do something about it
11:41 Automating the process of server creation all the way through the system
15:02 How to get started with understanding what the issues actually are
16:46 What do we do with the folks who need something new to do after we automate?
18:22 An example of automated templates for virtual machine creation
20:12 Organizational Debt = Technical Administrative Debt
21:50 A case study in how Agile IT Operations can impact an organization
24:50 Not trusting the automation and not being able to see the ball moving at 90 mph
27:27 How do you maintain the situational awareness that can’t come from an algorithm set up to review logs?
30:37 It’s all about establishing and maintaining a “practice”
33:49 How do I get started with this? Where can I get more information on Agile IT Operations?
34:44 How Lean Practices and Value Stream Mapping can help you get started
36:55 How gaining visibility and awareness can help you establish yourself within the organization you work for
37:54 How does this work within the context of scaling to things like SAFe?
39:51 Failure is a gift - don’t blink!
41:34 How to reach Devin


Links from the podcast
The Phoenix Project by Gene Kim http://amzn.to/2i3pURL
Additional titles by Gene Kim http://amzn.to/2i3xDPI
LeadingAgile Basecamps https://www.leadingagile.com/the-journey/


Contacting Devin
If you’d like to get in touch with Devin with follow up questions you can reach him at:
LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/devin-hedge/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/agiledevin
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/devinhedge

Contacting Dave
If you’d like to get in touch with Dave
LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsungo
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo

For Information on LeadingAgile CSM and CSPO Classes
If you’d like to attend one of LeadingAgile’s CSM or CSPO classes, you can find a full list of upcoming classes here: https://www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/