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by Jared Richardson.
Original Post: Do you practice SMART planning?
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The web site was created after the launch of the book "Ship It!" and discusses issues from Continuous Integration to web hosting providers.
I heard Andy Hunt speak tonight on "Refactoring Your Wetware at the Triangle .NET User Group. Here's the blurb on Andy's talk:
The raw material of software development is not a language, and IDE, or a tool, it's you. How we learn new technology and acquire new skills is key to our careers. Join Andy Hunt for a presentation that includes The Dreyfus Model (from his popular talk "Herding Raceshorses and Racing Sheep") and a look at how to boost your career by Integrating Brain Modalities, Accelerating Learning, and Managing the Torrent.
There were several good points throughout the talk and here's one of them. When trying to learn something new, practice SMART planning. Be sure your goals are:
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Trackable
But this doesn't just apply to targetted learning. It also applies to your project planning, your personal goal setting, etc. It's just good sense on many levels.
What plans do you have to improve yourself professionally this year? This quarter? How about this month? And this week? Finally, today?
Without concrete plans, you'll have trouble getting started.
If you don't take those concrete plans and break them down into daily and weekly tasks, it'll be difficult for you to finish anything.
Do you want to learn a new language? Set a goal for yourself to write a "To Do" list by the end of next week. Are you polishing up your development skills? Choose to learn a new pattern by Friday. Testing? Investigate a new XUnit derivative this week.
Take responsibility for your own skillset. Don't wait for nwe skills to just fall into your lap. Take control of your career.
If you don't remember anything else, remember this. If not now, when?
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