6 ms·

100 day goals

108 points by jaf12duke 13y ago

jonstjohn 13y ago
I recently did a challenge of 100 days of commits to side projects and I'm now at day 96. I think this was awesome for me, as it kept me really focused on my projects, even if some days I had only small commits. I think my next challenge might be even more focused and look to launch one of my prototype projects in a specific amount of time. This will force me to focus and launch something, even if it isn't perfect.
- kiba 13y ago
  My constraint is a bit different. All I have to do is work more than last week's day. For example, if I achieve for Monday 3.01 hours. All I have to do for this week Monday is to achieve 3.02 hours. It has gradually pushed me from 6 weeks ago of 23 hours to 30 hours this week. Once I reach my goal of 30 hours a work week, my goal is to merely maintain the momentum and shift most of my workload 2-3 days so I am not working all week all the time. (Although, some activities must be done everday, such as studying)
  - mkenyon 13y ago
    What tool are you using to measure this?
    - kiba 13y ago
      An online time tracking tool I wrote.
arh68 13y ago
There seems to be something deeply effective about setting arbitrary constraints. Obvious examples abound: haiku, twitter, 80-char code, screenplays in fixed-width Courier, 25-minute pomodoro, text-only man pages. Also, the metronome of practicing music (cadenzas don't count), the fixed 8 hour workday, the 12-tone music temperament.. I've wondered what a piece of software could look like with each function/codeblock written on 1 index card each. Linus seems to prefer one-page functions for C, but I like the extreme of the index card.
- terabytest 13y ago
  Probably like a mess.
- ecopoesis 13y ago
  My first CS teacher in high school required index-card size functions (actually procedures because it was Pascal). It's helped me immensely over the year, because those 5-10 line functions end up growing into 100 line behemoths as features get added. Starting with smaller bits gives you a longer mean-time between refactorings.
- aeorgnoieang 13y ago
  Creativity is only really feasible (possible?) given sufficient constraints.
drags 13y ago
This post boils down to one statement: "every 100 days we have a 20-day-long crunch time". I'm all for getting things done, but scheduling arbitrary crunch times is a great way to wear the team down until people quit.
- wizzard 13y ago
  I'm sure the length of the crunch varies. And in a startup situation having a crunch every 100 days doesn't seem totally unreasonable to me. Also, people's versions of "crunch" differ... one person might picture 60-hour weeks and another might picture JWZ taking catnaps under his desk every 48 hours.
- jaf12duke 13y ago
  This system works for us, but may not work for others. Either way, I don't think it produces burnout. Empirically, this hasn't been the case. We're 2 years in and I've never had burnout been an issue. For a few reasons: The people on our team like work to have an ebb and flow. There are times when we're pushing 100% and times we're reflecting. The 100 day horizon is actually quite long so there's time to refactor, vacation, and reflect. We do our goal planning bottoms up. Almost every one of our goals has originated from the engineering team. 100 Day planning sessions are an opportunity for individuals to lobby for their project. It feels great to push your own project and it feels great to pitch in on someone else's. We do unlimited vacations (which everyone says) but our team actually takes advantage. We don't have a culture of martyrdom, so people don't feel bad. I've found more people take time off in the beginning of 100 day segments than the end.
- LargeWu 13y ago
  Agreed. This sort of advice is great if you're the founder/owner, because you're the one standing to get rich when somebody comes in with a buyout offer. If you're an employee at such a shop, though, this is a sucker's bet. Most likely your hard work is paid off with a bunch of feel-good bullshit about how you're changing the world, and the expectations that you'll do it all again in three months. Having a crunch time (especially scheduled) is a tacit admission that you are not, in fact, reducing scope properly.
super-serial 13y ago
Anyone else go to Amazon thinking 'hmmm, maybe I'll buy a 100 day goal calendar, it's probably only $5.' The one he has on his wall is $42.50 on Amazon... I think I'll print out 100 pages and tape them to my wall.
- eCa 13y ago
  While $42 sounds a bit steep.. On one hand you have $42, convenience and looking good. On the other you have paper, ink, time and probably looking less good. Choose as appropriate.
- DigitalJack 13y ago
  dry erase board
- ajiang 13y ago
  I look at it and I think "Hmm...I wonder if 100daycalendar.com is taken?". And that I could produce and ship that for a significantly less.
- carlsednaoui 13y ago
  Ha, my thoughts exactly! Here's a downloadable PDF in case you're interested: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/34726262/100%20Day%20Goal.pdf https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/34726262/100%20Day%20Goa...
  - justin_vanw 13y ago
    Awesome! I'm selling them at cost here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/321226528853 http://www.ebay.com/itm/321226528853 I might change the font a bit before shipping these out though.
  - super-serial 13y ago
    Wow thanks! Mine wouldn't have been as pretty.
- bitsweet 13y ago
  The small one is only $9.99 => http://www.amazon.com/The-Little-Countdown-Calendar/dp/B007L4P39G/ref=pd_sim_op_3?tag=noevalnursch-20 http://www.amazon.com/The-Little-Countdown-Calendar/dp/B007L...
jonhmchan 13y ago
This is how I've gotten around my own productivity faults: not with a particular arbitrary date, but by publicly promising to a point of no return. It's incredible how much I've been able to do by setting expectations without too much estimation. By promising what I want to accomplish rather than what I think I am capable of accomplishing, it tends to push me to be more productive than I thought possible.
jtbigwoo 13y ago
I'm of two minds on this. On one hand, making deadlines as short as possible is a great idea. It's too easy with one-year or two-year projects to six months arguing about infrastructure, requirements, and standards and end up delivering late or not at all. Every project should be required to deliver some value in the first couple months. On the other hand, three or four twenty-day crunch times every year is not sustainable. Unless they're planning a Logan's Run-style turnover of their current team.
carlsednaoui 13y ago
I work at Thinkful (http://www.thinkful.com http://www.thinkful.com) - we help people learn to code through coding projects and mentorship. Thinking about using this with my team. I made a PDF so we can print it, thought you gals and guys might be interested too: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/34726262/100%20Day%20Goal.pdf https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/34726262/100%20Day%20Goa... Edit: Here is a similar option available at Amazon, it's $42 (http://www.amazon.com/Countdown-Calendar/dp/B004VP6XBK http://www.amazon.com/Countdown-Calendar/dp/B004VP6XBK)
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
iambateman 13y ago
A 100 day challenge doesn't make sense for an established company (why would you do that to yourself?) But for a startup, it makes total sense. You're moving quickly, and 100 days is enough time to make substantial progress while keeping yourself accountable to actually shipping. I think it sounds like a perfectly viable strategy. Definitely not for everyone. I took his advice to heart and today is day 1 of my 100 day challenge (yesterday was day 0): http://iambateman.com/today-is-launch-day/ http://iambateman.com/today-is-launch-day/
- visakanv 13y ago
  nice
justin_vanw 13y ago
Since they are like $40 on Amazon, I'm selling them here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/321226528853 http://www.ebay.com/itm/321226528853 I think it will cost about $7 to print it and $5 to ship it (free shipping is included, internationally as well I believe) so this is about what I expect my cost to be.
- triplesec 13y ago
  Alternatively, a ream of paper and a printer works wonders
mchristoff 13y ago
100 day goals are pretty effective when you make the right goals. They are pretty dangerous if you're aiming the wrong direction.
- visakanv 13y ago
  I've spent a lot more than 100 days listlessly wandering around with no direction, and I think 10 instances of 100 days aiming in deliberately wrong directions would've been more interesting, and I'd have learned more. (Exception is if I got into horrible debt or did/received some sort of lasting damage).
dools 13y ago
"how fast it took" does not parse.

108 points by jaf12duke 13y ago

I recently did a challenge of 100 days of commits to side projects and I'm now at day 96. I think this was awesome for me, as it kept me really focused on my projects, even if some days I had only small commits. I think my next challenge might be even more focused and look to launch one of my prototype projects in a specific amount of time. This will force me to focus and launch something, even if it isn't perfect.

kiba 13y ago
My constraint is a bit different. All I have to do is work more than last week's day. For example, if I achieve for Monday 3.01 hours. All I have to do for this week Monday is to achieve 3.02 hours. It has gradually pushed me from 6 weeks ago of 23 hours to 30 hours this week. Once I reach my goal of 30 hours a work week, my goal is to merely maintain the momentum and shift most of my workload 2-3 days so I am not working all week all the time. (Although, some activities must be done everday, such as studying)
- mkenyon 13y ago
  What tool are you using to measure this?
  - kiba 13y ago
    An online time tracking tool I wrote.

arh68 13y ago

There seems to be something deeply effective about setting arbitrary constraints. Obvious examples abound: haiku, twitter, 80-char code, screenplays in fixed-width Courier, 25-minute pomodoro, text-only man pages. Also, the metronome of practicing music (cadenzas don't count), the fixed 8 hour workday, the 12-tone music temperament.. I've wondered what a piece of software could look like with each function/codeblock written on 1 index card each. Linus seems to prefer one-page functions for C, but I like the extreme of the index card.

terabytest 13y ago
Probably like a mess.
ecopoesis 13y ago
My first CS teacher in high school required index-card size functions (actually procedures because it was Pascal). It's helped me immensely over the year, because those 5-10 line functions end up growing into 100 line behemoths as features get added. Starting with smaller bits gives you a longer mean-time between refactorings.
aeorgnoieang 13y ago
Creativity is only really feasible (possible?) given sufficient constraints.

drags 13y ago

This post boils down to one statement: "every 100 days we have a 20-day-long crunch time". I'm all for getting things done, but scheduling arbitrary crunch times is a great way to wear the team down until people quit.

wizzard 13y ago
I'm sure the length of the crunch varies. And in a startup situation having a crunch every 100 days doesn't seem totally unreasonable to me. Also, people's versions of "crunch" differ... one person might picture 60-hour weeks and another might picture JWZ taking catnaps under his desk every 48 hours.
jaf12duke 13y ago
This system works for us, but may not work for others. Either way, I don't think it produces burnout. Empirically, this hasn't been the case. We're 2 years in and I've never had burnout been an issue. For a few reasons: The people on our team like work to have an ebb and flow. There are times when we're pushing 100% and times we're reflecting. The 100 day horizon is actually quite long so there's time to refactor, vacation, and reflect. We do our goal planning bottoms up. Almost every one of our goals has originated from the engineering team. 100 Day planning sessions are an opportunity for individuals to lobby for their project. It feels great to push your own project and it feels great to pitch in on someone else's. We do unlimited vacations (which everyone says) but our team actually takes advantage. We don't have a culture of martyrdom, so people don't feel bad. I've found more people take time off in the beginning of 100 day segments than the end.
LargeWu 13y ago
Agreed. This sort of advice is great if you're the founder/owner, because you're the one standing to get rich when somebody comes in with a buyout offer. If you're an employee at such a shop, though, this is a sucker's bet. Most likely your hard work is paid off with a bunch of feel-good bullshit about how you're changing the world, and the expectations that you'll do it all again in three months. Having a crunch time (especially scheduled) is a tacit admission that you are not, in fact, reducing scope properly.

super-serial 13y ago

Anyone else go to Amazon thinking 'hmmm, maybe I'll buy a 100 day goal calendar, it's probably only $5.' The one he has on his wall is $42.50 on Amazon... I think I'll print out 100 pages and tape them to my wall.

eCa 13y ago
While $42 sounds a bit steep.. On one hand you have $42, convenience and looking good. On the other you have paper, ink, time and probably looking less good. Choose as appropriate.
DigitalJack 13y ago
dry erase board
ajiang 13y ago
I look at it and I think "Hmm...I wonder if 100daycalendar.com is taken?". And that I could produce and ship that for a significantly less.
carlsednaoui 13y ago
Ha, my thoughts exactly! Here's a downloadable PDF in case you're interested: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/34726262/100%20Day%20Goal.pdf https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/34726262/100%20Day%20Goa...
- justin_vanw 13y ago
  Awesome! I'm selling them at cost here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/321226528853 http://www.ebay.com/itm/321226528853 I might change the font a bit before shipping these out though.
- super-serial 13y ago
  Wow thanks! Mine wouldn't have been as pretty.
bitsweet 13y ago
The small one is only $9.99 => http://www.amazon.com/The-Little-Countdown-Calendar/dp/B007L4P39G/ref=pd_sim_op_3?tag=noevalnursch-20 http://www.amazon.com/The-Little-Countdown-Calendar/dp/B007L...

jonhmchan 13y ago

This is how I've gotten around my own productivity faults: not with a particular arbitrary date, but by publicly promising to a point of no return. It's incredible how much I've been able to do by setting expectations without too much estimation. By promising what I want to accomplish rather than what I think I am capable of accomplishing, it tends to push me to be more productive than I thought possible.

jtbigwoo 13y ago

I'm of two minds on this. On one hand, making deadlines as short as possible is a great idea. It's too easy with one-year or two-year projects to six months arguing about infrastructure, requirements, and standards and end up delivering late or not at all. Every project should be required to deliver some value in the first couple months. On the other hand, three or four twenty-day crunch times every year is not sustainable. Unless they're planning a Logan's Run-style turnover of their current team.

carlsednaoui 13y ago

I work at Thinkful (http://www.thinkful.com http://www.thinkful.com) - we help people learn to code through coding projects and mentorship. Thinking about using this with my team. I made a PDF so we can print it, thought you gals and guys might be interested too: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/34726262/100%20Day%20Goal.pdf https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/34726262/100%20Day%20Goa... Edit: Here is a similar option available at Amazon, it's $42 (http://www.amazon.com/Countdown-Calendar/dp/B004VP6XBK http://www.amazon.com/Countdown-Calendar/dp/B004VP6XBK)

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

iambateman 13y ago

A 100 day challenge doesn't make sense for an established company (why would you do that to yourself?) But for a startup, it makes total sense. You're moving quickly, and 100 days is enough time to make substantial progress while keeping yourself accountable to actually shipping. I think it sounds like a perfectly viable strategy. Definitely not for everyone. I took his advice to heart and today is day 1 of my 100 day challenge (yesterday was day 0): http://iambateman.com/today-is-launch-day/ http://iambateman.com/today-is-launch-day/

visakanv 13y ago
nice

justin_vanw 13y ago

Since they are like $40 on Amazon, I'm selling them here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/321226528853 http://www.ebay.com/itm/321226528853 I think it will cost about $7 to print it and $5 to ship it (free shipping is included, internationally as well I believe) so this is about what I expect my cost to be.

triplesec 13y ago
Alternatively, a ream of paper and a printer works wonders

mchristoff 13y ago

100 day goals are pretty effective when you make the right goals. They are pretty dangerous if you're aiming the wrong direction.

visakanv 13y ago
I've spent a lot more than 100 days listlessly wandering around with no direction, and I think 10 instances of 100 days aiming in deliberately wrong directions would've been more interesting, and I'd have learned more. (Exception is if I got into horrible debt or did/received some sort of lasting damage).

dools 13y ago

"how fast it took" does not parse.