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Sunday Scrum-day

In software development and project management, we moved away from the "Waterfall" method years ago. We realized that planning a massive, year-long project in advance was a recipe for failure because life is unpredictable.

Instead, we use Agile. We work in short bursts called "Sprints" (usually 1-2 weeks), and at the end of every sprint, we hold a Retrospective.


Most people treat their health like a Waterfall project. They set a New Year's Resolution (the plan) and then blindly grind away for 12 months, rarely stopping to assess if the plan is actually working.

As a Manager of Quality, I run my life in one-week Sprints. Every Sunday, I hold a personal "Sprint Retrospective." I ask three specific questions to debug my operating system.

1. What Went Well? (The "Keep" Pile)

First, we analyze the wins. You need to identify what variables contributed to success so you can duplicate them.

  • Data Point: "I hit my protein goal 7/7 days."

  • Root Cause: "I pre-cooked 3kg of ground beef on Sunday."

  • Action: Keep doing this. It is a verified SOP.

2. What Broke? (The "Stop" Pile)

This is not about shame; it is about root cause analysis. If I ate a donut on Tuesday, I don't beat myself up. I ask why the breach occurred.

  • Data Point: "I broke keto on Tuesday afternoon."

  • Root Cause: "I had back-to-back meetings, missed lunch, and the only food available was the breakroom donuts."

  • Analysis: The failure wasn't a lack of willpower; it was a lack of logistics.

3. How Do We Iterate? (The "Start" Pile)

Now, we patch the bug. We don't just say "try harder." We change the system.

  • The Fix: "I will keep a tin of sardines and a protein shake in my desk drawer for emergency fuel."

  • The Goal: Remove the dependency on the breakroom.

The "Continuous Improvement" Mindset

In the Japanese manufacturing philosophy of Kaizen, the goal is not overnight perfection; it is continuous, incremental improvement. If you don't review your week, you are doomed to repeat the same errors next week. You will effectively be running "Legacy Code" that you know is buggy.

The Takeaway

Stop trying to plan the whole year. Just win this week. Sit down for 10 minutes today with a notebook. Look at the last 7 days. Be a cold, clinical auditor of your own performance. Identify the bugs, write the patch, and deploy the update for Monday morning.

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Location: Halifax Regional Municipality, NS, Canada

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