Overcoming Neurodivergent Blockers, Part 1: How to cope without a daily standup

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Overcoming Neurodivergent Blockers, Part 1: How to cope without a daily standup

This is a question that I am asking myself: how can I be more productive even without a daily standup? In my last two jobs standups were king. Agile was king. Structure was king. Neither of my last two employers exist anymore and maybe that says something

But I need to go: as a neurodivergent person how do I cope without my daily standup and get working for the day. This is what a standup does for me:
  • Provides routine
  • Provides structure
  • But more importantly;
  • Gets me to start at a fixed time!!!!
  • Gets me to reflect on my previous day and to focus on my tasks for the next day
  • Wakes me up
  • Gets me in the mood for working
Because the hardest part for me is getting started with anything. Once I am started I can go for hours and hours and hours.

So:
  • Could I have a fixed time that I come in for every day? 8:30? 9? And to make sure I have eaten before then etc.
  • Could I have a pre-work ritual? Writing something out? Making a private infographic with yesterday and today? Having a nice cup of tea? Nb I work in two different offices which makes things less consistent but I could work on having a plan across the two - can I eat breakfast on the train? (Instead of studying lol). Can I try and come in for the same time?
  • Is there anything else I can do? What about accountability? Can I make a vague LinkedIn post at 9 am every day in the office?? Keeping it vague? “Work on my current ticket, revise PR revisions.” What could I do? Speaking to someone else just distracts me 
Text reads the blog posts title. Image if a desert island beach at dusk.


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