TITLE: Less, Sooner
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: August 15, 2008  2:35 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:
Fall semester is just around the corner.  Students will begin
to arrive on campus next week, and classes start a week from
Monday.  I haven't been able to spend much time on my class
yet and am looking forward to next week, when I can.

What I have been doing is clearing a backlog of to-dos from
the summer and handling standing tasks that come with the
start of a new semester and especially a new academic year.
This means managing several different to-do lists, crossing
priorities, and generally trying to
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2008-08.html#e2008-08-12T16_24_45.htm">
   get things done</A>.

As I look at this mound of things to do I can't help being
reminded of something
<A HREF="http://www.agileproductdesign.com/blog/emerging_best_agile_ux_practice.html">
   Jeff Patton blogged</A>
a month or so ago: two secrets of success in software
development, courtesy of agile methods pioneer 
<A HREF="http://www.jimhighsmith.com/">
   Jim Highsmith</A>:
<STRONG>start sooner, and do less</STRONG>.

Time ain't some magical quantity that I can conjure out of
the air.  It is finite, fixed, and flowing relentlessly by.
If I can't seem to get done on time, I need to start sooner.
If I can't seem to get it all done, I need to do less.
Nifty procedures and good tools can help only so much.

I need to keep this in mind every day of the year.

Oh, and to you students out there:  You may not be able
to do less work in my class, but you can start sooner.
You may have said so yourself
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2008-06.html#e2008-06-27T15_15_21.htm">
   at the end of last semester</A>.
Heck, you may even want to do more, like read the book...
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