Working on Solid Focus Task Manager
Since I configured my Solid data POD I've been using Solid Focus myself, and I've seen a couple of things that can be improved.
I've been thinking about Basecamp's concept of appetite for planning. For me, it's important to think about the appetite twice. First, the total time I want to dedicate. But also, since I am working on this as a side-project, the ammount it takes in real-time for a task to be completed. I do roughly 10 hours/week of side-project work, so a 40 hours task that would normally be finished in a week takes me a month. Keeping that in mind, and given the low-impact of this task, I'm not willing to spend more than 8 hours for this. So in real time, it should be done within 2 weeks.
Activity
I've published a new release with the improvements I wanted to make.
Surprisingly, I didn't need to use my appetite to trim the scope and make trade-offs because I managed to do everything within the estimation, which rarely happens. In terms of time dedication it took me 8 hours to complete what I had initially planned, and then an additional 2 hours for some stretch goals that I was willing to drop if I couldn't get done this week. That's a total of 10 hours which ain't bad for an 8 hours estimation. Of course, the important estimation and appetite here was the real-time limit of two weeks, and that's been honored.
I'm looking forward to continue experimenting with the concept of appetite, specially for my next task which is way more open-ended.
Task completed
Task started