Are you an agile veteran working at a company that doesn't practice agile? Or do you work in an agile environment and have seen how effective it is? Either way, try using agile as your own task and performance management system.
Start by adding your existing tasks to a backlog, and from then on add every new task to it. Once a week, plan the next sprint: review and prioritize the backlog, and make sure its priorities line up with your company's, your team's or your family's. Then decide how many items you can make progress on in the next one-week sprint. If an item isn't finished in one sprint and still matters, carry it into the next.
During the sprint, start each day by reviewing the sprint's items. Check off what's done and decide what to focus on that day. At the end of the sprint, hold a retrospective on your own performance and decide what to improve. Track those improvements and act on them in the coming sprints.
A simple spreadsheet is enough, with one sheet for each of these:
- Current sprint. Your daily scrum is reviewing this first thing every morning.
- Backlog. Add every task that comes your way.
- Retrospectives. Hold effective retrospectives weekly to improve your own performance.
- Sprint archive. At the end of each sprint, copy the current sprint here to keep a complete history of what you've accomplished.
I keep one more sheet for mission statements, goals, strategies and tactics.
If agile has worked for you at work, you know how effective it can be. Try organizing yourself the same way. It's the most effective personal management technique I've used, and I've tried quite a few.
First published February 25, 2016. Revised October 2026.
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