3 min readI might call it eating a full pizza!!, Oh wait! Its not what the title means?

What I’m trying to relate here with pizza and daily work is all about breaking it down. Yeah!! We cut pizza into many slices so that we can eat it easily. Same way I’m going to tell you how I optimize myself for handling daily workload.

Monday’s are the most busy and surprise filled day. Its just when you log in and see loads of emails which includes bug fixes, clients new requests or changes to existing feature and their priorities. New work and meeting existing deadlines, that’s when you knock the door of depression and panic.

Lets not knock that door!!, lets try having the pizza in good way!! I mean balance your daily workload. Here’s how I balance my day at work. Slicing the pizza.

Analyze & Prioritize

Its when you wake-up in morning or while travelling to work giving a thought about the tasks and deadlines you are going to complete today. But when we reach at work place we get to know that we have more work. That’s when scrum plays major role here. Gather the requests, fixes and other tasks – discuss it with the team. Distribute the workload and set priorities(on range of 1-10), live site fixes must have the highest priority.

Breaking it down

Breaking the task down is very important process. As this will give you the idea of completion and time estimation. For example :

I want to have a feature to maintain user profile with portfolio of their work so that public can view it. Provided are the design images.

Something like portfolio, here’s how we can break it down.

Something like portfolio, here’s how we can break it down.

  • Design
    • Designing portfolio page
    • Designing edit portfolio page
    • Designing profile page view
    • Designing public view for portfolio page
  • Development
    • Design integration’s
    • Develop portfolio page – View, Add, Update, Delete (CRUD)
    • Develop public view portfolio page

That’s how we break the tasks, then estimate it, prioritize it, distribute the work.

Getting started – Head starts

Head starts are just and idea of what you will be working on for that day. It is your checklist for the day work. This helps in planning your day in advance. Before adding task name to head-start list you need to check the estimated time. Add only those tasks with priority which you will be able to complete for the day. It happens when you are off for the day or feeling tired to work! 😀 or bored eating same pizza! haha. That is when you can take up the easiest task from the list. This should get you refreshed and motivated to work more. It also adds up to the satisfaction of completing the progress from piled up tasks. Mark as done as you complete each task.

Building the logic

This is where you actually start. Once you got the task in hand, be clear about it. Discuss with your team or project manager if you have any unclear information. Get it sorted out first.

Once everything is clear enough start with the work. I analyze the given task and its problem, and come up with the best solution and technologies to be used. Also take suggestions from team leads. Once all is done I start with the coding :). That’s called eating pizza!!

How to stay motivated and enjoy work?

I always take each task as new learning opportunity or even if I’ve already worked on it, I try to make it better, and get best out of what I know. Once I’ve got the logic right and I know how to proceed, I love to listen to my favorite music while working. Music with in-ear-phones sometimes pumps my work performance. Oh yeah!! not to forget my coffee <3 , that keeps me awake :D. I also like to take 5 minutes break after each 1 hour. Its like working with full mind and giving it a rest of 5 minutes (engines running hot! need to cool it down)

At the end of the day I measure my checklist (head-start), If I was able to deliver all. If not then I see if I can complete it in small stay late time-frame and get it completed.

That’s called eating full pizza happily 😀

That is all from my side how I practice and manage my daily workload. Comment and share your thoughts over it, also how you manage your work load.

Thank You for reading, chao!!