Worst Things First

This a practice I learned long ago and it's actually helpful whether it's day to day or building software. It's doing worst things first.

It's human nature to move away from pain.  Sometimes I have a meeting or a conversation or even just a task for the day that I'm not looking forward to.   I'm not talking about the stuff I can ignore forever.  I'm talking about stuff that needs to happen sooner rather than later, that I won't enjoy doing.

If I push those things to the end of the day or the end of the week, they loom.  Why loom longer than necessary?  That's draining.  Somebody long ago gave me the tip worst things first and I didn't realize it's actually become one of my most effective habbits.

One of my mentees is going to combine worst things first with a 30 day improvement sprint to see how much energy they get back and how much more they get done.  I think this is a great experiment and I look forward to their results.