30 days being a new dad and still managed to release something.
As some of you might know or know now, Tyler is a new dad. It’s been a learning curve over the last couple of weeks and honestly the last couple of months as I prepared for this with books, knowledge and being aware that this was going to change things.
In the beginning, when I found out I was going to be a dad, the first thing I did was pick up my old tricks. I tried to plan everything and overestimated what I could accomplish before the baby would come. It took me a couple whiteboard sessions to realize I was naive and adjusted accordingly. I used what I have done for the last couple of years, to be more down-to-earth about planning.
Based on the last couple of years (because of course I track personal sprints) Fall is usually my more productive time. I knew coming into this fall I had to look at my commitments with a new eye. I was able to wrap up Q3 which ends in September with everything squared away I wanted to before the baby came. Everything committed in Q4, which takes me to the end of the year, is all preparation things with a couple of bigger more fluid programming commitments for those late nights when I have a spark of energy.
As I continue my new position of being a dad, I am trying a more flexible approach to my side projects with Juice Box Monkey Designs. And no that doesn’t mean I am putting it on the shelf, that thing isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. But I am being more to the point of what I tackle and take on. Making sure it lines up with my current offerings or uses existing projects to make development and releases easier.
Flexible life, flexible roadmaps
Q4 and on will have reduced roadmap items with less of deadline things and more just dots along the road. Which will allow me to still confidently continue to move forward. However without the stressful point of getting XYZ done before a certain deadline. I currently run JBMD with quarters and sprints and I will continue to do, as it is the most successful process that has made it what it is today. There is just another piece on the board that I need to consider now.
But that doesn’t mean I slow down either…
Like launching Look Out Local
This week I was able to collect all the pieces to fully launch a new extension. But what is crazy is I allocated way longer for this process to take.
When this month started I had this plan:
- Launch on Chrome Extension Store
What I was able to do was
- Launch on Chrome Extension Store
- Launch on Edge Add-On Store
- Launch on Firefox Add On
- Update JBMD Website
- Launch on Product Hunt
And when all those things were slated and ready I even had some time to work on the next version of it to support Safari. A couple hours later I had a working version with a couple bugs to capture. The baby and mom were sleeping so I just turned on some light music and continued the night. I managed to clean up most of the bugs on macOS, so now I only need to support iOS Safari.
Pretty crazy.
New Dad Survival Pack (Image from above)
- AirPod Max — Invested in some new noise-cancelling headphones for those long screams and work days coming soon
- T-shirts — can’t have enough t-shirts, several that have spit up on them now
- Data Books — I like data, Emily Oster has a couple other books around data-related parenting, I like her narrative in them for the expected one and looking forward to reading this one now.
- New Cup for coffee — Can’t be a survival pack without a cup of coffee. A nice new dad gift from a friend
- Blanket — to cuddle the little guy
- Pacifier — Yeah there is data there for why they are bad but like I need my sanity 🤷🏻♂️
The longest streak of not opening a computer was 5 days, it was the weirdest 5 days of my life. And not just because of the computer….
I know that this journey is just beginning and I know that it will test my abilities over and over but if I stay more fluid with my life and have a more flexible roadmap I shouldn’t have to abandon what I have been working on for Juice Box Monkey nor choosing between my family time and work time.
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<insert dad joke here>
