— Nov 05, 2015

Dear Future Jay,

This morning, I was thinking… You still tend to gauge your work day in time. Not so much down to the minute or even hour, but often find yourself feeling anxious, “did I work long enough today???”

This isn’t the most productive way of thinking. Truth is, it really doesn’t matter how long you work. It’s about what you get done! It takes discipline, but it’s more healthy (and productive) to train yourself to be increasingly results focused. That is make a small list of goals each day and be done when they are. Of course, you must realize this won’t work every day. There will be days where you need to be productive, but it isn’t clear what must be done. You can combat this why trying to plan ahead, but there will still be days. In those days, consult your backlog, chat with your team, and basically try to build a plan. You will always be more productive getting somewhere if you know where you’re going.

Sincerely, Past Jay