testcase earworm [10/27/2007 11:42:50]
It seems that as with the software variety, personal test cases run better when they run fast. I'd say that it shouldn't take more than 1-2 hours to get daily tests passing, even if you start from scratch.
Some tests are better moved to a weekly level. For example, rather than spending half an hour a day on each of several big areas (I was trying marketing, writing, and programming), it's better to get the tests passing early in the morning and then have a solid chunk of time to spend on one major goal or area.
It seems like there ought to be different tests for different timeframes: daily, weekly, monthly... Yearly even?
There are also things that you almost always want to be doing... For example:
- posture - sit/stand up straight
- purpose - always having a goal in mind, even if it's just to hang out and be entertained
- next action - knowing the next action
- keeping a positive attitude
- paying attention or "observing ego" - steering your behavior in real time rather than just reacting (self-awareness, lucid dreaming, etc)
- streamlining or removing wasted effort from whatever you habitually do (kaizen in Japanese)
- looking for value - what value can you offer? what resources are here?
It would be great to walk around with awareness of all those things at all times. But if those aren't habitual parts of your personality, how can you pull off an hourly or minute-by-minute test without the benefit of obsessive compulsive disorder?
Earworms to the rescue!
Well, maybe. That's my current experiment, anyway. It's from the German ohrworm - a song or jingle that gets stuck in your head and plays over and over.
What if you took all the things you wanted to be in the moment, and you made them into a little jingle or cheer, and then you got that stuck in your head?
Here's my first crack at the idea, using the list above:
Posture, purpose, action, fun
ego, kaizen, value, done
Okay, so I'm not Samuel Taylor Coleridge... Or even Vanilla Ice... But it's short and punchy. I'll see how it goes.