Your Agile Home
162 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 3 years ago - ★★★★★ - 5 ratingsWelcome to Your Agile Home, the podcast to help you develop flexible home management solutions. Hi, I'm Yvonne, and I'm on a mission to help moms develop flexible home management solutions that leave them with more time for themselves, happier families, less money spent, and a more productive week.
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Episodes
How Agile Helped My Executive Function
August 18, 2020 11:00 - 4 minutes - 4.55 MBExecutive function helps with your self-regulation tasks. When you struggle with executive function, you have trouble with planning, focusing attention, remembering instructions and juggling multliple tasks at a time. There is less on my plate with Agile and I know what to expect. Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check us out and support our Patreon.
3 Things I Track in My Bullet Journal
August 13, 2020 11:00 - 5 minutes - 5.43 MBI'm a bit late to the bullet journal train, but I have been using this on my tablet. 1. I put my weekly schedule on there. It's important for me to see it as a spread. 2. I put our meal planning on there. 3, I put my gratitude journal there. I try to be as specific as possible. Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check us out and support our Patreon.
What is Minimalism with Rose Lounsbury
August 11, 2020 11:00 - 43 minutes - 32.8 MBToday, I'm chatting with my friend Rose Lounsbury about minimalism. Overwhelm and burnout are common feelings that lead people toward minimalism. Once Rose got her house "under control" a lot of the stress and overwhelm caused by her home was gone. She could finally relax. We discuss how to decide what you need in your life. Change the questions that you ask yourself. Reduce the amount of things you need. That cuts down on what you need to organize and keep clean. If you're unsure ...
How We Agile: Life Skills
August 06, 2020 11:00 - 6 minutes - 6.2 MBAgile helps with so many life skills. Here are a few. Focus - Agile helps our family have focus on tasks and to reach our goals. Communication - We are learning how to give and receive feedback. Critical Thinking - We are looking at things and making up creative solutions based on what we know and can infer. Self-Direction - This happens because we are self-assigning tasks. Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check us out and support our Patreon.
Why Should You Have a Home Management Schedule?
August 04, 2020 11:00 - 7 minutes - 6.57 MBA Home Management Schedule keeps everyone on the same page. For example, laundry is listed on the days it happens. It makes us all accountable to the laundry happening. We all have tasks we don't like to do. You don't have to do that chore, but you have to find a system to get it done. Your Home Management Schedule keeps the overwhelm away. Listen for an example of my Home Management Schedule. Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check us out and support our Patreon.
The Eisenhower Matrix for Your Sprint
July 30, 2020 11:00 - 7 minutes - 6.33 MBIf you’re ready to learn more about the three pillars of making the Agile transformation in your home – check out my new freebie at yvonnemarcus.com. This is a matrix created by Dwight Eisenhower. He had so many jobs that required tough decisions. There are 4 boxes. Top Left: Urgent & Important Top Right: Not Urgent & Important Bottom Left: Urgent & Not Important Bottom Right: Not Urgent & Not Important This is important to sort because sometimes you get caught up in pretty but no...
My Favorite Agile Tools
July 28, 2020 11:00 - 5 minutes - 5.13 MBIf you’re ready to learn more about the three pillars of making the Agile transformation in your home – check out my new freebie at yvonnemarcus.com. You can absolutely agile without technology. Many people use post it notes or white boards. Many of these tools you are already using. My favorites are: Google calendar Whiteboard (for sprint planning) Dakboard Kids Magnetic Daily Schedule ClickUp Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check us out and support our P...
The MoSCoW Method
July 23, 2020 11:00 - 6 minutes - 5.85 MBIf you’re ready to learn more about the three pillars of making the Agile transformation in your home – check out my new freebie at yvonnemarcus.com. The MoSCoW Method is what "Must be, Should be, Could be and Won't be included in your project". It helps define your priorities. It helps manage what you need to do. Make sure that it happens in this order. Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check us out and support our Patreon.
My Morning Routine
July 21, 2020 11:00 - 4 minutes - 4.55 MBIf you’re ready to learn more about the three pillars of making the Agile transformation in your home – check out my new freebie at yvonnemarcus.com. It can feel hard setting up a morning routine, but having one can make your day successful. I get my basic hygiene ready. We do our daily stand up. We switch off on getting kids situated at school, depending on what the daily schedule is. I work from 9 - 11:30 every morning. Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check us out ...
Best Family Calendar Ideas
July 16, 2020 11:00 - 6 minutes - 5.7 MBIf you’re ready to learn more about the three pillars of making the Agile transformation in your home – check out my new freebie at yvonnemarcus.com. This is the best way to get your work seen. Use a shared calendar. Share your iCal link. Use a physical calendar in a high-traffic area. Ready to help make your life and home more Agile? Check out our Resource page. (Some links are affiliate links) Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check us out and support...
My Favorite Self Care Items
July 14, 2020 11:00 - 7 minutes - 6.26 MBIf you’re ready to learn more about the three pillars of making the Agile transformation in your home – check out my new freebie at yvonnemarcus.com. You need to be able to fill your cup and prepare for your daily chaos. HOMEWORK: Sit down and think about what makes you happy and how long it takes. For me, I need 30-60 minutes daily. My favorite self-care things are: - candles - essential oils - my Cricut - crochet - getting a manicure - mobile gaming - my bujo - m...
We Discuss How We Agile at Home
July 09, 2020 11:00 - 40 minutes - 29.8 MBIf you’re ready to learn more about the three pillars of making the Agile transformation in your home – check out my new freebie at yvonnemarcus.com. Today we have an amazing guest - Jeremy Marcus, my husband. As a software engineering, Jeremy had experience using Agile at work, but he had not used it at home until we started using it as a family. Listen to the episode to hear about Jeremy's favorite parts about using Agile at home, how our children transitioned to an Agile home,...
Why I Moved from Trello to ClickUp
July 07, 2020 11:00 - 6 minutes - 6.51 MBIf you’re ready to learn more about the three pillars of making the Agile transformation in your home – check out my new freebie at yvonnemarcus.com. Trello is visually appealing. The layout is like Kanban. It is best if you are a single person or you don't have any recurring multi-step tasks. ClickUp is agile. They use sprints and prioritizing and it is great for assigning tasks to others. There are checklists for your checklists, y'all. Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home...
3 Boundaries You Must Have
July 02, 2020 11:00 - 8 minutes - 7.78 MBIf you’re ready to learn more about the three pillars of making the Agile transformation in your home – check out my new freebie at yvonnemarcus.com. Boundaries are vital to your mental health. The three you need to pay attention to are: 1. Time - What is draining you? 2. Space - What physical set up works best? 3. Budget - Where does your cash go? Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check us out and support our Patreon.
How Agile Home Management Increases Quality of Work
June 30, 2020 11:00 - 5 minutes - 7.65 MBIf you’re ready to learn more about the three pillars of making the Agile transformation in your home – check out my new freebie at yvonnemarcus.com. It will help you go from where you are now - stressed and overwhelmed - to ready to start agile. It speeds up your completion time It helps you improve quality - the quality of your solutions and the quality of work you are putting out Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check us out and support our Patreon.
Agile Makes Life More Fun
June 25, 2020 11:00 - 4 minutes - 5.8 MBIf you’re ready to learn more about the three pillars of making the Agile transformation in your home – check out my new freebie at yvonnemarcus.com. Agile creates less friction in your life Agile builds in opportunities to remember to have fun Agile allows for more spontaneity Agile makes for less arguments Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check us out and support our Patreon.
3 Things To Do With the Information Gained In A Retro
June 23, 2020 11:00 - 6 minutes - 7.94 MBIf you’re ready to learn more about the three pillars of making the Agile transformation in your home – check out my new freebie at yvonnemarcus.com. There are three key things you will learn when you complete your retro at the end of your sprints: 1) The things you want to start 2) The things you are going to stop doing 3) The "continue process" Two of these are going to be harder than the other-the start and the stop list-because humans are wired to continue doing what ...
How We Agile: School Decisions About Reopening
June 18, 2020 11:00 - 6 minutes - 8.9 MBFor our area, the conversation was not "if" schools were reopening, it was "when?" so our discussion had to center about when we would we be comfortable sending the kids back to school. Things to consider: Comfort level - is everything contained enough in your area? Economic questions - can you afford the limit to your productivity Mental and emotional toll - parental burnout is real You need to consider all of these factors, but remember, you may not be comfortable with all of...
The Importance of Energy and Feedback Loops with GrandMaster Morris
June 16, 2020 11:00 - 46 minutes - 38.9 MBWe all bring different attributes - each organized in our experiences. It is a reciprocal loop. Regardless of our beliefs and upbringing, connection is a basic need. Competition is counter to human nature. When connection and differences are deliberate, harmony is stasis. This makes the local community better, the bigger community better, the country better, and the world better. That's how change happens. In order to get specific results, you need to start out identifying it. Start...
Scrum is Like Riding a Bike.....It's in the Balance
June 11, 2020 11:00 - 6 minutes - 8.46 MBYou learn how to ride a bike in stages. In each stage, balance is created by something different. Scrum is just like that! You start out where you are right now. This is the tricycle of your life. Next, you'll start actually looking at change. This is the training wheels stage. Eventually, you will be efficiently using scrum, relying on your own body for balance. Balance happens when every person in your family has a say and the value of their time is equal. Ready to help you...
Benefit of Agile: Speed to Completion
June 09, 2020 11:00 - 5 minutes - 7.3 MBAgility is not just about speed. It's about the ability to change course seamlessly if you need to. You do end up with faster completion of home projects because of a number of reasons. You know you can shift how your project looks. You end research and decision fatigue because of your sprints. Your backlog items are no longer available for context switching. 2-week deadlines mean something needs to be done within 2 weeks. This will create more happiness and success because th...
4 Reasons to Host Your Daily Stand-Up in the AM
June 04, 2020 11:00 - 4 minutes - 6.25 MBThere are several reasons why that support why you should have your family's daily stand-up meeting in the morning: -People are generally more alert in the morning -It will happen more quickly -You'll get more participation -You're already in logistics brain If you're ready to learn more about the three pillars of making the Agile transformation in your home - check out my new freebie at yvonnemarcus.com.
How We Agile: Our Spring Garden
June 02, 2020 11:00 - 4 minutes - 5.66 MBToday we are going to discuss a fun thing we Agiled this year: our spring garden. We decided to plant a garden, not only to save money (these two kids aren't eating any less these days!), but also to spend some time as a family getting our hands into the soil. So how did we agile our spring garden? First sprint: start the planning Sprint two: design Sprint three: buy plants and plant them Sprint four: water, weed, watch, and wait Ready to learn more about becoming Agile? ...
Managing Summer Schedules
May 28, 2020 11:00 - 6 minutes - 9.06 MBThis year might be a bit different, but we want to talk about what we will do every year. Your schedule will be different. Routine is good, but logistically it isn't always possible to have the same schedule. Make a calendar of who needs to be where and when. Discuss this in your daily standup. (Get your freebie here.} Move bedtime, but don't forgo it. Go with the flow. Read the day and read your body. Know that it's okay to move along and continue going through the motions. Ready ...
Protecting Your PII in a Modern Home
May 26, 2020 11:00 - 34 minutes - 30.4 MBToday, I'm joined with my friend Jason Faulhefer and we are going to talk about how to protect your family and their private information during this modern age. PII is personal identifiable information - like security questions, social security info, etc. It is important to look at the terms and conditions for the technology you have in your home, like Amazon Alexa, Siri, etc. A lot of times they will disclose that they share information with third party companies. Understanding the risk...
The Importance of Vacation Related Sprints
May 21, 2020 11:00 - 6 minutes - 9.13 MBWhen you're on vacation, you aren't necessarily thinking about your sprints and daily standup, but it is important to stay in the flow. We break ours into 3 phases - packing and planning, on vacation, and return to normalcy. During our packing phase, we make sure to be as thorough as possible, writing everything out. We think of the things we want to do when we get there. Put every person's "must do" on the sprint. Add in things like down time, as well. During the return to normalcy sec...
4 Reasons You Should Have a Hobby
May 19, 2020 11:00 - 5 minutes - 7.18 MBWe all need hobbies! Make sure your hobbie is not an income stream. It is going to help you plan to have time for yourself. Talk about that time in your daily standup. Get your freebie. It will fill your need for self-care. You will keep your sense of self and your identity. It will provide results that you can see - releasing oxytocin! Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check out our Patreon.
So My Partner is Resistant
May 14, 2020 11:00 - 6 minutes - 8.14 MBLast episode, we talked about introducing Agile to your partner and now we are going to talk about if there is resistance. Resistance will be natural because you are making a big change. Stay the course. Don't push your partner. No new technology should be introduced during this time. At the end, you want to look at it and see what did or did not get completed and ask why, instead of blaming. Make sure they feel heard. Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check o...
How To Convince Your Partner to Agile
May 12, 2020 11:00 - 7 minutes - 9.7 MBThis is the number one question we receive. I know so many of you are excited to try it but have no idea how to get people on board. It can be difficult. Don't get too deep into the semantics. Focus on what it will do FOR your family. Ask for a trial period. Accept feedback when it comes to how Agile will work for your family. Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check out our Patreon.
Outside the Box WFH Tips
May 07, 2020 11:00 - 6 minutes - 8.56 MBDuring this pandemic more of us then ever are working from our homes. Many of us were not prepared to make this change, so I wanted to share some tips with you. You do not need separate office space. Just treat your shared room (like bedroom), differently during the work day than when you're not working. Set a schedule. Batch your tasks so that you're not switching gears. Try to have as much flexibility in your schedule, prioritizing by what needs to be moved on to someone else in ...
How We Agile: Big School Transitions
May 05, 2020 11:00 - 8 minutes - 10.9 MBMany of you are going through the biggest school transition you and your children have ever gone through with Covid-19. You are doing a great job! This episode is about regular every year big school transitions like back to school after a break. Kids often like the familiarity of the routine. If you can keep your routine as close to the school year as possible, it will be best. Build education into life events. Ask them about the things that they are watching and searching online. ...
When Your Stakeholders Are On Your Dev Team
April 30, 2020 11:00 - 6 minutes - 8.14 MBFor those of you who don't know what these tech terms mean, I'm going to break it down. Your dev team are the people who are putting together and developing the solution. The stakeholders are the people who will be using the solution and process. For us, ownership brings about strong reactions. There may be resistance and exuberance. You want this! Solutions and feedback will happen in real time - right away! It is totally okay to make small tweaks during your sprints, but don't ma...
7 Reasons to Have a Retrospective (Even in Families)
April 28, 2020 11:00 - 7 minutes - 7.94 MBThe sprint retrospective is so important, even in families. It supports the team and identifies conflicts. It helps to improve processes by knowing what to improve. Share views to help maximize ownership. It creates a road map for what to start, stop, and continue. It fixes priorities. It helps to identify problems early. It builds trust. Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check out our Patreon.
How We Agile: Home Projects
April 23, 2020 11:00 - 4 minutes - 5.77 MBToday we're talking about home projects - anything that will improve your home life. We were just working on an entryway solution. You start in your sprint planning by identifying what is the goal. Write all the items that belong on backlog like research through completion. Prioritize what needs to happen. Get started on the first priority. Make sure you have a time box - deadlines so that you don't get stuck in research and suffer from decision fatigue. Ready to get insider ac...
3 Reasons to Use Dakboard
April 21, 2020 11:00 - 5 minutes - 6.85 MBWhat is Dakboard, anyway? It's a website that allows you to set up a display for your daily schedule and sprint goals. (If you have any questions about the technical connection, see how Scott Hansleman did it or buy it preloaded.) I love Dakboard for many reasons. It can display everything we need to know. It's super easy to edit. Everybody knows what is on everyone's plate so people can pitch in. Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check out our Patreon.
Quiet Reflection & What You Need
April 16, 2020 11:00 - 5 minutes - 5.94 MBDaily Standups are a time to build in your self-care time and time to reflect and receive feedback. In the Sprint Planning Phase you will be mapping out projects and the Sprint Retro is going to be the feedback stage. Before you dive into either of these, you need to take a moment for yourself to reflect. If you do not plan for quiet reflection, something else will fill that time. Express those thoughts to everyone else in the meeting. That way you can talk about them quickly and effe...
How We Agile: Dinner
April 14, 2020 11:00 - 5 minutes - 6.1 MBWe always talk about dinner plans during our daily standup. I feel the dinner decision meme so hard. The decision really doesn't seem important for me, but it is for everyone else. When the kids started attending school, we decided to do a sprint and set up food days so that the kids knew what day of the week it was based on the food theme. We give options that they can decide on their own. For example, on Taco Tuesday, we put everything that they could want on the table and they get ...
Leaving the Hustle Behind w/ Emily Didinger Baker
April 09, 2020 11:00 - 47 minutes - 39.4 MBToday, I'm chatting with my friend Emily D. Baker, a lawyer for online business owners. We chat about how she shifted from a district attorney to a business owner and how she moved out of feeling isolated and out of the loop as a parent. We dive into what she does for her clients, including contracts and consulting. Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check out our Patreon.
School Supplies & Other School Related Things
April 07, 2020 11:00 - 4 minutes - 5.87 MBMost of us have children and school will be a part of our lives for a very long time. I like to discuss school activities during the daily standup. Let's agile your school! Send things back to the school as soon as you get them - spare changes of clothes, permission slips, etc. Have routines down - the getting ready for school routine, library book return routine, etc. Ready to get insider access to Your Agile Home? Check out our Patreon.
How We Agile: School Drop Off and Pick Up
April 02, 2020 11:00 - 4 minutes - 5 MBThis can be a crazy time in any parents' day! We discuss our schedule in our Daily Stand-Up. Any things that we have to do to prep for drop off or pick up are prepared together the night before. How do you handle drop off and pick up? Let us know in the Facebook Group.
How the Visual Schedule Ended Fights Over Non-Preferred Tasks
March 31, 2020 11:00 - 7 minutes - 8.11 MBThis might sound crazy, but when you've had the same fight or argument over non-preferred tasks, this is a game changer. We keep everything on our kids' scrum board. One of us parents sets up the list for the day. This allows us to demonstrate what needs to be done without nagging. It builds a trust in routines for your kids as well. It avoids frustration from both parents and kids. This is the visual board we use for our kids: SchKIDules 153 Piece Visual Schedule. (aff link) ...
Ideas for Quality Time with Your Partner
March 26, 2020 11:00 - 5 minutes - 5.78 MBAre you ready to streamline your day and get more done? Sign up for my free Daily Stand Up Meeting Cheat Sheet. Quality time with your partner is invaluable and it can be really easy to run out of ideas or put off your quality time because life is busy. Listen to this episode for some ideas of quality time with your partner. What is your favorite thing to do with your partner? Let us know in the Facebook Group!
How We Agile: Multiple Sprint Events
March 24, 2020 11:00 - 6 minutes - 6.77 MBLarge projects can seem overwhelming, so it is important to break them down into smaller sprints. First, break a big project down into much smaller pieces, just like we talked about in our Bite Sized Goals episode. Usually, the first sprint is going to be prep. Planning out what you're going to need to do and what you're going to need to get to make this happen. Put the things that you want to do but that are not necessary on the backlog. That way you can get to them later. Your mai...
How We Agile: Working From Home with Kids Home
March 19, 2020 11:00 - 4 minutes - 5.33 MBIt's tough, y'all. I'm not going to lie to you, but working from home with kids home is possible and can even be productive. Listen to today's episode and learn 4 things that we do to get work done while the kids are home. And be sure to check out my freebie Your Daily StandUp Cheat Sheet and learn how to have a more productive day.
Equitable Partnerships and the Mental Load
March 17, 2020 11:00 - 6 minutes - 7.13 MBIt is very hard to have equitable partnerships when one person carries the mental load - the organizing and managing of all of the daily tasks. The Daily Stand-Up is so important for us to have an equitable partnership because we are sharing the mental load. Ask yourself who is in charge of XYZ. If the answer to all of the questions is one person, then your partnership is not equitable. This is one of the many reasons we chose to Agile. Do you need guidance on having an equitable pa...
Why Self-Assigning Tasks
March 12, 2020 11:00 - 5 minutes - 6.75 MBSelf-assigning means picking a task that you like to do and doing it. You do not have to do something you don't like to do if someone else in your house likes to do it. Sit down with your family and talk about all of the tasks that need to be done. Everyone picks tasks that they want to do. Your children will pick tasks that they like to do. You can teach them how to do all of the tasks that are non-preferred as well. But their main tasks can be their preferred tasks. You can do that t...
How We Agile: Allowances
March 10, 2020 11:00 - 5 minutes - 5.87 MBWe do allowances differently. They happen no matter what, instead of as payment for chores. Chores are a part of our Agile household, and we do it no matter what. Learning money management is important for our children. We use FamZoo and their allowances automatically go into their account. The app is easy to use. We give $1 per year of age and we make sure we have constant feedback on how they use their money. How does your family handle allowance? Let us know in the Facebook Group!
Breaking Societal Norms Through Agile
March 05, 2020 12:00 - 5 minutes - 6.64 MBOne of the main reasons I started using Agile in my home was because I was tired of the societal norms that mom had to do #allthethings and carry the full mental load. It builds in the ability for everyone to say what is on their plate, presented as facts, and allows us to have a feedback loop to improve. It's about doing it together as an entire family. Self-assigning tasks mean no one person is in charge of everything. This system sets up a cohesive unit where we have different brains ...
3 Reasons You Should Have a Daily Stand-Up
March 03, 2020 12:00 - 7 minutes - 8.8 MBThe Daily Stand-Up is probably one of my favorite meetings in agiling my house. This is a time where we can connect and talk about what's going on in our lives and in our day. It is so important when trying to make the house more equal in both physical and mental labor. This helps you to avoid conflict of schedule, as well. Every day, we have work that isn't visible to our partner. The Daily Stand-Up is a great time for you to connect and make that visible to each other. The Daily S...
What is Work Life Balance
February 27, 2020 12:00 - 6 minutes - 7.66 MBWork-life balance is hard and the truth is that it is not achievable all of the time. Sometimes you need to be more focused on something like a work project or on being present with your family. The balance comes out over time. It is okay to focus in on one area for a time. Be okay with some slack. Set your family's priorities for the week. How do you feel about work-life balance? Let me know in the Facebook group.