Having a routine is great not only in an individual level but also for the group. This create less anxiety to the group and help people to understand the steps we are taking every day.
Stand-up
Taking into account what is happening every day is a good practice to keep everybody from this sprint on the same page.
Feedback
Part of any agile methodology is getting feedback by the end of the sprint.
It’s 9 days to approach the problem and find a solution and on 10th day it’s all about presenting your work and get feedback from peers and stakeholders in a retrospectieve session..
Breaks
During the pandemic time we had to switch all cohorts to a virtual classroom and to avoid Zoom-fatigue I always encorajured people to have breaks. And I mean real breaks. Yes, stand up, walk around, take you dog for a walk, play with your kids, make a good coffee or just close your eyes and meditate, or very important drink water.
You can maybe buy those big bottle of water with a time indicator on the side but I really like to use my Miir bottles, they are minimalist and medical stainsteel grade.
I always have in my table a big bottle of water that I use to pour into my smaller bottle to not make so heavy to drink water. The big jar ins my daily goal.
I have to confess I slept in one of the breaks, but we had Beni in the house on that day, and he is a super fluffy dog from my friend and he stayed a couple of day with us. I was hugging him and for some reason the timer in my Apple Watch was disabled.
Usually I like to do a 15 minutes break. So it’s enough time to relax.
Maybe you need to check you phone but I recommend you to have less screen time to really enjoy your break.
💦 🚰 Water Break
I learned in my life that even if you spend the whole day doing nothing, you will lose a lot of water through breathing, sweating, urinating, and bowel movements. On an average day, an adult human loses about 2.5 to 3 liters (84 to 101 ounces) of water. Of course, this amount may vary depending on factors such as age, sex, body weight, physical activity level, and environmental conditions. But anyway, this will be part of our daily routine.
Some people buy those big bottles that count the hours of the day. But most of people have a regular size bottle 16oz and my technique to make sure I can drink this minimum amount is having another gallon on my side and I pour water on the small one.
It is important to replace the lost fluids through drinking water and other beverages to prevent dehydration and maintain optimal health and make our brains work better during our sprint.
Lunch
In Brazil, if you work in an office, the labor law guarantees you 1 hour of lunchtime, which is a ritual that I keep even living in the USA and working for US companies. I think the way people swallow food during weekdays and eat food with lower vitamins is not good at all.
My spouse and I started our journey as vegan in 2018, and since then we never eat any meat or dairy. And we raised our beautiful to kids also in this way. Everybody seems very healthy but the most important is how you see food. Use the food as the fuel for your body and especially this sprint that we need the collaboration of all. Having a light lunch will make you much more productive and not sleepy at all.