Author Archives: Mike

Scheduling Google Task from Email on a Mac

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There is an alignment bug / problem on two of the three primary browsers on the Mac, which prevents you from setting a due date on a Google Task created from an email. Firefox works. Safari and, ironically, the Chrome browser from Google both have the problem.

The right-arrow / greater-than-sign to the right of the task renders in the same area as the scroll bar, but the scroll bar wins.  So, unless you are using Firefox, you can’t click on that and get to the date and notes dialog box to schedule a deadline for dealing with that email.

The trick is to just go down below to the Actions button / link, and select Edit Details.  You can also just select the task in the task list pop-up by clicking in the middle of it, and then pressing Shift-Enter.  That will also take you to the edit details dialog.

Here’s a little video for those who want one:

Getting to the Edit Details Dialog for Google Tasks on a Mac

Competitive Love and Respect

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If you out-love and out-respect the people you deal with, you will be less likely to be hurt by others. First, people can sense when you are self-absorbed, and do not respect or care about them, and they will respond accordingly. The whole engagement will begin with their defenses raised and deteriorate as you try to coerce them into attending to your concerns. Secondly, when you love and respect others more than they love and respect you, it makes you less injured or scandalized by any provocation or weakness they actually exhibit. It acts as a force shield of security and well-being. It surrounds you and disarms would-be opponents, transforming them into allies, and often into friends.

[Blurted this out on Facebook yesterday - not sure why - but thought I would share it on my blog site as well]

Using Story Points to Get Unstuck in Sizing

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Standard Spin on Story Points

There are a lot of good videos and articles out there about Story Points.  They describe in various ways, what the presenter thinks story points are, what they’re good for, and how they’re used.  I do not want to repeat that information here, too much.  It’s all good stuff, but it always left me hanging.

Sure, I get that Story Points are for mid-range to long-range planning.  I get that sizing is needed in the earliest stages of planning, and using “ideal hours” is impractical if not impossible until later, during iteration planning, when architects and engineers can decompose the problem at hand into measurable morsels of work.  I get it.

Several things remained fuzzy for me, though, including the following:

  1. How does a team start sizing with abstract story points?
  2. How does the suggestion that they use the Fibonacci series for weighting the relative size or difficulty really work?

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