The Making of: The Modern You – UncoverP3 – Part 2
Release 2 & 3 – Plan & Execution
Updated Backlog List to Complete the Book:
- Review the feedback from the initial reviewer circle and update the book as appropriately
- Finish the remaining chapters
- Get feedback from the target audience
- Find the editors to handle the text edit for the whole book
- Engage a graphics designer to do the front and back covers
- Print the book
- Marketing
Quarterly Release Plan:
Every release plan should not exceed a maximum time period of 1 quarter (3 months). Some follow monthly release plans. It is based on your choice. My recommendation would be to keep a quarterly cycle.
Inside each quarterly cycle, execute the work in small batches called “Tiny Executions”. I adopted weekly executions for this book project. Optionally you can do bi-weekly periods. The important thing to keep in mind is at the end of each “Tiny Execution”, whatever was worked on, needs to reach a completion stage. Always strive to work towards completion.
Having a release cycle more than one quarter diminishes the focus on the release goal date as it gives an impression that we have a very long time to handle things.
Release Plan 2: June – August 2018
Top priority items picked from the backlog list for the Release Plan 2:
- Utilize the feedback from the initial reviewer circle and update the book accordingly
- Finish the remaining chapters
- Get feedback from the target audience
- Find the editors to handle the text edit for the whole book
Also, whatever worked well in Release Plan 1, follow them.
Release Plan 2 – Tiny Execution 1: May 28th – June 3rd
Wrote two chapters “Moral Loan” and “Disruption” (now “New Normals”).
Release Plan 2 – Tiny Execution 2: June 4th – June 10th
Used Grammarly to review all the content written so far and corrected the grammar and words usage.
To keep the interest high from my early reviewers, I created the back cover page to nudge them to read more.
A picture can speak a thousand words. For the reader to quickly understand the scope of the book, I made an one page infographics.
Release Plan 2 – Tiny Execution 3: June 11th – June 17th
Wrote chapters “Work”, “Blame”, “Border Wall” and “Carousel”.
Release Plan 2 – Tiny Execution 4: June 18th – June 24th
Began the chapter “Thinker Muscles” and also spent a good amount of time editing the previously completed chapters.
Release Plan 2 – Tiny Execution 5: June 25th – Jul 1st
No time spent on writing the book in this week because I had to handle some family related issues, but by logging the information in Time Machine, I was able to quickly get back on track.
Reflection: Sprint failed
Release Plan 2 – Tiny Execution 6: Jul 2nd – Jul 8th
Worked on chapters “Entrepreneurship” and “Thinker Muscles”.
Release Plan 2 – Tiny Execution 7: Jul 9th – Jul 15th
More edits on the previously edited topics.
Got an email from one of my friends’ daughter, Aiswaryaa, that she liked the content but it needs to be edited. Also got similar feedback from another high schooler, Sengathir.
Asked them whether they can work with me to edit the book. They gladly agreed to become the official student editors for the book. Because they were on vacation they were not available to immediately start, but they were able to come starting mid-August. What great timing!
Now, I needed to plan on finishing all the chapters so I can fully engage in the editing process.
Release Plan 2 – Tiny Execution 8: Jul 16th – Jul 22nd
Wrote “Grand Finale” and edited “Entrepreneurship”.
Release Plan 2 – Tiny Execution 9: Jul 23rd – Jul 29th
No work done on the book – because of a work emergency undertaken in the office, which had to be delivered within a week, so had to put extra hours.
Reflection: Sprint failed
Release Plan 2 – Tiny Execution 10: Jul 30th – Aug 5th
Spent more time on learning (using Egg Hunt), but no time put into working on the book
Reflection: Sprint failed
Release Plan 2 – Tiny Execution 11: Aug 6th – Aug 12th
Went on a family vacation, which was previously planned, so no time put into writing.
Being conscious of these non-commitments of time and continuously logging that into the Time Machine, it was creating a guilty feeling of not putting any work towards my dream.
Reflection: Sprint failed
Release Plan 2 – Tiny Execution 12: Aug 13th – Aug 19th
Started back where I left off and updated chapters “Time Machine” and “Entrepreneurship”.
Release Plan 2 – Tiny Execution 13: Aug 20th – Aug 26th
Spent a good amount of time editing the contents of the completed topics working with Aiswaryaa and Sengathir.
Edited topics “Introduction”, “Target Audience”, “Life is a Gift”, “Time”, Skill, “Energy”, “Abundance”, and “Adaptability”.
It was a good opportunity for me to learn from the target audience, such as how they perceive things, fix grammar errors, and sometimes change the way it is framed.
I even changed the name of one of the topics from “Disruptions” to “New Normals” after a good discussion with Sengathir and Aiswaryaa.
Also it was a mutual benefit for them since they were hearing first hand about the content directly from me and discussed the topics in detail to get more clarity on why I wrote it.
Reflection: Great progress
Release Plan 2 – Tiny Execution 14: Aug 27th – Sep 2nd
Edited some more chapters and we were able to successfully finish all the chapters in Section 1.
At this point of time I had only two chapters left to write in Section 2.
Reflection: Good progress
Release 2 – Ending
I am close to completing the goal of finishing the writing, but there are still two chapters yet to be completed.
On the editing front, half the book is edited. However, I didn’t expect that this would take a long time.
Doing Time Machine was a big help in keeping me focused. Following the D2D Marathon consistently helped me to ensure to check on the progress towards the growth on a weekly timebox.
Updated Backlog List to Complete the Book:
- Finish the remaining two chapters in Section 2
- Finish the edits for Section 2 and Closing
- Engage a graphics designer to do the front and back covers
- Print the book
- Market
Release Plan 3: September – November 2018
Normally September and October are the months I get super busy with office work since we work towards a user conference where we present what we have done since the last conference.
Also went through an unexpected medical condition which put me into a situation where I was not able to continue writing the book.
Fear freezes action.
In the computer industry, customers call the undelivered product, as Vaporware or Smokeware. If the planned work is not completed and not delivered in a way that can be used by your intended audience, it just costs you more money to have it held as inventory.
Anything not delivered to customers is Vaporware.
It’s just inventory and is worth zero plus it costs money to keep it.
Have you ever realized that you are always given more deals at the end of the season sale? Sometimes the sale can be 50%, 70%, or even 90% as the days go on. Why are there sales? What are the companies trying to achieve?
By keeping it in the store, it is inventory. It is taking physical space to store and has to be managed, and at the same time, it may get old and lose its significance. All costs money. It is economical to sell it cheaper than to keep it.
Inventory costs money and resources. Inventory is expensive.
At this time, this book was just inventory because it was continuing to cost me money to host it but was not yet ready for publication.
Having written this book so far and reading the chapters over again gave me the boost to keep working on the book starting from mid-November with the same energy I had before.
Release Plan 3: Extended till December 31st 2018 to finish the planned.
Release Plan 3 – Tiny Execution 1: Nov 19th – Nov 25th
Worked on editing the “Yogic Practices”. While I kept working on the book, I also shared this to more of my friends who could provide feedback. I was talking to my cousin and asked him if his son, Pranav, a high schooler, could also assist in doing the edits.
Pranav reviewed the book and sent me the edits for Section 1.
Reflection: Good progress after a long break.
- Fear freezes action – inaction doesn’t help, we have to move on.
- Inaction is only in the mind, so get out of the downward spiral quickly.
- Time Machine is a need – whether you do action or don’t do. This gives a lot of valuable insight and to push you forward.
Release Plan 3 – Tiny Execution 2: Nov 26th – Dec 2nd
After reviewing the edits from Pranav, I updated them in the book.
Worked on creating the first PDF which can provide me with some insight on how the printed book will be like.
I needed some way to print the book, so after doing some research, I found a website, blurb.com. This website does the logistics of taking the software source copy (PDF/blurb file) of the book and doing the printing, shipping and also selling automatically in Amazon. By utilizing this service, I can self publish my book.
Learned that every book needs an ISBN number and a separate barcode for printing and to sell the online PDF version through Amazon or other book stores.
Even though both are important, I don’t have to rush in spending the money until I really need to. After all, I know I am only half way done with the book.
Reflection: Good progress and lot of new learnings
Release Plan 3 – Tiny Execution 3: Dec 3rd – Dec 9th
Started writing on the topic, the making of the book.
For the Headstream club activities, to get more support, I wanted to come up with a way to self motivate all the students. At first, I thought of printing T-shirts, but finally decided to create “Tribal Bands”.
[PICTURE – Aspirant Tribal Bands]
There are several online sites to print the bands in different styles and sizes. I was able to get it ordered within 2 hours from getting the initial idea.
Technology kept proving to me again and again how it is an enabler.
Reflection: Good progress
Release Plan 3 – Tiny Execution 4: Dec 10th – Dec 16th
Expanded the topic on “Quotes” with Ekalavya. Felt very good on the way the topic came out.
Reflection: Good progress
Release Plan 3 – Tiny Execution 5: Dec 17th – Dec 23rd
Updated the topic “Everything Starts with a Dream”.
Finished editing the topic “Egg Hunt” along with Aiswaryaa and Sengathir.
Created a concept sketch for the book, so that I can give it to the graphics designer and create a professional front and back cover for the book.
[Image concept front cover]
Reflection: Good progress
Release Plan 3 – Tiny Execution 6: Dec 24h – Dec 31st
As this whole week was a vacation, I decided I should utilize my time to the fullest by completing the edits of Section 2 and also finished writing the chapter on the making of the book.
Expanded the topic of “Yogic Practices” by adding a sub-topic called “Vibrant Colors of Life”.
Worked with Sengathir and Aiswaryaa to completely finish the edits in Section 2.
Reflection: Editing the whole of Section 2 is completed.
The chapter on the making of the book seems to require more content, so I decided to move that to its own section.
Overall great progress.
Release 3 – Ending
The goal of Section 2 is completed, with an exception of not being able to finish the writing of the chapter “Application of the Patterns and Practices: A Journey…”. But now that I moved that chapter to its own section, I have decided to take it up in the next release cycle.
Celebration: Whole of Section 1 and Section 2 is fully done, which is 31 chapters including the book introduction. I had a great sense of accomplishment.
Even though the book is not fully done, the small progress done regularly over a long period of time has brought me close to reaching the summit.
Being it is a new year, I decided to give an Amazon gift card to my student editors Aiswaryaa, Sengathir and Pranav to wish them big in their lives and a way to tell them “Thank you”.
Release cycle reviews gives you an opportunity to understand your position and provides an opportunity to steer for forward motion. By celebrating your achievement, it gives the necessary boost for you to achieve the next mile.