The Vortex of Doom

A while back, I mentioned that my doom-ometer reading was at a 10, so what was I talking about?  Well, first, let's talk about what doom is.

There's this horrible thing called the Vortex of Doom.  This is a place where you have too much to get done, but you feel so doomed that you get nothing done.  Since you're not getting anything done, you feel horrible about not getting any of your to-do's done.  Since you feel horrible, you're not getting anything done.  Rinse.  Repeat.

The Vortex of Doom is very hard to get out of since it is a self replicating cycle.  The best way to escape it is to just stop.  Give something up, take some time out, and then get back in the game.  However, the Vortex of Doom is very sneaky - you often don't realize you've fallen into it until it's too late.  Once you're in the Vortex, you become blind to many things, including the solution.

So how do you avoid falling into the Vortex of Doom?  First of all, manage your time.  Less obviously, you need to monitor how doomed you are.  If you're aware of how doomed you feel, you'll be a better judge of when you need to take a break or some time off.  This is where a doom-ometer (alternatively doom-o-meter or doomometer) comes in.

Enter the doom-ometer.

A doom-ometer is a way for you to measure how doomed you feel.  As such, you should be the one to make your doom-ometer.  Pictured above is my Doom-ometer from last year - it ranges from zero (no doom) to ten (overwhelming doom).  It's simple with a rotating arrow.  Creating and personalizing our doom-ometers was a great team meeting - very similar to our meeting spent personalizing our sprint board.  By attaching these to our sprint board, we could update our doom reading at the start of each meeting during check in.

Another example of a doom-o-meter, more in the style of a pressure gauge.

The idea is that once you're doom reading hits a certain threshold, you should take a break.  In fact, the team will force you to take a break.  We agreed early on that if our doom level ever reached nine or more, then your task for the meeting was to take time off.  It didn't matter if what you had on the ToDo section of the sprint board was critical - you were excused and covered for.  Luckily, we only had to call in this rule a few times.

Our third team member's thermometer style doomometer, complete with paper slider.

By taking that time off, you would have time to recover and get away from the Vortex of Doom.  It was guilt free time off - we had agreed on this early on in development, so even if a milestone was just around the corner, you were good to go and relax.  If it had to get done, someone would cover for you.

Overall, the doom-ometer was a great tool for our team.  It allowed us to monitor how each of us was holding up, as well as when we just needed some time off.  It was a fun meeting making them, and it added a lot to our sprint board.  Having our doom reading as part of check-in each meeting was a nice way to sum up how all the 'I feel's.  Of course, it also made each of us aware of our internal state - and knowing is half the battle!