Ramaa’s Rituals-n-Routines
Ramaa was ~2.5 years when she started ‘writing’. Initially, I wanted to say ‘scribbling’, but then quickly realized that what might be ‘meaningless scribbles’ for me, are actually ‘meaningful content’ for her!…stupid me 🙄
Since then (or even before) she had a tremendous liking for writing and telling stories. In the December of 2019, she wrote a letter to Santa Claus listing why she deserves a gift in her sock and explained it at length to us.
Since 2019 (barring a few exceptions) I hardly remember a day when she has not written/drawn. This ‘writing/drawing/expressing’ is part of her “Rituals-n-Routines”, which we continuously encouraged, and contributed to, in any way we can. The direct effect of this I believe was an explosion of imaginative writing, story-telling, the ability of word formation, etc.
Let’s understand the basic definitions of these terms:
“Ritual”: A solemn ceremony consisting of a series of actions performed according to a prescribed order.
“Routine”: A sequence of actions regularly followed.
Rituals Pay!
(Maybe debatable but) many of us might have noticed that
- Rituals performed after experiencing losses of loved ones do alleviate grief
- Rituals performed before high-pressure tasks — like singing in public — do in fact reduce anxiety and increase people’s confidence
Routines Pay!
- If you put in 10000 hours doing something, then you ultimately become the master of that ‘something’
- If you survive 1000 days in a business, then the chances of this business succeeding get very high
Tada 🎉
As I think about it in retrospect, it is precisely the rituals-n-routines of the right things that enable an individual (and a company) to grow from strength to strength…ethically and responsibly.
Rituals-n-Routines & NonStop
As a team, we try and adopt the following practices as rituals-n-routines in our day-to-day work (some with great success and some still getting there 🙂)
1. Respect the calendar
This basically stems from the idea that every one of us has 24 hours of the day and not a second more. Each one of us tries to fit in everything that one does, and wishes to do in these 24 hours. No one likes to wait in an e-meeting room for someone who is most of the time late, unprepared, and unapologetic. A solution that works almost all times is a series of steps
a. Prepare your work-calendar for the week every weekendb. Everyday before wrapping up check your calendar for the next dayc. If you've accepted a calendar invite, then make sure you showup on time. Try your best never to keep someone waiting if you've accepted an invite!d. If for some reason you're unable to join a meeting on time, then do apologisee. If you're regularly missing the start of the meetings, then it might be introspection time! Talk with someone who is attends meetings on time, and see if you can learn how they do it.f. Do not multi-task when it comes to meetings. It doesn't help anyone, and you end up losing credibilityg. Always go prepared for a meeting. Do your self-study before you step in to that demo, code review, or sprint planning discussionh. Lastly, do empathise with someone who might join late...you never know what might've happened to that person which resulted in him/her joining in late!
Just as login on time, do make sure that you logout on time as well. There is much more to life, and one must pursue it by all means.
2. Respect yourself and your work environment
Understand that your respect towards work is evident from the way you treat yourself when you start working. This includes the environment you set up for your work. If you are in an unprepared-n-unkempt environment, then the chances of you finding the inspiration, calm, and positivity to create something beautiful diminishes. Things that should help are —
a. Ensure you are well equipped to work from home (good system, internet connection, power backup etc.)b. Do not ignore the ergonomics. It is important that you care for posture, lighting. Probably a good chair+table is a good investmentc. A cluttered desk is a distraction...clean up your desk every night before you stop working, so that you can start fresh the next dayd. Have something that inspires you to do your best in front of your eyes (a poster, a planter, etc.)
3. Respect your teammates
There are many ways to do this. At NonStop it includes
Communication
- Choose the most high-context communication medium available
- A lot gets lost in translation when you don’t have visual cues; hence, use video conferencing whenever possible
- Be vocal in the meeting. Express your nodding in an audible way. This is important feedback to the speaker.
- Be extra attentive in the standup meetings
Pro tip: Set the option to video muted/off as the default — then manually enable them once you join a meeting. It can help avoid a few facepalms.Call out good the work
Every now-n-then someone from the team achieves that something special milestone. As teammates (and especially as leaders) it is important that we identify and call it out. Apologize
When you realize that you're at fault, apologize. Remember: There is no winner in the war egos.Say 'Thank You'
You've no idea how much of a confidence booster a simple "Kudos | Awesome | Thank you" can give. Try it!Listen
Sometimes someone wants you to just listen to them...nothing more. Guide
Sometimes someone wants you to just nudge them a little in the right direction...comply :)
4. Respect your code/work
At NonStop this starts with having CleanCode. This includes things like —
1. Repo to have a detailed README
2. While working on repos, always work on your/dev branch
3. Have meaningful usernames (even in dev envs)
4. Unit-tests for any feature you design/develop/deploy
5. Logging (INFO/ERR/WARN/…) for any code you write
6. Error-handling for any feature you develop
7. Every code-block to have inline-comment
8. Searching/listing should be paginated. In case of special cases where such pagination is not possible: Mention the same in inline-comments
9. Think about performance/load-balancing/analytics etc.
10. Keep track of user-hierarchies in the application
11. Have a standard/reusable Authentication/Authorisation mechanism— — —
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit.” — Aristotle
There are so many things as an individual and as a team, we start enthusiastically and then give up almost immediately. However, I’ll always make it a point to educate-n-reeducate (myself and) my team about the principles of ‘Rituals-n-Routines’ from time-to-time 🙂
Peace ✌️
If you’ve liked what you read, then you might like the other stories in the series too:
- Ramaa’s Adventures & NonStop — Part 1 (The Mess)
- Ramaa’s Adventures & NonStop — Part 2 (Law of Wasted Efforts)
- Ramaa’s Adventures & NonStop — Part 4 (The Magic Words)
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