Basecamp: Chapter 1
Welcome to the Rangr Basecamp: the weekly newsletter where the Rangr team provides our perspective of creating a startup, tricks and tips we use, and the things that inspire us.
Hello Camprs !
No… you are at the right place, but this will be different from the weekly Rangr Outpost newsletter. We have been listening! The Rangr team is excited to launch something called the Rangr Basecamp: the weekly newsletter spotlighting the challenges of building a startup, tricks we use to solve hard problems, and the many things that inspire us. Don’t worry, the Rangr Outpost will still come straight to you every week on Thursday!
The Lesson of the Week:
Timeboxing
As the team creates more and more parts of the product, we realize that there is always so much to do all the time. I personally have tried a couple of different methods to speed up my tasks, tackle a bit more than I can chew, and overall stress myself a little bit more. I discovered the method of Timeboxing has been the most helpful for me in creating the necessary parameters to accomplish tasks on time.
What Is Timeboxing?
Apparently, I’m not the only one that realized that timeboxing is super useful ( check out the HBR report here). Essentially timeboxing means you would set a previously chunk of time for a single activity. For example, say that I want to read a book, instead of just having a task that says read a book in your checklist, I could timebox exactly one hour to finish two chapters. By doing this, you will feel a bit of pressure and a sense of urgency to accomplish the task in that time timeslot. This allows you to schedule out your day with tasks respectfully of the time previously allotted to them.
What are the advantages?:
We are very visual creatures. Compared to a simple to-do list, timeboxing on a calendar visualizes where the tasks exist in your day. This creates a simple way for you to see what you have to do in a day at a glance.
We become more intentional. By translating your tasks into a measurement of time, you can objectively see if you can accomplish your tasks throughout the day or if you need to schedule time another day to accomplish it. Don’t we all wish there were 48 hours in a day?
Tomorrow never comes. I personally have this habit of pushing things off till tomorrow, such as I will learn how to play this french horn tomorrow. Unfortunately, the next day I repeat the same saying until I am now in my mid-30s with an unused french horn, but according to Parkinson’s law, if I believe I have more time then my actions will expand to fill the uncertain amount of time. By timeboxing, I create a finite amount of time to accomplish something such as say 1 hour of french horn practicing.
Here are some videos that inspired me to write about timeboxing!
Inspirations of the week
Article - I have been using Design Thinking and Lean Methodology multiple times and in various scenarios that I slowly merged the two similar thought processes. This article gave some clear visual clarifications such as Design Thinking is great when you want to tackle a broad problem compared to the Lean Startup methodology works better on focused customer segments. How to Act like a Startup by IDEO’s Octopus. - Richard
Book - Have you ever wondered how certain startups felt like they were on rocket fuel? Zero to One by Peter Thiel goes deep into how the best way to create a startup is based on contrarian truths which means betting on things that most people think are the opposite such as getting into a strangers car for Uber or staying at a stranger’s home at Airbnb. - Yuma
Fun yet Interesting Video - Have you ever wondered why you end up walking out of your local grocery store with way more than you thought you would get walking in? Well, one of my favorite channels Food Theory, has just the theory video for you.
Also, Mandalorian Season 2 is out