Last week, I skipped out on one attending a daily standup by posting a message to our channel…
“Too busy coding, trying to finish my work, skipping standup.”
This was 100% the truth, I was in the zone, I was coding like a fiend, and I wasn’t getting everything right but I was doing the work that was making an impact — progress was happening, the value was being generated, I could see the light at the end of the tunnel and it was no longer going to be an oncoming train.
Best of all, I was in a great mood for all I was working on, fixing, and doing.
The last thing I needed was a 30-minute discussion of what I was doing, and what others were doing and then leaving thinking “Well I’ve already stopped so might as well go and get a cup of tea”.
And no, coding during a meeting isn’t productive, your time is split, your focus drifts, it’s broken and you’re not able to do what needs to be done.
My comment got some laughs and then generated some discussion from others as to the work they needed to do and how they would love to keep doing it too.
When asked about it later, my response was simple — “This was a value-generating activity, that meeting isn’t.”
