Dan Kim:

I have this weird character flaw — I have a clock in my head that’s always ticking. It’s a mechanism I’ve built up over the years because I hate wasting time.

In some ways this internal ticking clock is a really handy tool to have. It gives me a healthy respect for time, which means I’m rarely late, I’m generally pretty productive, and ship work in a timely manner.

And when it comes to shipping work, that mental clock can be really handy too. I always have a sense of how far along I am in my time budget — it sharpens focus and is an excellent tool for hammering scope. It’s a perfect way to find out if I can get 80% of the feature for 20% of the work.

On the flip side, the problem with the internal ticking clock is when things don’t go as planned. Sometimes I’ll spend a couple days of a two-week cycle exploring solutions for a problem, only to find that none of them work. All of a sudden I’m 20% into my time budget and no closer to a working solution or shipping the feature.

I can relate to this, actually I think most developers can relate to the internal ticking clock…