Impact charts

A little over a year ago, I was sitting in the doctor's office when she told me I had to stop and take a break. I was close to burning out, and now was the time to make changes. One thing that played a role in getting to that point was the feeling of juggling too many things at once. Something I think many people can relate to.

The idea of so many things "going on" was a major stress factor, and I had to learn how to better deal with that. So I took a piece of paper and wrote down everything that kept me busy: projects at work, hobby projects, some community projects I was working on in my free time, family, etc. It was a long list of "things on my mind". Here's an example, although the real list was twice or three times as long:

Writing this down already gave me some rest, but I felt like I needed more. Realistically, there was too much on this list, and I knew I had to make some choices. I had to learn to focus on a handful of things because this was simply too much.

Looking at my list, I wondered: "how do I choose?" Sure, "stop working" would have a huge impact on getting more time, but it would also have rather disastrous financial consequences. I had to find a way to sort this list based on multiple criteria.

So my next step was to write down these criteria or "metrics" that I found important enough to take into the equation. "Financial impact" was obvious, but I also wanted to know the impact of each project on my happiness and the amount of time it consumed. So a sketched a quick table:

Important to note here is that there is no fixed set of criteria. You choose whatever you feel is important enough. For this blog post, I simplified the example a bit. In my real one I also include "meaningful impact", for example.

Moving on, now it was a matter of rating every project for every impact category. I decided on a scale from 1 to 5: -- meant the biggest or most negative impact; - a little less; ± was neutral, and then there was +, and ++ as well for positive impact. I didn't have any strict rules on what each value meant, I figured I'd just start and see where I'd end up.

There was one issue, though: halfway through my ratings, I realized I wasn't completely honest. I was rating these projects based on what I wanted them to be, rather than what they actually were. So I took a new paper and started again, this time forcing myself to be truly honest. That wasn't easy to do, but eventually I ended up with this:

Now we were getting somewhere. For the first time in a long while, I felt like I got a proper overview of what was "going on", and I now had a way to prioritize it.

I took one more step: I gave each item an "average", or "overall" score. This wasn't an exact science because for some things — like my job — the financial impact weighed more than the impact it had on time. I first tried to sum everything up (-2, -1, 0, 1, and 2), but that sometimes gave an average that didn't feel right. So I did a second pass and adjusted the overall result wherever it felt off. I didn't have a formula for it, I just followed my gut:

With all data collected, I realized I didn't have any "personal projects" that had an overall positive impact. That's because all of them were still kind of connected to "work"; or at least to my role as a "known person in the PHP community" (I don't want to say "influencer" 😅)

This was a crucial realization: I had nothing on this list that I could do just to recharge. I had to add some things for me. So I decided to start singing classes and music school. It was something I had been wanting to do for years but never made time for. Something just for me. I also took up writing and wrote a sci-fi novel, just because I wanted to.

Next, I scratched one or two items from this list. Even though I had fond memories of many projects, I knew it was better to let go of some things so that I could better focus my energy and feel less overwhelmed. Sometimes it's ok to let go.

In the end, this list was such a small thing to do, it literally took ten minutes, but it had such a big impact. I now make a new list every couple of months. I note the date on each paper and keep them with me. It's interesting to see the list evolve over time: some projects come, others go. Some project's impact ratings change over time — for better or for worse — and it signifies that I might need to make changes.

It was such a small thing, but it helped so much. And I think it can help a lot of other people as well, which is why I wanted to write it down. I've started to call these "impact charts", but I'm sure I'm not the first one who came up with this idea.

After that sci-fi novel, by the way, I wrote a new book called "Things I wish I knew when I started programming", and impact charts are one of the items described in the book as well. You can always check it out if you're interested, I'm confident there are many other valuable lessons you can learn from it.

# In summary

Start by listing all your "things": work projects, hobbies, family obligations, whatever you feel fills your head.
Next, make a list of impact metrics that matter to you. For me those are: financial, time, happiness, and meaningfulness; but it could also include stuff like "growth opportunity", "physical health", "creativity', …
Rate each "thing" for each metric. Choose a simple system. Don't worry about trying to fit everything with a formula and follow your gut.
Be brutally honest while rating. It might even help you to commit burning your chart afterwards, so that you don't have to be afraid anyone sees it.
When everything's rated, do a second pass over each item and assign an average rating. You can choose to simply make it a sum of ratings, you could assign more weight to specific metrics, you could follow your gut. Up to you.
Once your chart is done, evaluate it. What needs to change? Do you need to drop something? Do you need to add something? Take action.
Repeat every couple of months. If you decide to not burn your charts, compare them over time.

Available now: my book "Things I wish I knew when I started programming". You can buy paperback or ebook versions today!