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| Photo Credit: Giampaolo Macorig |
So I downloaded Archi, an open source EA tool, and spent two hours learning the tool and drawing out the current designs of my life: my guiding vision, my key strategies, principles I go by, my processes, applications and technologies. It wasn't enough time for me to map out everything, but enough to let me get a sense of how I will use this and how to move this effort forward.
Like all EA efforts, it is impossible to draw out every single detail. I decided it is best to populate my "life architecture" bit by bit, driven by immediate needs I face. For example, if I plan to change the way I manage documents, I will go back to this architecture, add to it needed details and use it to decide what I need to do. However, I do plan to regularly spend time to reflect on different parts of the architecture, like how I can love my neighbor as myself or be always learning.
I am excited about my life architecting efforts as I believe it will give me greater clarity and focus in life, and it will help me understand EA better. I don't know if it will truly work out though, so I am seeking out people who had gone down this way before, in hope that I can learn from their experience. So if you have experience in this, or know of someone who do, please share that information with me.
Separately, without coordinating, my friend Kai wrote a similarly titled article "Architect Your Life". What is interesting there is he took rule of thumbs distilled from an architecting experience and applied it to architecting personal lives.
30 May 2012 Update: I have written a follow-up article to provide more details.
It would be nice to see the resultat :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing that, will see if I can share pieces of the architecture in the coming posts.
DeleteVery interesting. I think I will download Archi and try it too. =)
ReplyDeleteThanks Kai Siang. Now there is even more motivation for me to share how I am using Archi for this architecting my life.
DeleteRather than a tool itsself I think indeed it is a novel excecise to see a lot of things in life from EA Perspective, expecially "AS-IS" "TO-BE" and the "ROADMAP" elements. Every decisional process has these elements and be it short or long term, where you aim to be in a period of time is also very much applicable to people life - not only enterprise. This would be a novel excercise, and good luck with it !
ReplyDeleteHi Sidar, it has been an interesting exercise for me, and I am still continuing with it to learn more about it. One key benefit is really it forces me to "eat my own dog food", and gain a perspective on the usefulness of EA tools from the perspectives of my personal life.
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