In the last few weeks, we were hit by the flu. Many (including myself) have fallen before the mighty bug. Even after coming back from their sick bed, people have gone off for a second or even a third round. And lost.

And the few that remained on their feet, need to carry on with our development, support and sales efforts. You can imagine, how an half-empty office (a new populated one) is the new home for people running around trying to do quadruple work.

You may find it hard to believe, but it is also a source of pressure. Different people react differently to pressure, some better than others. But even those who welcome stress, are bound to lose the one thing keeping them honest – discipline.

Discipline is what helps us stick to processes – those we believe brings us value.

It’s very easy to miss stand-up meetings, when you’re running around from one meeting to another. Yet, those short meetings are the ones where we can find assistance from peers.

It’s very easy to not put on the kanban board support tasks, and just handle them “invisibly”. Yet if we put the tasks on the board, we’ll actually advertise how bad the situation is, and can get help.

It’s very easy to skip writing tests, and skip running them, instead go head long into cowboy coding. Yet, if we wrote the tests, we’d actually catch the bugs we’ll enter. When we’re under pressure, chances are we’ll make more mistakes. Tests will catch them.

It’s really easy to jump into freestyle. We can always justify it – not enough time, not enough people. And don’t get me started about the government. But if we have enough discipline, we can actually get ahead. It’s not as easy – but it’s much more valuable.

(This post is dedicated to its writer – Gil, remember: DISCIPLINE).

Gil Zilberfeld