For those of you who are not into software, unit tests are small test scripts/programs to check the health of software development. Unit tests are used to make sure that the code runs as expected and when you make changes you do not break anything that is already working. During development unit tests are regularly or whenever you change something.
This blog post from Edward O’Connor is an interesting twist on using the concept of unit testing to your daily life. There are a good way to make sure that you have a quick check on your progress in your personal development.
The way I see it, there are certain things I ought to be doing to be productive and effective no matter what my goals are. These are things that are relatively easy to set up, but take discipline and awareness to maintain. I really think that if I focus on maintaining these habits or processes, then the goals will take care of themselves.
Basically, I’ve made a list of personal unit tests: assertions about myself that I’d like to be true.
Your unit tests may vary. I think it is a great idea. Other related ideas triggered by this one:
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Version control of your goals (Edward already has done this for his Personal Unit Tests). Our goals change and it will be good to have a change log what changed and why. This is inspired by version control in software where you log the changes with a description on what and why you changed something.
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Tagging Personal Tests (some of them may be generic, applicable to a larger variety of people and some may be specific)
I enjoy reusing concepts across multiple domains and this is a great example.