Not when the plan will change, but know that the plan WILL change. It will change, and you will have to adjust and roll with it. Give yourself slush time, space, confidence, etc in all your estimates. And work from there. But go in, knowing this will change and you will have to adapt – that is the first step to not being controlled and beholden to the plan.
Not your sprint backlog. Not your work backlog. Your personal backlog, that big list of things rolling around in your head. Don’t let it grow uncontrolled. Don’t let it sit there collecting moss. Don’t let it take up rent in your mind. Clean it but, schedule the time, to think, ponder, and prune. And then move forward.
Problem-solving is a tough skill to learn. We think it’s easy because we were taught “Solve for X” but it’s not that easy (even if we do show our work). The best problem solvers, keep it the focus on the issue, the core and work on that and only that. They push out all the symptoms and noise so they can focus on the core. It’s not that the symptoms don’t matter, it’s that they…
If the same question is getting you the same answer – you’re good. If the same question is getting you different answers, there is a problem. Time to dig in and figure out what it is, because it should always be the same.
Probably, maybe not, depends on what that doing is and actually means. Doing something for the sake of doing something to say you are doing something isn’t contributing to what you’re doing. We always have the feeling of doing something, but sometimes it’s better to figure out what needs to be done before jumping in and doing it.