Every year toward the end of September, I get anxious about the falling leaves. This year, I applied my Application Security (AppSec) knowledge to hopefully improve my efficiency in the cleanup process.
Step 1
I broke my lawn up into zones based on how likely it is to be seen from the street. I figured my Chic, Intelligent, and Strongly Opinionated wife (or CISO for short) would agree that it’s a waste of time to remove leaves that were not visible from the street. After presenting the zoned approach to my CISO, she determined that I still needed to remediate the entire lawn regardless of curb appeal.
Step 2
I carefully inventoried all the leaves and separated them based on if they fell from my trees (1st party) or my neighbors’ trees (3rd party). This step took much longer than anticipated, and my neighbors refused to take their leaves back, so this again was largely a waste of time.
Step 3
I then created five sub-piles based on the criticality of the leaves. I used the following logic:
- Brown = Critical (most likely to decay)
- Red = High
- Orange = Medium
- Yellow = Low
- Green = Informational (least likely to decay)
Step 4
Since steps 1 through 3 took much longer than expected, I decided to focus my remaining efforts on only the medium and above severity piles. I burned the Brown pile, I used my hands to load the Red pile into individual paper bags, and I raked the Orange pile into the woods. I figured since the Yellows and Greens weren’t as likely to ruin my grass, I just left them for next year when I have more time.
Step 5
I mowed my lawn. This also took more time than usual because I had to maneuver around my Low and Informational piles.
Results
My CISO was disappointed with how little I accomplished after spending the entire fall coming up with strategies to prioritize work. She also informed me that my Low and Informational piles are now turning Critical.
Lesson learned
Next year I am planning to skip steps 1-4 and invest in tooling that allows me to remove leaves while mowing.
