Driving lessons II: Medium wins

I passed with full marks for my driving theory test the other day. It felt great! My steps felt light and triumphant after that, and for many hours after. It felt like a real win, something I worked hard for and was rewarded with. The surprising thing was how motivating that felt, in much the same way like getting my first customer. This is despite the test not being personally special in any way. It was just something I needed to do to get my driving license.

It got me thinking… why don’t I do this more often for indie hacking?

The point of this post isn’t about passing tests. It’s how to gamify things, construct medium wins to sustain motivation.

A few components to this medium win:

• I had to work hard for it for a period of time, but not too long. Maybe 1-2 month.
• the lead-up to a test date, a deadline, a launch date, is the key mechanism
• every day I read up, did trial tests, learning bit by bit
• eventually consistently getting passes or even full marks
• then catharsis after achieving good results on test day

Compared to how I just do my small code commits every day. But it doesn’t lead to any deadline, no gearing towards medium wins. I’m just feeding a black hole of hope and expectations. It’s not enough to just have small wins daily. I need medium wins along the way too. Make it more specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound—the S.M.A.R.T. classic.

Small commits leading to a medium win. Stack a few medium wins to a big goal.

I need to do this more!