Something always happens
jasonleow • 15 Sept 2024 •
Something is always happening to pull you away from your dreams.
I’ve been feeling inspired to build something new, but just over the last two weeks, things just keep happening to pulls me back. Accidents, change in routine, hospital visits, stuff at home.
Life just happens.
Not blaming. It is what it is.
But I feel frustrated by this Murphy’s Law. I need to set up a system where I can ship even on my worst days, on days where something happens.
The best habits are not the habits that you will do on your good days, on days when you got free time and feeling motivated. The best habits are the ones you will do even on your worst days, when you’re feeling discouraged, unmotivated, and everything else is pulling you away from the thing you wish to do:
- Starting work at 5am every day is one. Nothing happens this early.
- Working a bit on weekends is another. Even the universe takes weekend breaks.
- Being able to take my work on the road, on mobile, with a light portable laptop.
- Identifying and stealing little pockets of time that frequently pops up during the day for small tasks.
The key seems to be having a plan on a validated idea, break up the tasks into chunks suitable for 1-2h of work, and consistently grind on it till it takes off.
Most important key word: “Validated”.
Before I get there, I need more consistent experimentation not grinding that I can do in daily chunks.
Explore in chunks, then exploit in chunks.
Experiment widely, validate, then focus deeply.
Comments
I feel you. Even good occasions (e.g. having a wedding to attend) throws me off for the rest of the day. I think it’s because our work is not in the place we want it to be and so we feel compelled to throw most of our time and attention on it.
It might help to think: How can I spend my available chunks of time in a way that makes me happy with what I’ve accomplished today?
I often do never-ending work (example: planning content to produce, which leads to more ideas as I plan). At the end of the day I feel like I’ve not accomplished anything because there was never a finish line to cross. So I’m thinking about adding some kind of finish line for my days.
agreed, things always happen, how to handle it without affect your momentum become important and I keep failed on it.
@drodol I gear you re: skill issue. I’m not much of a coder myself too, and most ideas other than simple CRUD apps feels hard for me. But I guess it’s also a scoping issue? If we can scope it down to something simple for a start, perhaps it’s easier to ship faster?
@haideralmosawi Oh yes, I NEVER feel satisfied at the end of the day. I can count maybe once or twice I felt that way in the past year. Setting finish lines is a discipline and practice
@knight Yeah bro, you know this well. Very hard to predict when got kids and family to take care of…
That last sentence is killer 🥷
For me, in order to experiment widely, I feel I need to be able to “ship fast”, else I’m stuck with a skill-based issue.
Sure, AI is there to help, but my guess is unless I find that “personal boilerplate and stack”, experimentation will always be stifled by incompetence (and “life getting in the way”)