How do you stay focussed on 1 project at a time?
👋 Hello IH!
I often find myself losing a lot of motivation towards the end of development when my project is finally coming together, this could be because I've had another idea, I've burnt out, or I'm constantly thinking of new ways to make it better without ever adding a real stopping point for launching and as a result I'm left with a bunch of half developed features.
My latest example, I built sellfiles.net - I'd not really done any marketing, if any, but I couldn't quite bring myself to properly launch it without feeling as though there are always going to be bigger competitors out there to swamp me. So I started on something new.
I built a money management site, and then I built a money management app that uses the site's API to function. All pretty cool, but I never really wanted to launch it or try to make money off it, that was just for me.. and I even lost interest in that.
After 3 or 4 months, I've come back to SellFiles, rebranded it (previously Sellfolio), redesigned it, and made it a paid-only service (due to issues with PayPal's terrible API).. but I don't want to lose motivation again.
How do you managed to focus on 1 project at a time without losing motivation? How do I know I won't lose motivation when I eventually come to launch it, if I get to that point?
I'm using three tools that help me with this. One is my Lean Canvas, which describes the business I'm trying to build. Everything on there is a hypothesis, and so it is essentially a todo list of things which need to be proven or falsified. Second, I have a Trello board for the business, which lists the tasks that I need to do to get to the next milestone. I try to question everything one there: Does it really have to be done? Is the way I'm thinking of doing it really the fastest way to achieve the milestone? Third is my 6-week goals. I try to always have a 6-week goal in play that I'm trying to hit (as well as a 6 month and 6 year goal). Having these focusses me on getting to the outcome. It sounds like you are enjoying building products but not keen on moving to the marketing stage. Perhaps you could consider making yourself a goal of getting 10 (?) customers in the next 6 weeks, then write up a list of everything you'll need to do to achieve that goal. Then, just start executing on the list! Having a goal with a deadline, even one you've just made up yourself, is surprisingly motivating.