I find it hard to focus on one idea. Any ideas?

External pressure is absurdly helpful. For example…

• supporting actual users who are making feature requests and sending customer support requests
• sending a weekly newsletter that you've committed to
• reporting progress to a co-founder
• reporting progress to a mentor, advisor, or investor that you respect
• having to pay rent every month while not having a job

In other words, inject other people into this process, and make sure they're people that you either respect, or feel obligated to listen to, or really want to impress. It can't just be your mom or random strangers.

What also helps here is taking small bites. Don't work on projects that require months of work to launch. Pare down your SLC to something you can build and launch in a few days. That way you can get other people involved as soon as possible, before you stop getting distracted.

Shiny object syndrome never goes away, by the way. In fact, when you've got a complex product and thousands of users, it only gets worse, because you'll have even more ideas coming your way. So it's always important to have a north star and to have people holding you accountable to it.

Hello,

I have a similar problem. I am making mobile games for a living. It is hard to keep yourself in the trend loop because the game market is evolving so fast because of that I try to take a look at new games every morning. It brings so many ideas, features while I am working on a game. Sometimes I find myself working on a new idea before finishing the one I am working on. I solved it by separating my day into different working hours. Now I try to work on the side projects after the work hour for 1-2 hours a day or I am spending my time working on that side project on weekends. It helps me relax while working on my main project. I don't know why but trying new things refreshes my mind.

Maybe you can try something like that. Good luck with your projects.

Oh boy. I run into "shiny object syndrome" all the time. Knowing that you can build something is a real pain when it's something you love to do. What steers me away is the memory of a thousand failed projects due to shiny object syndrome. Sadly it is also what contributes to many technical founders giving up too early on their current projects.

Some people also probably see it as a safety blanket if their current project has hit a point of difficulty (usually in sales/marketing). The thought of "Oh, I'll just do this other thing that'll be MUCH easier to sell to a MUCH larger audience!" usually creeps in, and you end up locking yourself away for several weeks/months and running into the same problems down the road.

TLDR; Just force yourself past it. Write the idea down, research it in your spare time, but stay focused on the prize. Talk openly about your current idea, share the struggles, you might find that the feedback also keeps you motivated to keep trudging.

-- Jimmy

I'm having a hard time concentrating on one idea to follow it through. Have you had the same problem?
I had the same problem before until I found my idea that was the quintessence of all my ideas. As soon as you find something like that you are free of any new idea (I mean they will come but will not distract you). But it's not easy.
Good luck.