Motivation Hack

Recently, I found myself in a productivity rut. The action plan was clear - I knew what to build. But I was not motivated to do the work, despite customers waiting at the door and setting myself a deadline. As a solo founder, I often find it hard to hold myself accountable.

I noticed myself skipping the actual work and gravitating towards the fun part: drafting the email I will send to my customers when the feature is ready.

Now, every morning, that email draft is staring at me from my inbox, silently motivating me to do the work so it can finally be released from captivity. I think it is the power of visualizing success in a more tangible manner - not just in my head or as a series of todo list items, but in a concrete email which will make a few hundred people happy.

Interestingly, I recently read somewhere that Amazon product experiments start off in a similar way. First, they come up with the PR pitch to customers, exactly how customers will experience it. Then they rally the troops to make it happen.

Anyways, hope this helps someone.