Sip of Water

The problem with having new found happiness from breaking free from my corporate shackles, is now I have all this stuff I have been wanting to do piled on my desk and they are unfortunately out of snow shovels I hear here(I think that’s one of those big words I learned in English class) in Vancouver.

When your budget is sparse and you’re a one person shop with not enough hours in a day or days in the week, you can get what appears to be little to no work completed if you are working on several projects at once. At least, this is how I am was feeling even when keeping track of exactly what was being done so I can see that I have accomplished work on these projects.

I have been trying to carve out specs for one of my projects for about two years now. That might sound like a long time but keep in mind, I had a full-time job up until a few months ago getting in the way and am now a stay-at-home Dad. The plus side is that I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do; I just need the motivation, time and tenacity to sit and hammer out ALL the code for it. All these requirements, where to start!?

Overcoming Overwhelmed - Tip #1: Narrow Focus
Pick a piece of the project and get it launched!

If you feel like you’re stuck in the mud with no product or service to launch in sight, sit down and pick ONE piece of the project, work on it, make it as good as you can (notice I don’t say great), and get it launched!

Previously, I was feeling very overwhelmed with the amount of work needing done on this project. I have narrowed focus to write one feature of the application, get it launched, and work with the feedback to help improve the application before adding more features. (I feel it’s implied but will state explicitly that obviously the one piece of the project you pick needs to be a big enough piece for you to have a functional product or service to launch.)

Feedback is crucial to improving your product or service and you are the worst enemy when it comes to critiquing your work – especially the design aspect. By at least getting something out the door, you can start reworking and perfecting that aspect of your product or service. The emotional boost from launching will help to build confidence, motivation, and in turn, your productivity to help get the next features completed.

You may wonder how I came to a decision as to what to choose as the one feature to be working on. For me it was somewhat of an easy decision which may not be the case for everyone. The one piece I am working on is essentially the engine for the entire application I am writing in object-oriented PHP 5 which will allow me to more easily add features in the future. I would rather be able to launch the application in full, but at least by first launching this feature, I will start to feel less overwhelmed because part of the application has now been launched and will be in the tweaking stage.

Feeling overwhelmed when first being presented with a problem is a natural reaction that most people feel. What “separates the men from the boys” is in how you methodically spec and scope out the project. Are you one who always tackles a project as a whole? Can you do that without feeling overwhelmed? Or do you break the project down into smaller, more manageable chunks? Does this help you to feel more in control and less overwhelmed? Share your challenges and wins in overcoming overwhelmed.

I have been looking back the last couple of days to find a list of 5 things that helped me to push forward out of the “swamp” and get work accomplished in 2007.

1. Threw out my To-Do lists

This came at the recommendation of my counsellor and was probably the best advice she gave me all year. Skeptical of the advice, I did it anyways. I went through my to-do lists looking at them to see if I should hang onto them or not. Almost all of them got thrown out!

When making my to-do lists, I now ask myself how it will benefit me in the future. If you’ve read David Allen’s “Getting Things Done”, then you know you should be writing down everything freeing up your “psyche RAM”. Being the person I am, I have a LOT of business ideas that go through my head and I try to jot them down. While it’s great freeing up my brain, it’s also adding to the overwhelming “Holy chit, I have a lot of work piling up!” I still write everything down, whether or not I hold onto those items is another matter.

2. Found discipline while working

I think the worst part about working on the Internet as a career, is all the distractions! IM, blogs, forums, websites, social networks, games - so many other things I could be doing other then working. Because the goal is to make money off my websites, I have started getting in the habit of asking myself, “Will (or how will) this help me make money?” when working on tasks during my work sessions. When I find myself answering, “No” or “It won’t”, I simply close that tab in my browser window.

I used to mix work/play and have had to separate the two so that I actually get work accomplished. I have a 22″ widescreen LCD hooked up to my 17″ widescreen laptop. On one screen, I have my distracters, on the other, my productors (is that a word?). I work off the screen that doesn’t have the taskbar blinking new IM’s, emails, and all those other distracting “hey over here!!!” type alerts that kill productivity. The distracting LCD stays out of my line of sight by not having the monitors right beside one another and I have been contemplating putting even more space between them.

3. Quit reading and started Doing

You can write a comprehensive step-by-step guide on exactly how to make money and give it away free but less then 10% of those who read it will even try it let alone accomplish the goal of making that money. Why? Because the majority of people in life are followers and not doers (not to mention lazy). It is surprising how many people out there want it handed to them on a silver platter without having to do any work - let alone spend money doing it.

For more then five years now, I have spent countless hours reading blogs, forums, and websites on various ways to make money online and know there are countless others doing the same. Not many actually put the effort into utilizing the information they have acquired (including myself) doing the work required to be a successful web entrepreneur. You cannot make money online when you are not doing anything! My biggest stumbling block (as I’m sure you can tell from this blog) is in writing content. I plan on overcoming this hurdle in 2008 and will blog in the future about how. Since I have stopped reading and started doing, I have gotten a lot more work done.

4. Got (more) organized

I am surely not the only one who has bits and pieces of paper and projects all over the place. Early last year, I bought a box that I could fit letter sized folders for my project documentation. I also bought a smaller hard box that I can fit a handful of folders I don’t want damaged while in my backpack. I posted recently about my lil’fat notebook where I am keeping track of what I am doing, when, and for how long so that I can look to see that I am getting work done which helps to keep me motivated. I also have binders for project documentation that won’t fit in a file folder or two - such as my Sports Card Collecting application I am writing. I have upcoming infrastructure I plan on implementing to help me get even more organized which I will also be blogging about in upcoming posts.

5. I quit my job

It’s official. I quit my job on New Years Eve of 2007!

I am an entrepreneur, have the entrepreneurial mindset, and love simplicity. I consider myself to be a great business person, developer, analyst, and problem solver. Two things I am most passionate about are business and technology. Although the majority of my almost decade long career in IT has been primarily within a Microsoft shop, I have never fully bought into their products; however, I do understand and see their place in the market. I am sure you can imagine how a passionate open source PHP developer is received in a Microsoft shop!

Before you start asking how much money I am making online to have been able to quit my job, I should tell you that I’m making literally pennies a day at this point. There are several reasons surrounding my resignation from my job but the one I will make public, is because my partner will be doing her Doctorate in Kelowna, BC (about 4-6 hour drive from Vancouver) and there are no options for me to transfer. I have been a stay at home Dad now since my son was born at the end of September and will be until some time in May when my parental benefits are exhausted, hopefully my partner will be teaching up at UBC, and hopefully I will be making enough money to pay my bills so I don’t have to go back to work full-time.

This is leaving me with five months to start making money online with my websites. Stay tuned to see how many variations of KD I can come up with to feed our family come summertime