~/diary/Just Build
Updated Jul 5, 2021

🖊 Just Build Monday, Jul 5, 2021

For the last 6 months, the prime directive has been to explore. To boldly go where I’ve never been before.

I’ve chased all sorts of opportunities and ideas while fighting back the instincts telling me that such projects are dead ends, not feasible long term, not sustainable.

It’s been a lot of fun overall, and now that I’ve learned to suppress my inner voices of doubt, it is even more rewarding and enjoyable.

So it is probably time for a change. I don’t want to get too comfortable. The 6-months mark seems like a good time to draw a line and set a new heading.

In the next 6 months I’d like to build something. No more micro-projects and fun adventures. I’m ready for something big and complicated that will take hundreds of hours.

I am still going to ignore the financial angle and focus on project I love for one reason or another.

In the past months, I have not been able to really dig too deep into any of the ideas I’ve had. Too many other shiny things going by all day. Too many butterflies to chase.

I’ve read on some article I can’t recall: “Building while doing research is a fool’s errand. Do your research, then put your head down and build”.

This rings true and relevant. My current environment gives me 10 great ideas a day. And that’s both a blessing and a curse.

It’s time to end the expore and research phase, and start building.

Over the last month I tried something new inspired by Andreas Kling: Routine and habits are stronger than willpower.

I’ve already unknowingly experienced and taken advantage of this. For example: I workout every morning. It’s not because of the strength of my resolve. It’s because working out is deeply embedded in my routine. If I don’t do it, I feel guilty and miserable. It’s automatic, I don’t need to think about it. In other words, I am addicted to working out first thing in the morning (and that’s a great thing).

Over the last month, I’ve applied this mentality to a personal project that had been sitting in my list. I allocated 30 minutes a day to this activity. It worked out great! Even if the project is very low on my list of priorities, I ended up working on it 20+ hours, and I enjoyed every minute of it. The project looks great, and gets better every day.

Getting the ball rolling on a project has been difficult in the past. The bigger the project, the harder it is to get going (duh, inertia!).

I intend do narrow down to 3 projects. Then dedicate one full day a week to each project for 3 months.

In 3 months, I should have something to show. At the very least I hope to be moving on all 3 projects.

To be honest, 3 seems too much. I’m afraid with everything else going on in parallel, my focus will be too diluted. But as of now, I’m not able to let go of more.