Automate Your Business

Archive for May, 2007

A question that pops up time and time again in forums, newsletters, and blogs, goes something like the following:

“People say the best advice is to work on one thing at a time. But when pressed, everyone who is successful says they work on multiple projects at once. What gives?”

Well, there are two useful ways of looking at this. At least, two ways that I’ve found useful. You might agree or disagree.

The first way: Focus on one task at a time.

If they are writing an article, they sit down and write that article until they are finished. They don’t write three lines, then read their email, then write another paragraph, then have a look at that latest WordPress plugin, and so on.

But when they’ve finished that task, their next task might be on a completely unrelated project.

The second way: Work on one project at a time.

This is where I’m starting to move towards. I’ve got or had a number of projects on the go at any one time recently:

1. Release Stay On Focus 1.0
2. Release the fix for the missing Stay On Focus icon issue
3. Release “toast” 1.0 (application name still to be defined)
4. Release RSS Promoter 2.0
5. Launch MostPopularPlugins.com
6. Release The File Tagger 1.0
7. Get The File Tagger 2.0 to beta testers
8. Progress my test “monthly strategies” project (more on this in the future)
9. Release IdeaBoost 1.0

And to an extent, I’ve done this via the “one task at a time” approach, with the result that some of these are incomplete or took longer than I wanted.

But I used the “one project at a time” method for MostPopularPlugins.com – the work for that was done in one day, including writing a custom plugin.

And I started to use the “one project at a time” method for the IdeaBoost software, when I’ve realised that some of those projects are incomplete, and need finishing.

So, I’ve come up with a hybrid system. Or, more accurately, a refinement of the second method:

The third way: Work on one project at a time and don’t deviate from that project until you can’t do anything yourself.

This is the way I’ll be working now. Working on one project until I can’t do anything else. So for the “toast” software, I’ve totally outsourced development, and now all I can do is sit back and wait for the developer to do his stuff, whilst I switch to another project: the Stay On Focus bugfix.

I’ll write the bugfix myself, so I can work on that until it’s complete and released to the user base.

Then, when I’ve released that bugfix, I’ll have nothing to do until some users have upgraded and tested it. So I’ll go to work on Stay On Focus The File Tagger 2.0, for which I’ve got a potentially huge joint venture deal brewing in the background.

Once I’ve released that to the JV partner for review, and whilst I wait for his feedback, I’ll work on the RSS Promoter technical manual I need to write.

When I’ve done that (which again is done only by me), I’ll move back onto Most Popular Plugins and release the details of it’s plugin to the various plugin directories.

Then, whilst those submissions are under review, I’ll start watching the training videos which I need to for my “monthly strategies” project.

And when I’ve watched them, I’ll come back to “toast” and continue the launch.

And so on.

Do multiple tasks on one project until:

A) You have completed the project and have no more tasks to do
B) You are waiting for someone else to do the next task
C) You are waiting for feedback from someone before you continue

The “gotchas” with this method are:

A) Have a definite end-point. I know what the terms “release” and “launch” mean. They relate to a checklist I’ve written for releasing software and launching sites. Once I’ve done that checklist, the product is officially released or the website is officially launched. Of course, they might not be successful, but then I add follow-on projects to promote the product/website, in very specific ways, and each of those projects have definite end-points.

B) Make sure that whilst you are waiting for someone else, there is TRULY nothing you can do. For example, whilst I’m waiting for the developer to write my “toast” application, I COULD work on the sales page, sales process, etc, but to be honest, that product is low on my priorities so I’ll work on the other products that will actually make a difference to the bottom line.

But the trick here is to CONSCIOUSLY make that decision. My thoughts are: I’ll delay work on “toast” until I’ve watched those training videos. Not: I’ll delay work on “toast” till later. Nor: “I’ll write the sales page for toast… oh, what’s the URL for those videos? ah, there it is…. Ooooh, that one sounds interesting, I’ll just watch that one for now….”

Focus. Focus. Focus.

If you’ve download Stay On Focus, you might have found that after you reboot your PC, the up/down/delete icons don’t appear.

Unfortunately, this is a bug. One I missed since I rarely reboot my PC; it stays on all the time.

However, I’m working on a solution, and hope to have the upgrade available shortly. In the meantime, you can exit the application and re-start it, and the icons will re-appear. My apologies for the inconvenience.

I’ve started a little side-project which I hope will take off, to measure the most popular in use WordPress plugins.

Of course, there is a service that I’ll be kicking off on the back of this, and I’m using this free (and always free) “most popular plugins” site to gather some data on the plugins in use. Plus, I can give something back to the great WP community by sharing things like:

* Overall most popular plugins
* Most popular this week
* Fastest risers
* Fastest droppers
* New entries

etc.

I gather the data via a simple plugin that simply allows you to submit a list of all the plugins you’ve got installed and active.

If you’d like to participate, see Most Popular Plugins.

There’s a great post by Shoemoney on prioritizing profitable projects. The “fun factor” is one thing I try to avoid. The other is “problem solving”. It’s easy for me as a software developer to get an idea, and start working on a proof-of-concept (a quick and dirty piece of code that does the complex piece of function, but doesn’t have all the easy “been there, done that” pieces, and certainly doesn’t look nice).

Before I know it, a day has gone by and I’ve got the proof-of-concept for something I might not even use, and another project that is live or almost live hasn’t been updated.

Hence:

Oops. I accidentally published some advice on remaining focused as a private post. It wasn’t meant to be. I’ve now made it public.