First, get to where you need to be

November 2015 · 3 minute read

Last week is the first week since I started writing that I haven’t posted a single thing. I’m not yet sure how I feel about it. Clearly it’s concerning since I’m feeling the need to write about it now. People around me keep telling me that I work really hard (I don’t think that’s entirely true) and that it’s good to take a break sometimes, but I guess I’m just worried that if I do take a break, it might not be just that. It might be so nice to relax that it becomes permanent. I suppose there’s also the fact that I really can’t stop. Like really.

No matter what I do I just can’t not think. There’s no way to switch off and there’s so much going on all the time and I kind of feel like I’m running out of time because I really need to know everything about what I’m doing now. Maybe I’m just too impatient. But the really annoying thing is that I end up spending so much thinking about thinking  that I don’t actually do any doing. It would seem that thinking can perhaps be somewhat counter productive.

Anyway, it’s clearly time to narrow down my focus and all of my projects, to actually fully accomplish one thing before moving onto the next. I thought I could handle unlimited projects on the go at the same time, but now it’s quite clear that I need to just choose two and chuck the rest in a queue. There’s just so many things I want to learn and know and do, but I guess sometimes you need to be realistic about what’s practical. And right now, two projects is practical. Although, when I say that I know I’m actually secretly going to work on three… Maha, so secret.

First, get to where you need to be. When you’re there, then you can expand. And I know that these three key projects are a solid step in the right direction, which after a couple of jugs of beer I have solidly defined what that direction and current objective is. I’m relatively confident that if I can narrow my focus and stick to more realistic goals, I will be producing something pretty amazing in no time. Maybe even before the end of the year. Time now to smash out the simple stuff so I feel like I’ve done more and then chip away at the tricky bits.

I guess also to be realistic, some of the things I’m working on will eventually benefit all three projects and even more in the future. I think I need to stop discouraging myself by thinking “oh, it’s so much work” and “I’ve got so much to do, I’m not getting anywhere”. I mean, I built a website in 3 days having never done that before. Knowing that, I should be easily able to make big accomplishments in a reasonable time frame.

Today, the thinking stops and the doing begins. I’ll design a rough layout for the site I’m currently working on today, set up the dev env and slap together the bones. Tomorrow, I’ll work on customising the template and get it looking pretty for my client. By the end of the weekend, I should have an initial prototype ready to go. Sounds like one project down for the time being and a never list of research topics to carry on with.

Watch out for some more detailed reports relating to web development, technologies and structures coming your way this week!