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How do you know you’ve done enough?
I struggle with this.
You always have tasks to do. Things to improve .
How do you say enough?
I’m not working more today or this week.
I feel it’s hard to balance. I don’t want to work all the time. I can’t. Otherwise I burn out. Tried that before.
But then I always feel like I haven’t done enough. Which gives some sense of FOMO.
Have you found any solutions for this?
You always have tasks to do. Things to improve .
How do you say enough?
I’m not working more today or this week.
I feel it’s hard to balance. I don’t want to work all the time. I can’t. Otherwise I burn out. Tried that before.
But then I always feel like I haven’t done enough. Which gives some sense of FOMO.
Have you found any solutions for this?
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I don't think my opinion is valuable here, as I launched only one project for now and didn't earn anything yet.
There are 10 tasks in To Do, and 10 more in Ideas for this project.
A couple of weeks ago, I had an internal conversation about the functionality I expect from this app and formed the To-Do list that shouldn't expand until I start making money.
In general, it feels like you just need to have a clear and definite vision of the product and not add new work until it is proven needed.
Right. But
#ecommerce is already doing quite well - so it's hard to have this constraints. Because whatever limit I set will be arbitrary. I could write 1 blog article, 5, or 10 this week - completely arbitrary. But different outcomes in the end.
Yes, makes sense.
It looks like at this stage it is a good idea to measure impact over the time.
Data might look random on a short period, but reveal a trend on a longer distance.
Generally, my idea is similar to the one Cat proposed here, but I formulated it worse :)
well that's 2 people on the same trend then, guess it means something :D already wrote down OKRs though! thanks :D
Nope. I haven't found a solution to not feel that internal drive to do more...but I don't think that drive is a bad thing. I wouldn't be "me" without that inner fire for MORE.
If I feel like I have to find balance in the micro (each day finding balance), I will surely fail. My brain simply doesn't work like that. ADHD means I get hyperfocused and obsessed with what I'm working on, sometimes working for 18-hour days or longer -- and that's okay.
I look at balance in the macro scale. My interests might shift wildly in the long term, and there will be periods where I'll crave restful activities over extreme productivity, but if you look at it from the viewpoint of months and years, it's actually fairly balanced (or what I feel is balance).
You just need to find what balance and "rest" mean to you (you don't have to listen to what everyone else says is balance or restful) and take a macroscopic view instead of trying to find balance every day or every week (if a week still feels too short for you).
As far as "doing enough" -- if you mean for a specific project, then make a clear goal with clear outcomes. I like OKRs because they inform and drive decisions/actions really well. You're working toward something specific and meaningful, so you're not adding work for the sake of adding work. It's focused.
If you mean overall you don't feel like you're doing enough (as in you're creating lots of projects and it doesn't feel enough), zoom WAY out and ask why you're creating the projects you're creating. Make some goals for your life. What, exactly, are you working toward? Is everything you're doing moving you closer to those things? These don't have to (and shouldn't be) limited to just work. Include some life goals (like for example, I'm working on becoming a hyperpolyglot, which has nothing to do with work, and learning languages happens to be one of my "restful" activities).
@matosdfm ⬆︎⬆︎⬆︎
Super well thought answer, thank you Cat!
Yeah, in the "macro" my life is great - it's exactly as I envisioned it! So in that regard I'm fine.... I guess the problem is also that if you work on a business, you need to kinda keep feeding it right? So I need to add new things. Otherwise it'll decline. I think.
Still, I never thought of using OKRs - I'll experiment with that. think it might. Then I'll know exactly what I?m working towards! Thank you! :D
@matosdfm finally able to come back to this.
Challenge your assumptions here. Why do you feel like you need to keep feeding a business to keep it afloat?
Not saying that that's wrong, but are you just putting in inputs for the sake of putting in inputs (what most people do)? Or are you getting direct feedback from customers/clients saying something isn't working or they want more of a good thing?
(I only upgraded my systems to include Basecamp because I had enough tasks fall through the cracks and got feedback that my process wasn't as good as I thought it was. But if I spent hours tweaking something that didn't needed to have been tweaked, I could've wasted time and resources.)
I think your OKRs are on the right track...if they're the highest leverage activities first.
Maybe an unpopular opinion: I think it's okay for a business to coast, so long as everyone is happy and things are running smoothly.
It gives you a chance to sit back in the visionary role of your entire brand as a whole (not just your product/service) and see what you'd like to grow.
i see your point - it's valid. maybe i should give more context.
#ecommerce is actually growing quite nicely - i have cold emails working, I have between 1 to 3 new sales calls per week, so it's doing alright. but i was doing the DFY plan which really raised my revenue but 1) i don't like it 2) it distracts me from the core product 3) it's unpredictable and 4) concentrates revenue on a few clients which makes biz unstable
so if the above things didn't happen, i'd coast along - it grows automatically, nice revenue, why bother? but i decided to kill the DFY plan, which means I'm back at where i started haha but for good reasons. So while customers aren't saying something is broken - they're happy - i feel i need to work on the biz to create new channels to bring in new customers. New customers -> more revenue -> eventually I'll reach a point where I'll be able to coast.
so i guess in the end i'm trying to do what you say! work on this, create a new acquisition channel, so it can keep feeding itself without my constant 24/7 oversight - or at least minimal oversight.
bit of a ramble but writing this also helped me realize this is more of a "three month sprint to get the new channel working and then i can chill out", which feels calming. thanks! :D
Consistency and habits. Try to instill a minimum list of things to do every day unless for special days like vacation.
Mhhh. From that point of view I'm doing okay - i always do something every day, except ofc on days off. But how do you know if that's enough to achieve your goals?
You don't. But you try to do load more (again, as a habit, not via ad-hoc sheer force of will) if you reasonably can. The critical part is to keep going at it.
makes sense. just show up every day, make sure you work on effective things and not BS, and it'll grow, eventually. i like it! thanks!
I struggle with this as well. Started building projects for fun and slowly wanted to make it as a proper business and earn good money from it. This made it less fun and like a chore I don't want to do anymore.
My latest solution is to have one fun project and other one as a business to work and grow slowly. It's still not easy but proving better than juggling with multiple projects and making zero progress.
For you, what's your biggest challenge right now? If you could fix one single thing, what is it?
Honestly just managing work and life. To feel I have enough time to build, and be somewhat certain I'm doing enough to make the project grow, while being able to have other things going in my life (exercising, etc)
Let's see if we can break it down further:
How about tackling one of these first? It would feel like a win and will help with other things as well.
All these are somewhat dependent for sure as I am going through exactly these problems plus more :D
yeah i think @cat 's idea was really good, setting the goals really helped me clarify what i'm doing and work on the essential so then i have time for the other aspects of my life!
That's awesome!