This happens to all of us. We're working on something, and suddenly we get an idea for something brand new that we know will be successful. We can imagine it vividly.
(Actually this post came to me because this morning I ran naked out of the shower naked to jot down an idea I was afraid I'd forget. Anyway..)
It's impossible to branch out in the beginning. Every single human gets countless business/invention ideas daily. Stick to what you know - projects centered around your hobbies and passions. The more you know about something, the more your ideas on it will be worthwhile and feasible.
This means we need to eliminate 99% of our ideas, or halt them indefinitely at least.
I like to create filters that only let serious ideas seep in and absorb my time. If I have an idea, I write it down and ask myself "do I give a shit about this subject? will I actually put in the effort?"
I wait a few hours to see if the hype dies down. 99% of us get ideas that sound good at the time, but end up being silly or dumb later on. Some ideas keep recurring.. these are the ones you want to keep.
Having passed that stage, I'll plan out the idea. How much money am I willing to put down for this or that, how long it will take, etc. This is NOT the small stuff! Don't worry about URL, title, logo, layout, etc.. there's nothing worse than dwelling on the domain name for a week, only to lose interest in the project as soon as the domain is registered.
If it still sounds feasible, I'll work on the "core" stuff that will drive the site. This applies mainly to content-driven sites, not social media. For example, if I want to blog about cats and I feel I know enough about cats and I'm passionate enough to sit down and write.. I'll spend a few days writing as many quality articles as I can.
No URL, no domain name, no idea what the layout will be like or what software I will use. I just open a text editor and write.
If the idea is bad, I'll usually notice it right away. "God, this is boring as fuck. Fuck this." If I have to copy and paste anything from a different site, or I see myself losing interest or getting easily distracted, - itching for new mail or anything to occupy my time so I don't need to work on the project - that also amounts to "fuck this."
Eventually you find an idea you're willing to run with. Then you need to break that idea down into mini parts and attack each part little by little.
For example, I recently finished writing the backend for a video sharing site. The project seemed overwhelming in the beginning. I divided it up into parts. Every Sat/Sun, I'd spend some time reviewing the next step and working on that.
I open up my video-sharing.txt project file, and on top I see "next action: sketch database structure for users table" - This is less than 20 mins of work. In contrast, if I had seen "finish this ASAP!" as my next action to do, I would imagine "ah.. I have to sketch the database tables, write all these modules, code a library that does this, argh! error handling!" etc.
I'd imagine the worst case scenario and all the work I have to do - at once, as if I have to sit down and work on the project non-stop. This effectively stops me from ever beginning the project.
I finish the current task, then delete it from my txt file, moving the next task up, and I take a break. It's important to make sure each task is very simple. Even though it's essentially exactly the same, we're more likely to finish 6 10min tasks than 1 1hr task.
(Actually this post came to me because this morning I ran naked out of the shower naked to jot down an idea I was afraid I'd forget. Anyway..)
It's impossible to branch out in the beginning. Every single human gets countless business/invention ideas daily. Stick to what you know - projects centered around your hobbies and passions. The more you know about something, the more your ideas on it will be worthwhile and feasible.
This means we need to eliminate 99% of our ideas, or halt them indefinitely at least.
I like to create filters that only let serious ideas seep in and absorb my time. If I have an idea, I write it down and ask myself "do I give a shit about this subject? will I actually put in the effort?"
I wait a few hours to see if the hype dies down. 99% of us get ideas that sound good at the time, but end up being silly or dumb later on. Some ideas keep recurring.. these are the ones you want to keep.
Having passed that stage, I'll plan out the idea. How much money am I willing to put down for this or that, how long it will take, etc. This is NOT the small stuff! Don't worry about URL, title, logo, layout, etc.. there's nothing worse than dwelling on the domain name for a week, only to lose interest in the project as soon as the domain is registered.
If it still sounds feasible, I'll work on the "core" stuff that will drive the site. This applies mainly to content-driven sites, not social media. For example, if I want to blog about cats and I feel I know enough about cats and I'm passionate enough to sit down and write.. I'll spend a few days writing as many quality articles as I can.
No URL, no domain name, no idea what the layout will be like or what software I will use. I just open a text editor and write.
If the idea is bad, I'll usually notice it right away. "God, this is boring as fuck. Fuck this." If I have to copy and paste anything from a different site, or I see myself losing interest or getting easily distracted, - itching for new mail or anything to occupy my time so I don't need to work on the project - that also amounts to "fuck this."
Eventually you find an idea you're willing to run with. Then you need to break that idea down into mini parts and attack each part little by little.
For example, I recently finished writing the backend for a video sharing site. The project seemed overwhelming in the beginning. I divided it up into parts. Every Sat/Sun, I'd spend some time reviewing the next step and working on that.
I open up my video-sharing.txt project file, and on top I see "next action: sketch database structure for users table" - This is less than 20 mins of work. In contrast, if I had seen "finish this ASAP!" as my next action to do, I would imagine "ah.. I have to sketch the database tables, write all these modules, code a library that does this, argh! error handling!" etc.
I'd imagine the worst case scenario and all the work I have to do - at once, as if I have to sit down and work on the project non-stop. This effectively stops me from ever beginning the project.
I finish the current task, then delete it from my txt file, moving the next task up, and I take a break. It's important to make sure each task is very simple. Even though it's essentially exactly the same, we're more likely to finish 6 10min tasks than 1 1hr task.
