Momentum

“Thanks for asking! I’m honored you thought of me, but I don’t have the capacity to take this on right now. I’m currently deeply focused on some existing projects, but do ask me again later in case the timing works out better then!”

This is an email template.

Try making a version similar to this, but in your own voice. No + gratitude + explanation + invitation.

With that stored for easy use, you’ll be better equipped to focus on the things that matter most for you, without slipping into polite “Yesses” that you didn’t really mean.

Time’s finite, protect that focus.

Making products is basically just this:

1: Find a problem
2: Make a promise
3: Keep the promise

It’s only three steps. Try not to skip them.

I can tell when my focus is way off.

There are certain activities that give you—or your work—life.

(Bonus points if you’ve optimized life to where they’re the same thing!)

…And then there’s everything else.

Here are 3 questions that put my focus back on track:

1: What are those activities, again?

2: Do they make up a good chunk of every day?

3: If not, what am I going to do about it?

The problem with when people “fake it until they make it”…

Is the “it” never truly happens because you’re so distracted.

Convincingly pretending to lead a successful project takes as much time as leading a real one.

Convincingly pretending to have skills you don’t takes as much time as building the real skills.

Convincingly pretending to have domain authority takes as much time as actually knowing your stuff.

So why mess around faking anything?

Why not just do the thing?

My team uses Basecamp because all of the work is in one place.

Our marketing uses Brevo because all of the email and customer data is in one place.

Our animation pipeline uses Toon Boom products because everything from storyboard through to compositing is ine one place.

Our codebases use standard syntax and structure because every developer who touches it finds it easy and familiar.

Our scripts are written in .fdx files because every scriptwriter knows what to do with .fdx files.

“Simple and accessible” are key ingredients in our decision-making process, because it frees us up from thinking about the things that don’t matter.

So that we can focus our attention on the very few number of things that do.

The funny thing about the list of things on your mind right now…

Is if you were to write them all down…

And cross out the ones that don’t directly impact the heart of your work or those you love…

You may just find that the list reduces by 90%.

Just from asking one question.

Isn’t it better to focus on just those things, then?

The things you’re deliberating over…

Reading reviews about online…

Umming and arring about…

Do they make your family meaningfully happier or your art meaningfully better?

If not, why not ditch the evaluation and just focus on making your family meaningfully happier or your art meaningfully better?

If you need the perfect idea, you’ll never start creating.

If you need the perfect notebook, you’ll never start sketching.

If you need the perfect writing app, you’ll never start writing.

If you need the perfect script, you’ll never start acting.

If you need the perfect anything, you might be focused on the wrong thing.

Maybe “slightly better than today” is actually the better path.

Maybe “slightly better than today” compounds over time.

Maybe that compounding effect is the closest thing to perfect we’ve got.

How do you know if your marketing is working?

If your marketing team increases MQLs, but close rates decline because lead quality is down… is your marketing working?

If your post-sale team’s new referral system creates new MQLs, but SDRs take the credit despite flat reception… is your marketing working?

When things are so complex that everyone focuses on their own little piece of the puzzle just to make sense of what they do… is your marketing working?

It’s tough to answer. Everyone defines success differently, and none of the definitions can truly answer whether or not marketing — all of it — is working.

It’s easier when everyone defines success the same way. For things to be simple enough that everyone can easily remember the entire plan regardless of their role, and how their actions contribute to the common goal.

No more places to hide. Everyone measured on their ability to execute the same plan. No blame games, no “that’s not my job” just one team, with one plan, and one goal.

Simplicity removes hiding places.

I’ve long been an advocate for daily rituals.

Such as this daily journal, for instance. It doesn’t take long, but it gives myself — and others — a glimpse into what goes on in my mind.

Here’s another daily ritual worth thinking about:

A daily thank-you note.

To colleagues, employees, customers, relatives… and if you’ve exhausted all those, strangers.

It’ll make us more thankful people, while making someone else’s day.

Like any daily ritual, I like to commit to doing it once. Then to doing it again the next day. And the next day. Then to a week. Then a month. Then 100 days. Then see how long it goes for.

This daily journal is a 3,058 day streak so far. The ritual works, and the benefit is win-win.

Worth considering.

List the projects you have on right now.

If you had to kill one of them, which would it be? Why did you choose that one?

Okay. Now do it again, out of those that remain. Which would it be? Why did you choose it?

Do it again.

Hmm. Three projects — important projects — just got axed. With justification.

Why are you doing those projects, again?

Would it be better to focus on those that remain, instead?

When a company you like buying from does something you don’t like, what do you do about it?

We have two choices.

I use the computer I use because of what I want to make with it, not because of what I believe.
Same is true of my notebooks, pens, books, all of it.
Because I value my ability to create over my ability to agree with everything who make those tools.

The alternative would be to look for another provider each time they make a public misstep.
Trading mastery and familiarity for tangential philosophical alignment with those who manufacture my machines and bind my notebooks.

There are many who believe jumping ship regularly in this way is a great idea.

But I’m not sure making the velocity of my creativity the casualty of their missteps is a success to me.

There’s a subtle difference between perfectionism and growth:

Perfectionism: Make, see how it could have been better based on your thoughts, scrap what you did to make that instead, repeat.

Growth: Make, ship, see how it could have been better based on feedback, make that next, repeat.

Which are you doing?

“Wedding photographers outraged by amateur who offered to pay couples to shoot their big day.”

Some see this as “A race to the bottom gone wild.” I get it.

But I see this as “A keen photographer committed to starting their portfolio and photographer career, in a climate where such jobs are far from guaranteed, so are thinking outside the box to make it happen.”

I fully support that kind of mindset.

Nevermind the naysayers. Go get it, bud.

If you keep a notebook or pen in your hand, you’ll write or draw.

If you keep a book or magazine in your hand, you’ll read.

If you keep a phone in your hand, you’ll waste time.

The future is in your hands.

Got five minutes to spare?

You’ll be surprised what you can do with them.

You could sit quietly and focus on your breathing, calming yourself down in five minutes.

You could spin up a Hetzner server and get some open source software up and running in five minutes.

You could write a really rough draft of your next project or product idea in five minutes.

You could document some big sales challenges and where you think the solutions are hiding in five minutes.

You could tidy up all that clutter on your desk or on your desktop in five minutes.

Or, y’know, you could just waste it on social media, doomscrolling, for no reason.
But five minutes can go much further for you than that.

If you don’t have enough time for your ideas,

Throw out your phone for a day. Leave it in the kitchen or in a drawer, for a full day.

Notice how many times you feel anxious, or reach for your pocket.

That’s how many times your mind could have been on your ideas.

That’s how many times your hands could have been reaching for the tools of your craft.

Even when there is no time… there’s a little more than you thought you had.

Give it to your ideas.

What’s the difference between a fit and unfit person?

Or someone with lots of savings or not much savings?

Or someone with a good marriage or a bad marriage?

Or someone with a vast skillset or a weak skillset?

Lots of things.

But one of those things is that the former always invests a little bit daily, and the latter always thinks they could do something about it tomorrow.

A little bit daily makes all the difference.

When we work on two projects at once, how clever we feel.

Like a productivity monster.

Perhaps you’re chipping away at one, maybe an LLM is researching another, and there you are. Doing multiple things.

Badly.

Multitasking usually only slows us down.

Single-tasking usually feels like we’re slowing us down.

But it’s the other way around.

This is my 3000th post on my blog.

Some are great. Most are alright. Some stink.

That’s fine.

Keep hitting publish. The reps that count.

The gift of producing great work, is the opportunity to produce more great work.

The gift of producing mediocre work, is the opportunity to get better.

The only bad work is whatever was made in haste to make a quick buck.

Other than that, it’s all good. Just keep producing.

Which way of working makes you faster?

Take two tasks you need to think through and work out, but you’ve not had time to think through yet. Write them both down right now anywhere; Apple Notes, paper, whatever.

Day 1: Try to solve the first one in your digital toolkit, in your current normal environment. If you listen to music, listen. If you’re into coffee, do coffee. The usual.

Day 2: Try to solve the second one without the digital toolkit. Turn off the music. No coffee, just water. Sit with a paper notebook and pen instead. Save the treats (coffee & music) as a five-minute gift to yourself after you’ve worked out the task on paper.

Day 3: Ask yourself, which day did you get more meaningful output done? Which felt better during the task? Which felt better after having done it? Observe the difference. Mix/match to find your sweet-spot.

It’s entirely possible that you’re not doing the wrong things… you’re just doing them in a way that isn’t optimal for you.

Worth a shot. You never know, you may discover a far better way of working right under your nose.

We can accelerate our learning by being like child.

Brains shift from growth to retention in our 30s. Fight it by doing new things.

One small bit of the thing you want to learn or to be good at, daily.

Have prizes for doing well.

Have someone to compete against or play with.

Make something terrible daily.

Prioritize making learning fun, just as important as the actual lesson itself.

Do as kids do. They learn the world, fast.

If they can learn the whole world and have a blast doing it, maybe they’re onto something?

I had a call a few days ago with a nice guy who’s building his business, who is one of many who have meetings with me periodically to seek guidance on their way.

I asked this particular chap to write and publish an idea every day, something I ask many people to do.

Most say they’ll try, then don’t do it.

This tells me two things:
One, they can’t stick to their action items.
Two, they can’t stick to their word.

I have high hopes that he will stick with it.
But it raises a question worth thinking about:

Do you have any “small hard things” like this that you do?

I write every day, I draw every day, and I walk every day.
Three small hard things. Every day.

What are yours?

Instead of trying to make it good, make it less bad.

Instead of blaming complexity, make it a little less complex.

Instead of blaming competition, stop trying to blend in so much.

Instead of dwelling on the outcome, focus more on the input.

The difference between stuck and unstuck is often how we choose to see things.

What do you deliberate over?

Should I buy this or that?
Should I do this or that?
Should I eat this or that?
Should I make this or that?

Too much deliberation. Too many mental open loops.

Invest your mental energy on things worth deliberating. Things that move your creativity, your art, your projects, your family, forward.

Flip a coin on the rest.

Sometimes, we shouldn’t make it better.

Sometimes, we should just make it less bad.

Over and over.

Has a funny habit of taking you to the same place anyway.

But sometimes, this energy takes you there when “better” feels too hard.

We can’t really do busyness and business at the same time.

When trying to do business…

It’s busyness that feels like a full day.

It’s busyness that feels like we made progress.

It’s busyness that is the act of taking on things.

But business is the act of letting things go.

For words that sound so similar, they seem like opposites.

January first isn’t for looking back on the year we’ve had.

I mean, you can. If you want to. But my preference is this:

Take the opportunity to make what comes next, a habit.

Want to write more? Write a little bit every day. Every day.

Starting today. Just a little bit.

Little bits add up.

Once you get into the habit of doing a little bit every day, some days you might find you do quite a lot.

And on it goes.

What new little habit will you be picking up?

(They’re free, y’know. What do you have to lose?)

Advice I received years ago that I still think about when good opportunities come along:

“If you don’t do it, someone half as good and half as nice will.”