3 steps to finishing your project

Read time: 3 min. (make sure you click "show images.")

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In my welcome email, I ask, "What's your biggest struggle as a builder?"

Replies center around this:

• Finishing what I build.

This is surprising. I thought what to build and how to build were bigger problems. But apparently, that's not the case.

We know what to build. We know how to build it.

We need a catalyst (🧪) to actually finish that damn thing. And eventually market it. And hopefully make some money.

What's that catalyst?

Today, I'm telling you all about it.

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Why is finishing hard?

• We think we're wasting our time.

• We think there are better things to build.

• We think, "What's the point, no one's gonna pay for this."

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2 magic ingredients

Pieter Levels once said he began building things out of depression. His dad, whenever he was depressed, told him to:

"Order one cubic meter of sand and start shoveling it from one place to another. By the end of it, you won't feel depressed anymore."

I'm not using depression here as a clinical term as it's a serious disease that can't be cured by shoveling sand. What I mean is the desperation we feel while trying to make it as an entrepreneur.

So... Pieter's dad told him to finish shoveling sand from one pile to another and he'd feel better.

So he decided to do the same. But digitally.

He started building random things.

With two ingredients.

Ingredient #1: Short. He'd build a new one each month.

This way, he'd actually finish the thing. Then post it online, wherever relevant. It was most likely Twitter, Reddit, HackerNews, etc.

Ingredient #2: Money-making. He actually needed to make money to survive.

Like literally needed $500-700 a month to be able to nomad and live by himself outside of the Netherlands where he's from and where life's a lot more expensive.

This primed his brain to come up with ideas that would make money.

More motivation to finish.

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Destination BEFORE journey

Daniel Vassallo recently posted something in the likes of:

"My biggest productivity hack is to enjoy finishing a project MORE than working on it."

Yes, yes, journey before destination. But perhaps, it doesn't apply to the early stages of entrepreneurship?

Can we for once let ourselves enjoy finishing. And see how it feels.

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3 steps to finishing a project:

1. Come up with a single value. A single feature. A single thing to accomplish with your build.

2. Time-box the hell out of it. Keep it short. I'd say a maximum of 3 weeks.

3. Respect the deadline.

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Benefits:

1. No time wasted. You don't have to convince yourself that this is your life's work and every second you spend on it should be worth it.

2. Feeling happy & ready for the next step (marketing it?). Finishing something secretes endorphins in your brain (don't look it up, it's NOT backed by science as I just made this up) but I'm pretty sure that's the case, from experience. 😜

Your turn

What can you build in 3 weeks max? You can reply to this email and let me know. (I read & respond to every single reply.)

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