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I could not agree more. For years I was just doing things for the sake of being busy.. crossing tasks off my todo list on a daily basis. I felt so accomplished,

I could not agree more. For years I was just doing things for the sake of being busy.. crossing tasks off my todo list on a daily basis. I felt so accomplished, however, I was not really getting a lot of useful work done! -------------------------- What did I do? - I started thinking about the tasks I needed to do, assessing if they were actually important to begin with. - I often found that they were not adding value to my product (DarwinMail[1]) and so I discarded them. - I also quickly completed any task that would take 5 minutes or less to complete. -------------------------- What was the result? - About a year on and I have a successful product (well, success in my head is a product which has thousands of users of which at least hundreds love the product and could not live without it). - I feel more successful, more fulfilled and a greater sense of accomplishment. [1] https://www.darwinmail.app https://www.darwinmail.app

afarrell 7y ago
> assessing if they were actually important to begin with. I've found answering "Is this important?" very hard. I find it much easier to answer "What is the impact if I do this?"
- DarwinMailApp 7y ago
  You and me both buddy! I like your style.. and sometimes I ask myself other questions like will it matter to me in 10 hours, 10 days or 10 weeks? The longer into the future it matters to me, the more important it is to get done IMO :)
  - AstralStorm 7y ago
    I'd phrase it differently: think what will it won't happen if you reorder the tasks, and how long it will take to achieve. Mind that both are estimates and can change.
    - DarwinMailApp 7y ago
      No that is a more powerful motivator. Thanks for the tip!
  - hippich 7y ago
    My procrastination works as such filter. If 10 weeks later I still care about it, it is probably something important. Doesn't work that well for security-related issues (where 10 weeks might be too late...)
- riantogo 7y ago
  “What is the impact if I don’t do this?”, is a stricter filter.
  - afarrell 7y ago
    My first draft of my comment had this. It is true, but can make it hard to rank positive opportunities and only focus on preventing risks. I think you want to ask both questions.
TurkishPoptart 7y ago
What framework is your site built in? And what did you use to build the application itself? Thanks.
- DarwinMailApp 7y ago
  PHP, JS, jQuery, LESS :D

afarrell 7y ago

> assessing if they were actually important to begin with. I've found answering "Is this important?" very hard. I find it much easier to answer "What is the impact if I do this?"

DarwinMailApp 7y ago
You and me both buddy! I like your style.. and sometimes I ask myself other questions like will it matter to me in 10 hours, 10 days or 10 weeks? The longer into the future it matters to me, the more important it is to get done IMO :)
- AstralStorm 7y ago
  I'd phrase it differently: think what will it won't happen if you reorder the tasks, and how long it will take to achieve. Mind that both are estimates and can change.
  - DarwinMailApp 7y ago
    No that is a more powerful motivator. Thanks for the tip!
- hippich 7y ago
  My procrastination works as such filter. If 10 weeks later I still care about it, it is probably something important. Doesn't work that well for security-related issues (where 10 weeks might be too late...)
riantogo 7y ago
“What is the impact if I don’t do this?”, is a stricter filter.
- afarrell 7y ago
  My first draft of my comment had this. It is true, but can make it hard to rank positive opportunities and only focus on preventing risks. I think you want to ask both questions.

TurkishPoptart 7y ago

What framework is your site built in? And what did you use to build the application itself? Thanks.

DarwinMailApp 7y ago
PHP, JS, jQuery, LESS :D