Thought:
The two most important questions you can ask yourself is “what next step will get me closer to my ultimate goal?” and “out of all the steps I can take, is this the most efficient?”
Why? How?
Indie making is all about decision making.
As a solopreneur or a founder in a small team, every single one of your actions matters.
So you must constantly ask yourself: “what is my next step? Which step will bring me closest to my goal?”
And most of the time, it’s a difficult step.
For instance, reaching out to strangers to talk about your product, or pitching your services to a possible client. Or focusing on partnerships before you are satisfied with your product, or getting your MVP out in the open.
Since your actions matter so much, it can be difficult to have the clarity required to choose.
What has helped me the most is one question and one diagram.
The question is: “if I had the superpower to be good at everything, what would I do today so that I move closer to my goal?”
This helps me focus not on what I want to do, or enjoy doing, but on what I NEED to do.
The second thing that has helped me is focusing on the tasks that are urgent and important.
Called the Eisenhower Decision Matrix and found in the cornerstone “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” the Matrix divides tasks into four quadrants: urgent and important, urgent but not important, not urgent but important, and not urgent and not important.
Splitting your tasks into these quadrants is a fantastic way to gain clarity.
One important thing to note is that the tasks that are in the “not urgent but important” quadrant are often the ones that get left behind. Make sure you plan a few hours a week for these.
The ones that are in the urgent but not important quadrant are the ones you need to be careful about. These are the first ones I contract out or try to automate.
Cheers,
Léa
