Tyler Dane

Solo founders: How do you decide what to work on each day?

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The biggest adjustment I had after going FT on my latest project was deciding what deserved my attention. It was easy when I was an employee: I'd just grab something off the backlog and start working. And it was easy when I had a parter in past projects: we'd spend 10 minutes weighting our options and picking one to prioritize. But working solo made my judgment susceptible to the whims of the day, which led me down a bunch of low-leverage side quests. I ended up combining GTD, bullet journaling, and Second Brain, so I'd at least have some structure and accountability in this process. Curious what you all did that worked

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Graham Lipsman
I use two lenses to focus my work. First, I ask myself what the the biggest bottleneck to growth is. I'm never lacking for ideas, so I review all the related strategies, tactics, and tasks I've written down that are related to the bottleneck I identify. Second, I pick a few items that seem most promising, then see if I can tweak them to optimize for learning. What questions can I answer, what knowledge can I develop whether or not the initiatives fail. I write down the questions I hope to answer, execute against the redesigned tasks, then follow up after I have enough data and see what I can glean. Helps me preserve a sense of forward momentum regardless of the growth outcome, since I'm always learning more.
Chris Rickard
@glipsman I love " I ask myself what the biggest bottleneck to growth is" - it's so hard with competing tasks and interests, but focusing on growth is usually always the right direction. (more problems can be solved with more customers)
Tyler Dane
@glipsman I like the 'what is the biggest bottleneck' question because asking it every day ritualizes prioritizing. My challenge would be figuring out a way to stick to that without letting myself off the hook and just working on what I felt like without asking that question
Graham Lipsman
@chrisrickard What else would a startup focus on?