Preaching and doing are two different things

I have sinned.

I have promised not to divert my attention to any other product before I ship my main product. But I just couldn't resist the temptation. Now I will spend the rest of this blog entry explaining my reasons. Of course, that wouldn't change the fact I'm a sinner.

In a previous blog entry, I was writing why having a new idea is a bad idea. I still believe it is and I still believe the most important thing in delivering things and getting things done is focus. Focus. FOCUS!

It strange how people usually write about things they cannot follow themselves. In fact, most people write as part of the strategy of trying to convince themselves that what they write is true. The advice they give is usually one they need. It's an advice for themselves.

Focus and getting things done is one of my areas where I know I need to do more. No surprise I put it down on my personal resolution list for this year. And for the last year. And the year before that. It's an ongoing thing, alright?

So I started. It was a paper based to-do list whereby each task is given a certain number of points. At the end of the day, you count the points you scored that day. It's an interesting game-like method to motivate you to get things done. It's not new and it surely is not rocket science.

But the funny thing is ... it worked. And my productivity soared.

The thing to keep in mind: Focusing and getting things done is not rocket science, it's all about discipline. It is also about breaking down the complexity of a pile of work into do-able tasks. And start doing...

So, I've decided to move the whole paper based system on the desktop and create something that would be easily used from a computer. I personally don't like to carry too much paper with me and keeping track all mountains of paper is not exactly a trivial matter. Last but not least, it might help saving some trees.