Menu

• Dictionary
• Hot Shots

Directory

• Sponsors
• Billing Options
• Content Providers
• Web Hosting
• Traffic Counters
• Website Designers
• Resource Sites

Now I know that this may sound just a little strange ... but it's true. When I work on a client's project I have no problems getting it started or even getting it finished.

I can put a timetable on it before I even start and my staff and I can deliver it on time or even a little early in the vast majority of cases. It's as if we have this groove that we slip into when we're doing client work and we just roll on with it till the job is done.

But things are different when it comes to my own personal projects. I get an idea in my head and then I think about it ... and think some more ... and think some more again. I can sit in front of the keyboard with nothing showing on the monitors but my favorite HTML editor for hours ... and nothing happens.

I may have a picture in my mind of what I want to achieve ... I may have absolutely zero distractions but do you think I can actually make a start on it?

Right now I have around four projects of my own that I really need to get moving on and every one of them is stalled at the blank screen stage. Why is this so? Why can I not seem to actually make a start on any of them?

I really don't know but it sure has been frustrating me. I know what I want to do with those projects ... I know where I want them to go ... but actually making a start on them is just not happening.

However I may have found a solution to the problem ... and the solution probably sounds just as strange as the original problem. Yesterday my partner Steve, who is also afflicted with the same problem actually managed to get one of our projects started and finished.

We have needed a mobile version of our mainstream business website for ages now and Steve had made a half-hearted effort at getting one online a month or so ago. Neither of us was happy with it and it really did look as though we had just thrown something up there but we couldn't get motivated to expand on what was already there.

Then yesterday we decided that something really did need to be done so we hired ourselves ... we became our own client ... we put ourselves into the client role. We outlined on paper what we wanted the mobile site to do and how we wanted it to look.

When we had the outline of what we wanted Steve reverted to his usual role of web developer and worked out a plan to tackle the project. From the client outline he knew what images were going to be needed for the site and he knew what pages needed to be written and what CSS was needed.

When he had those assembled he sat down and wrote the pages and in just a matter of hours the job was done ... the site went live ... and we, the clients, are happy with it.

See? I said that the solution to our strange problem probably sounded as strange as the problem.

Basically it's just a mind-set but for us it works. If we tackle our own personal projects as we do for our clients then the jobs get done but if we sit back and think of them as "our projects" then we dawdle ... we waste time ... we look for excuses to go out on weekends instead of working on our stuff.

We just don't get our things done and then we complain because our competitors have beaten us yet again.

So how is it with you? Do you get all your projects done or do you waste time when it comes to things that could really make you money and so others get there first?

Are you left picking up the crumbs while others who were able to stay focused make the big money that you had dreamed about?

If that is what happens with you then maybe it's time to hire someone to do that work for you. Maybe it's time to get yourself into the mindset of doing work for someone else ... work that has to be done to meet a specified deadline.

Maybe it's time to hire yourself so that you can really make things happen ... so that you can start and finish your projects in a timely manner and not let time and money slip away.