You get more good ideas than you get hours, and dat mean da thing stay alive. One customer ask if you can make um in one second size. One friend sketch out one whole product line over coffee and honestly, da line stay good. You wake up four in da morning with one better version of da whole business, and it really stay better. None of dat stay one problem you gotta fix. Dat stay inventory, and it going keep.
What decide if da next twelve months go anywhere is not how many of dose ideas you get. Is which three you write down as da ones you no going build, and if you put one date on da list. One no dat get one name stay one small, calm move dat protect da one thing you wen already promise somebody, and protecting dat promise is how one business with one person inside um get one second year.
How come I stall out when I get too many good ideas?
Because every open idea hold one piece of your attention, and you only get one head. Switching between tasks get one cost you can measure in da lab, and da same shape show up on one workbench: four half-start projects feel heavier than one pau one, and dey really stay heavier.
One person business is da only kind where da backlog and da nervous system stay da same object. Inside one big company, one project dat neva start yet sit inside one document and no cost nobody sleep. Inside your business, it sit inside you. You carry da second size, da second product line and da better version around all week, and every one of dem quietly charge you rent for da storage.
Da tax no show up as failure. It show up as slow. Da order dat go out Thursday instead of Tuesday. Da listing photo you neva reshoot because half of you was still thinking about da wholesale idea. Nothing look broken, and da year go by.
This is not one argument for ambition in smaller portions. Is da opposite. You name what you no going build so you can go at da one thing you building with everything you get, without da low hum of four other options running underneath. Michael Porter wen make da same point about big companies decades ago: strategy stay just as much about what you deliberately no do as what you do. One person with one product and three written noes stay more ambitious than one person with seven maybes, because only one of dem going actually ship.
How I pick da three things I no going build this year?
Write down every idea you carrying right now, then pick da three most likely fo eat da whole year without ever getting pau. Usually dat's da biggest one, da newest one and da one somebody else wen suggest, not da ones you like da least.
Three stay da right number because it's small enough fo remember and big enough fo hurt little bit. If da list no cost you nothing, you wen write down three ideas you was never going do anyway, and it not going protect one single hour.
Next to each one, write one line: how come not this year. Not one judgment on da idea, one reason about capacity. Wholesale, not this year, because it need stock I gotta buy before anybody order. Second product line, not this year, because da first one not pau. Custom orders, not this year, because dey take four times da messages for da same money.
Then date da list. One dated list stay one decision. One list with no date stay one mood, and one mood going get argued with all over again every Sunday night. Da date do something kinder too: it say da idea not dead, it stay scheduled for one conversation you going have on one specific day, with more information than you get right now.
One no and one not this year, same thing or what?
No. One no close da idea, and one not this year park um with one date attached, and dat's da version almost every small business actually need.
You not deciding what your business going be forever. You deciding what da next twelve months stay for. Most of da ideas on your list not wrong, dey just early, and treating early like wrong is how people throw away da second best thing dey ever wen think of.
Keep da parked list somewhere you can add to um. When da four in da morning idea show up, it go on da parked list and you go back sleep, which is most of da point. Da list not one graveyard. Is one waiting room, and knowing get one waiting room is what let you stop arguing with yourself at da desk.
One rule keep um honest: something only come off da parked list when something else go on um or get pau. One in, one out. If not, da waiting room quietly turn into da plan again.
What I tell one customer who ask for something I no going build?
Name what you finishing instead, and give dem one date. One no dat come with your real plan attached sound like one person who stay in control of dey week, and one bare no sound like one person who no could be bothered.
Da sentence get three parts and it stay short. Thank dem for da specific idea, say what you focused on and until when, then tell dem what you going do with da request.
Something like this. Dat's one good idea, and you da second person who wen ask. I keeping da shop to three sizes through da end of da year so I can bring da delivery times down. It stay on da list I read in January, and I going message you if it happen.
Nobody going get offended by dat. What lose one customer is silence, or one vague yes dat never show up. And you just wen tell dem, without saying um, dat you da kind of person who keep one list and read um, which is most of what anybody like know before dey spend money with one stranger.
If dat's da third time somebody wen ask for da same thing, dat not one distraction. Dat's data, and it belong on da January list in bold.
Da quarterly reread
Put one repeating date in da calendar, one time every quarter, fifteen minutes. Read da three noes out loud. Most quarters you going keep all three and da reread going feel like one waste of time, and dat's exactly what one working system feel like from da inside.
Sometimes you going promote one. Da wholesale idea dat had no stock behind um now get one buyer who wen ask twice and wen offer fo prepay. Move um up, and move something else down, because da number stay at three.
None of this stay caution and none of it stay permission fo want less. Is da ordinary machinery dat let one ambitious person go hard at one thing for one whole year instead of going at five things for six weeks each. Da people still standing in year five not da ones with fewer ideas. Dey da ones who wen write three of dem down, date da page, and go handle da fourth.
Sources
- Harvard Business Review, What Is Strategy?
- Advances in Cognitive Psychology, Common Cognitive Control Processes Underlying Performance in Task-Switching and Dual-Task Contexts
- U.S. Small Business Administration, Plan your business