Planning vs Doing

As a Developer, I've seen a lot of people get stuck in the planning phase. Also called the learning phase, the tutorial-hell phase, or the looking-busy phase. To be fair, I've been there too. I've tried my best to visit that place less often now, but it's very comforting to stay in the Planning phase.

And until now, I didn't know why. Reading Atomic Habits has been the torch in this wild search in the darkness for an answer. I haven't finished reading it.

We choose the easy path - we're just lazy as humans.

As humans, we will almost always choose the easy thing over the hard thing. Learning Node.js or <INSERT-THE-LATEST-FANCY-THING-THATS-CAUGHT-YOUR-ATTENTION> is easier than diving headfirst into a series of errors and struggles to get things working, even when building something simple.

Avoiding the Doing phase is the easier choice. We often feel under-prepared to ever be in the Doing phase. And if we do end up moving out of the Planning phase - we're more likely still there without realizing it.

Consider this - you finally found an amazing idea you want to build as a side project. You've done your share of research and planning and finally decided to start building it. But now, you are searching for a good name for this side project and a nice logo. You've searched for a domain name too. (Oh the endless options of TLDs to choose from!)

However exciting this particular phase seems, I believe you are still in the Planning phase. You might disagree, thinking you are taking some action after all - you are Doing something, right? So how is that possible?

While it may seem important to land on a good name, a nice logo and a fancy domain, you are avoiding the real work - the work of building the side project.

We fear failure.

Avoiding the real work because we fear failing, is a form of procrastination.

1. We fear the comments and criticism from people who will point out so many issues in your project, that it will feel impossible to do it right.

2. We fear getting no attention for the project we built. It was supposed to be the best, what happened??

3. We fear abandoning a project we told the world we would build.

4. I've seen this too. Some of us fear receiving more attention than we can handle for this side project.

All these fears are stupid. In the long run, the failures are necessary. It's the only way to grow. You are keeping yourself away from the success that the Doing phase has in store for you.

The overnight success of all indie developers, solopreneurs, and anyone else you feel inspired by, has spent their share of time in the Doing phase. They've built projects, some of which got attention from four followers for about two minutes, while some never even saw the light of day.

The Doing Phase

The only way to success is through lots of failures. If only an app could predict how many failures you must go through. (There's an idea!)

So how do you escape the Planning phase? How do you get into the Doing phase? Getting in a state of Doing doesn't require motivation or fancy expensive tools. It requires a few simple things.

1. Starting small. Many of us fail to start and take the first step because the task or the project seems daunting. Often, we need to break down the project into simple tasks and make it super simple to begin with. The idea is to get into the flow with a small task - a small win.

2. Being consistent. Showing up every day is super important, especially on days you don't feel like it. That's why motivation should not be relied upon. Show up and do it for two minutes. (Read more about The Two Minute Rule from Atomic Habits). Doing less than you hoped for is better than doing nothing at all.

3. Focus on one thing / Say no to more things than you would like. Look, there's another shiny idea to build a side project for! You better say no to it. If you say yes, you will have to abandon your current project, which you haven't completed yet. (Multi-tasking you say? That's an idea for another post I'll write.)

Stop fearing to fail. Fear not starting at all. Build that side project, or restart an abandoned one.

There's an amazing community here on Peerlist. Share your build progress. Ask for help. Launch it here. Get Doing! Join Peerlist.

Doing is going to be difficult. It sucks, you're gonna love it! 🫂

This post is far longer than I envisioned. And this wasn't even on my to-do list today. Yet, here we are. My first post on Peerlist. My small win 💚.