You Either Set MileStones Or You Fail

I was reading an interesting article on wired the other day about how Duke Nukem 3D essentially never came to be because of lack of milestones and goals.

It got me thinking alot about my personal internet marketing goals (I dont have any really, just a general idea), and all the current projects i have rolling along, but with no particular milestones in mind. Particularly all my half finished applications that i have pretty much finished coding, but never taken that next step towards releasing. Some are simply because i am no longer interested in developing them further and were just a way of me learning some new techniques, but others are staggering because i just dont know where to take them, and dont know how to plot out where im going with them.

In the wired article this particular paragraph caught my eye :

Broussard simply couldn’t tolerate the idea of Duke Nukem Forever coming out with anything other than the latest and greatest technology and awe-inspiring gameplay. He didn’t just want it to be good. It had to surpass every other game that had ever existed, the same way the original Duke Nukem 3D had.

I find this all the time happening in my applications. Especially when i am developing something right on the edge of technology with others competing with basically, the same application in a different wrapper. When you think about it, Duke Nukem while pretty original with the way you could interact with the objects around you, was just your typical first person shooter. What’s so different from Duke Nukem and every other FPS out there?

When i developed my very first version of Twitter Friend Adder i found myself swamped by people wanting new features that were said to be in other paid versions of similar tools. In the end, i actually ended up with far more feature requests then i could ever program (Even though the requests were nothing to laugh at, some were actually really good ideas). And when i did manage to develop some requests, by the time i had finished them, i had a whole stack of emails with new ideas that i soon had to program up. Meaning that i ended up delaying releases so often because there was always “Just one more feature to add”.

So how to buck the trend?

Set Release Dates – With A Feature Set In Mind
For my applications. I wrote down dates that i want to release new versions. And what those new versions will include. In some ways it has made me relax alot more because when i get a new feature request, i add it to my notebook as something for a release further down the line. Not something i will do write this minute. It means that i have a set idea of what i want, what i need, and when it will be done.

Manage My Time During The Day
Something i found very useful from an early stage was The Action Machine. Basically its just a small (No make that large!), application that gives you set times to do everything. When i wake up in the morning, i write down what i need to achieve that day. Including things outside of sitting on my ass on the computer. I can then input these into the action machine, and give it how much time i need for that task. So for example i could have “Write A Blog Post” and set it as 30 minutes. With a timer ticking in the background, i dont waste my time, i dont get sidetracked, i just sit down and do the job. Ontop of that, the timers run onto each other. So once the timer goes, a little alarm sounds and i have to move to my next task. It makes me 10x as focused as i usually am.

I guess the bad thing about the action machine is that it aint free (Well, except for you pirrrraaattteess). You can do fine just using any sort of timer (Google them, 1000′s out there), and setting yourself a limited amount of time to do tasks. Aswell as a limited amount of time to read forums, read blogs, check emails etc.

Use Google Calender
You can use any sort of online calendar, hell even a real one i guess . But writing down what dates i need things done by has been a massive help in seeing deadlines. And if that means working late, then that means working late and i should have worked harder earlier on. People think IM is all fun and games and you can slack off anytime, but really it just means you gotta work even harder to make deadlines for your own self. Using google calendar i have written down all my milestones for applications so that i know what i should be doing and when.

Most of all though, people need Self Discipline! It doesnt matter how many tools you get for yourself to get you motivated. If you dont have self motivation you will never reach your own personal milestones.

Anyone got anything else to set milestones and get motivated?