Review is important. Writing this series of posts has acted as a review process for me. I believe in experimentation, I believe in taking risks, in trying new things. However, there is only so much time in a day, capacity in a brain.
Measures
– Time is precious
– Are you making progress?
– Are you meeting your objectives?
These are questions that you should be asking regularly. I find monthly too constrictive and perform informal reviews each quarter. However, the real review period for me is annual.
What measures you use are up to you. You might want to go all Marie Kondo:
“Does this project bring me joy?”
You might be entirely more prosaic:
“Does this project make me money?”
Which questions you ask will depend on where you are in life. If your side projects live along side a jobby-job that pays your bills, then I imagine the “Joy” question is more important. If you hope to make a side-project your main source of income, then the money question is clearly the one that interests you the most.
My situation
So – where am I?
First – an example of a cut. I explored the possibility of becoming a “You Tuber”. We have a channel called pocketnotebooks, where I hoped to post reviews of notebooks and insights into the business. I conducted a review, and decided that video did not bring me joy and was unlikely to provide revenue. So, I stopped.
What’s left?
Sean – I NEED to publish. A monkey to get off my back.
SL.com – Joy, and I hope, the future.
1857 – Joy
Lime – Income
Loggedoff – This project is under pressure. I have poured in time and money over 3 years. I love the analogue and I love the customers – but this one is certainly on probation.
Discovery
I have surprised myself by typing the above. Much of my own perception of my identity is tied up in Nero’s Notes and I am shocked to read that my subconscious is exhibiting such a ruthless streak.
Loggedoff gets reviewed around January – and I am interested to see where I go with that.
This raises an interesting point on reviews. Write them down. If you are anything like me, you may surprise yourself.
