This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
What's up, hello, greetings and welcome. This is Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School, episode 1185. I believe this is our 14th classroom episode of the year coming to you at the end of March for those listening in real time. I hope you marched forth earlier this month and you're getting ready for April. It's gonna be a big month for me, but hold on, more about that in a moment.
In recent classroom episodes, we have looked at different Cytosil ideas, different categories of ideas, how to decide between competing ideas and so on. We looked at the elements of every compelling offer and the difference between what people say they want and what they really want. Now last week was all about the sexy topics of business licenses, bank accounts and record keeping. Man, I know I got so much fan mail about that. People are like, wow, keep it coming.
This is thrilling. Okay, so this week I'd like to pose a question as a thought experiment. What if you had to launch a project in two weeks or less? Okay, so you've decided on your idea. You've learned a bit about logistics.
You've thought about your offer. We made a list of all the stuff you need to do and so on. Well, what if you actually had to accelerate and say, you know what, I was planning to do this in two months or whatever the time is, but now I'm gonna do it in two weeks or less. So I'm calling this Cytosil Sprint. It's time to break out the duct tape.
And for me, this is not just theoretical because in my world, my new book, "The Money Tree" comes out in just eight days. So perhaps that's why this topic has been on my mind. I try to live out the values I teach here on the show. And when it comes to publishing, I have an unmovable deadline. It actually helps me a lot to have these deadlines, such as, for example, producing this show for you every single day, but also my books.
I can't just go to my publisher and say, actually guys, I needed another six months because they would say, you know what, we have been preparing for this date, all the people on our side. So that's the day. Okay, so ready or not the day arrives, I have a limited window to make it really count. So let's talk about working on a crunch to launch your project. I'm gonna walk the walk and answer these questions for you myself, but there's a few questions that you need to answer.
Like if it comes to this point of working on a crunch, you need to answer these questions. Three questions. Number one, what do you really have to do? Okay, what do you really have to do? Number two, what part of this are you currently procrastinating around?
What are you putting off? What actually needs to happen, but you are putting off? And then number three, what can you let go of? Now the answers to these questions will drive the process for this exercise. So let's go in order.
Number one, what do you really have to do? What is essential? Remember we made this list a few weeks ago, it was episode 1164, the MVP of minimum viable products. If you're selling a physical product, you need the product, you need the inventory, or if someone else will be shipping it, they need to have it in stock. You probably need a way to accept payments, whether it's a product or a service.
If it is a service, how will you provide the service? What do you need to do that? I've got a story coming up next week about a guy who's a piano tuner, which is pretty cool because in 1200 episodes almost, we have never talked about piano tuning, new thing. So to provide his service, he had to buy a mechanical tuner and an app. Without those tools, it would be very difficult.
So what do you really have to do? What do you need? What tools and resources are essential? That's question number one. Question number two, what part of this process are you currently procrastinating?
What are you putting off? And I don't just mean like the optional stuff, what do you actually have to do? You really need to do it. But for some reason, you are putting it off. Now this second question is of course, directly connected to that first one.
And if you're out there and you're like, I'm not procrastinating anything, well, good for you. You are a task completing champion. Many of us, however, often put things off for long periods of time. Got a couple of strategies to deal with this. One of my favorites that I've been using recently, actually developed this through therapy of all places.
But working with my therapist, we developed this thing called a to dread list, like making a list of all the things that I'm dreading or not looking forward to and therefore putting off. They are causing me angst, they're kind of draining my energy. So these could be personal things, but they could also be work related things, side hustle related things. Your mind doesn't really make a separation. Your mind doesn't really compartmentalize.
If it's causing you this anxiety, it's there. So I started making a list of like, what am I putting off that I really need to do? I'm dreading it for some reason, but if I'll just make a little progress, if I make that phone call or send the email or whatever the thing is, I'm probably gonna feel better once it's done. So what about you? If you're not a task completing champion, what are you putting off and what can we do about it?
Now question number three, what can you let go of? Now this is fairly self-explanatory, but for all those features that are nice to have, but not essential, my question is, can you downgrade at least some of them to the status of, I'm not gonna worry about this now. The more you can let go of, the easier it will be to move forward. It is a lot like traveling with carry-on bags. Like some people think it's more difficult than checking luggage, but I assure you, when you get used to it, you realize it's actually easier.
It's actually easier to travel with less stuff because you're not worried about your stuff. You don't have to carry as much stuff. You don't have the risk of losing your stuff. All kinds of reasons, and the same is true in the world of money-making projects. There's all kinds of features that are nice to have, but what can you let go of?
So what's essential? What do you need to do? What part of this are you currently putting off? And what can you let go of? I'm gonna tell you my answers to those questions along with your assignment for the week, which you probably won't be surprised what the assignment is if you've listened thus far.
But first, I wanna thank our sponsor for making this series completely free to you. So stay tuned for my answers and your assignment. [Music]
Hey there, welcome back. So as I promised, I wanna give you my answers to these questions just because I wanna be transparent, kind of walk the walk. I often ask myself these questions as I'm working on different things.
I always work with a paper and notebook next to me. I make notes, and then digitally, I use Evernote and the software called OmniFocus, where I capture all my tasks. And so I like to have both of these things accessible. So I'm like, okay, what do I need to do next? Here's some notes, here's my list of tasks, et cetera.
So my answers here, what is essential when it comes to launching this book and going out on the road and such? There's been a lot of uncertainty about various things, coronavirus, et cetera. What was essential was, I need to create a book website. We're working on something really, really fun called a book registry, which I'll tell you about more in an upcoming episode, it's a really cool thing. So I knew I had to do a whole lot of stuff for that.
And then, let's see, what am I putting off or what have I been putting off? I realized I was really not doing a great job with any sort of social campaign or email campaign for the book, which is critical, right? Like this is really, really important. So I found a way to prioritize that, to kind of like reward myself for like, making milestone progress and like, you know, sending out emails or drafting things or getting them ready in the email program, getting back to using Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn more frequently, and a few things like that. So I was kind of putting it off, but I've found a way to move forward.
And then the thing I've let go of, at least for the moment, is I wanted to have this whole bootcamp that was out simultaneously with the book. And guess what, it's not going to happen. So I just decided to like hold off on that. I still have a good vision for it, but I want to make sure it's high quality that I can really devote some attention to it and just, you know, do it with excellence. So for now I have put that on hold and I'm full speed ahead with other stuff.
So that's my story. Your assignment, since each classroom feature will include an assignment, I would love to know your answers to the three questions, which you're welcome to share them with me or you're welcome to just answer them on your own, of course. If you'd like to share them with me, you can send me a note from the website or on social media. But again, most important for you to think about what is essential in my project? What am I putting off?
How can I address that? Those kind of two questions go together. And then also what can I let go of? As much as I talk about like crushing stuff out and like making yourself focused, there's a lot of power in letting go of things. So I encourage you to do as much work on that side as you do on the part about like trying to make yourself get stuff done, all right?
'Cause either way you move forward, right? If you get stuff done or if you let go of something, you're gonna get closer to that objective of launching that project. So Side Hustle Sprint, much more is coming up. I can't wait to share this whole journey with you of the book, but of course, all along the way, continuing to answer questions, bringing different case studies and stories to you. I love being able to make this program and I'm so, so grateful that you're out there.
Okay, I'm gonna sign off for today. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. [Music]
From the Onward Project.
