The biggest challenge I’ve faced during my recent refocusing is trying to decide where I should concentrate my effort and time. As I said earlier, I have nine projects I really want to complete – but I can’t do them all at once. I’ve never had a good way to visualize where I should focus my energy.
A week or two ago I decided to try to map a rough schedule of my tentative projects. I’ve found that it’s been extremely helpful as I decide where to focus; instead of doing bits and pieces of all of the projects, I’ve set aside time to really concentrate on each individually. It’s going very well so far.
“The Track,” as I call it, shows the names (well, code names) of each of my nine projects, separated into my three major interest categories: development, photography, and writing. (You can click on the image of The Track to see a full-size version.) I’ll be referring to these projects by their names on The Track until they’re ready to be released:
- Operator
- Statler
- Seaglass
- Pine Cone
- Entrée
- Katahdin
- Reprint
- Exposure
Each project shows a rough estimate of when I’ll be planning the project, developing it, releasing it in a pre-launch/beta form, and then turning it live. Another New World, for example, is already live, so it jumps straight into the live mode on the schedule. Some won’t even start the planning period until 2012.
It may seem like overkill, but the schedule has really helped me concentrate on projects over the last couple of weeks. It’s great to have a representation of what I plan to do on paper in addition to everything that’s been on my mind.