Marc and I used to have a knack for not getting things done. We would get to 90% of creating an app and then for some reason (client work etc.) we would stop and barely look back.
In fact, we would look back…. in regret. The famous ‘what if’.
At the beginning of this year I said to Marc that that had to change and the only we would could do that was if we put ourselves out there. The reason we were not completing personal projects was because we lacked consequence, we didn’t have deadlines and we didn’t have someone calling us out on it.
So when we created Hash One, I blurted out a launch date on From the Couch without Marc knowing the date. All of a sudden we had purpose and we had consequence.
Motivation
- We find it is always better to set goals and the deadline is just another goal. By having that goal you have something to aim for.
- You will be more motivated to finish your project if you know that something is going to happen, you can look forward to the day after (Did / Didn’t it work?). I think if we didn’t set a deadline for Hash One we would still be thinking about it.
- If you miss that deadline there is a threat of consequence, someone may call you out with a #fail tag next to your name… and that is never a nice feeling.
Marketing
By setting that deadline you can:
- Brand the launch date and use that number as a marketing tool.
- Collaborate with other bloggers and plan your launch to coincide with guest / launch posts on their blogs.
- Create hype by using that launch date as deadline, doing things such as the Obox Launch Diary give you the power to spread the word that something big is happening on the day.
- Plan posts with sneak peaks and count down the days with a sneak-peak-a-day-before launch.
- If you do miss the deadline there is bound to be someone who will call you out, you can use that as an opportunity too. At least they are talking about you and you can discuss the ‘controversy’ around missing it. So even though its horrible to have a #fail next to your twitter name there is always a chance to turn it around. You wouldn’t have had that opportunity if there was no set date.
Features
Setting a launch date avoids feature bloat:
- You prioritize what can be done now and what is most important before launch.
- You minimize the amount of bugs that may creep in because you are focusing too much on creating features instead of what needs to be done now.