Web development isn’t the only thing I’m passionate about. I also love the outdoors and am a huge fitness fanatic. Exercise taught me things that can be applied to many aspects of life including web development and project management as well.
Goals
When you’re building a website or building a business or there are a million different things that have to get done. The best thing you can do, is to take some time and write it down, make lists of things you need to do and make lists of goals you’re trying to achieve. Use a spreadsheet or evernote (something you can easily sort). Once you have your lists complete, attach a priority. You can’t build a site, until you buy a domain name, etc. Once you can start checking things off your list, you start to feel a real sense of progress.
Consistency
Some tasks can simply take a long time or be extremely tedious. For those tasks make a separate list, but reference them in your primary list because you’ll want and need to do those in parallel due to their long timeline. For the really awful monotonous tasks see if you can farm them out reasonably using mTurk, or fiver, or simply set small goals, like: “I’ll rewrite 5 product meta descriptions a day”. Then DO IT, 5 is attainable and before you know it, your list is complete. Sometimes the hardest part of the work is just starting, you can literally move a mountain a spoonful at a time, you just have to start.
Attitude
Much like getting in shape, the process can either suck or be awesome. It’s totally up to you either way. Working out sometimes is downright painful, but to me, that just makes the success all that much sweeter. Once you start seeing the fruits of your labor, you’ll know it was worth the blood sweat and tears.
Web Developer
eCommerce Usability Optimization Expert
PNW Native, Outdoor Enthusiast and Overlander.