HN, I need to learn how to ship

1) Don't "multi-task" ever. Make a plan and then do everything on the plan in serial and make sure you focus 100% effort at the task/project at hand. My immediate to-do list is only ever 2 items long. 2 items only because I am working on #1 and when I finish #1 I need to know that #2 is the next thing that needs to be done. When #2 becomes your focus you move it to #1 and add a new item.

I do this at the macro level i.e my startup has 2 big projects to be shipped, I'm not going to put any effort/thought into anything that comes after, only what I need to finish right now. I also do it on the micro level, each feature has X user stories, I only have have 2 of these on my daily to-do list at any time.

2) Use timers like Pomodoro technique - I don't subscribe to the whole philosophy, I just enjoy the fact that a physical 25min timer gets me over the 'procrastination hump' for getting started. Keep working in 25 min chunks till said task at hand from (1) is done.

3) For pesky ongoing stuff add some rules to your life e.g I must publish a blog post every Wednesday (and I'm not going home till I do)

4) Whenever you finish a large project that might've taken you a few weeks to complete, give yourself some time to decompress and admire the work you've done.

Basically you come up with a standard of behavior and check off every day if you act in accordance to that. Helped him discipline himself to create a comedy empire.

My slant to it is that I

1) constantly email rule adjustments if I want to have new rules (say I'm not allowed to drink until a Wednesday demo).

2) have a sponsor, well my wife, who I run ambiguities by, in case I want to have an exception to a rule. Example, if I commit to cleaning every day and I get sick, that day is okay to mark off. But forcing me to verbalize my exceptions means I'll only use them as needed.

3) I treat this calendar as holy, simply so I take deviations seriously. Reason for this is that it is a bitch starting it again if I fall off.

4) I have prescheduled cheat days and stuff like that.

In short, this system works great for me. I might be bad at explaining the complexities here, but feel free to contact me for more info. My best weapon.