The cold months are coming
It's September, and it's already getting colder. Kids are back in school; summer vacation is over.
Here's something you might have missed: you have 3 months.
We all know that trying to work on our own projects during the summer is hard: it makes sense to take advantage of the warm weather, the sunshine, and the opportunity to travel or take a vacation.
But the cold months are coming.
Think about the next three months: October, November, December. In the Northern Hemisphere, this is the autumn season: the leaves change colour, it gets darker earlier, and it's colder outside. These are great months for folks like you and I to get work done: it's the perfect time to be in your basement, tapping on a keyboard, covered in a warm blanket.
It's time to start working on your side-project.
First, you need to work backwards: what happens in December? Christmas. Christmas is a gong-show: there's shopping to do, parties to attend, and relatives to visit. For me this means I don't get anything done after December 20th.
So that leaves three months. If you want to build your side-project, this is your window.
Here are a few steps you can take:
- It's September 20th today, that means launch day would be December 20th. Envision what you'd like to launch on that day.
- Now open up your calendar. Work backwards from December 20th and schedule all the times you'll work on your project. It's best if you can make it regular weekly times: ie. Saturday mornings from 6am-10am, and Friday nights from 8pm-11pm.
- Create a landing page. Put only 4 things on it: a headline (that says who this is for, and what their pain is), a sub-headline (describing what you're offering), an email sign-up box (for folks to get updates), and a launch date (December 20th!).
This is your prompt!
It's September 20th; what are you going to build?
Cheers,
Justin Jackson
@mijustin
PS: I just wrote about a new idea along these lines. Let's make some stuff!