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!