Thoughts before launching 31 projects in 31 days

I've taken on this crazy goal to launch 31 projects in 31 days. Why? Because I'm tired of being afraid. I've build so many projects and written so many blog posts — only to think at the last moment:

• Is it ready?
• It it too embarrassing?

And then I get overwhelmed by self-doubt and never click "Publish." This time is going to be different. I'm going to publish no matter what.

Forgive Yourself 🙏

First of all, I can't be holding onto all that past guilt about not launching.

I will not be launching something because:

• It's causing me the most regret for not having launched it
• It would be soooo impressive if I got it out the door
• I want other people to like me

This brings me to my next point:

If you're not having fun, quit! 💩

The reason I got into all this indie hacker stuff was because it's fun as heck.

That means, I don't want to cause myself or my family undue stress because I want to get a project out the door.

If I find myself overwhelmed at midnight on the second night of launching, I'm going to throw in the towel and try again next month — or next year!

Make it fun by just hitting publish way before you're ready! 🤕

Here's the part that's going to be a struggle: hitting that damn publish button.

But, if I spend 3 hours cleaning up a project and making it usable/readable/watchable/enjoyable, then that's enough time and I gotta just go with it!

If it:

• Doesn't have a favicon
• Is missing a social share image
• Has a bad headline

There's always tomorrow!

But give yourself enough time ⏰

I'm going to think about it like a race against the clock.

Every day, I'll head to a cafe at 10am, work for a couple hours, travel to the next cafe (or the library), and work for another couple hours.

Then I'll come home and put work out of my mind. Play with my little 11 month old boy or help his mom prep dinner.

No work past 6pm. No work on the weekends.

"But David," I hear you say, "That's impossible. How will you possibly launch 7 projects a week in ~5 hours a day across only 5 days?"

• I will work in 20 min spurts.
• I will reserve 1 hour for hard tasks (i.e. revising a blog post or landing page)
• I will reserve three 90 min streaks every week for emergencies

I know myself — I work fast when I'm focused. If I give myself 3 hours to put something valuable out into the world, I can do it!

Don't over-promise, just under-deliver 🎁

There's part of me that's tempted to go all out and build full applications. I've had ideas for mini-apps, fun little online playgrounds, and new features for my full-stack framework.

But I will resist the urge to build big things.

A short blog post might not count as a real launch to some people. A series of emails where I share tips might be considered too small. A 1-page PDF with a quick time-management guide might be a "whatever" kind of launch.

But I'll do it anyways — I want to get comfortable putting myself out there. I don't care if it's a full app or a small blog post, I want to be able to write —

And just hit "publish."