Last week I wrote about some of the ways that I trick, pressure, convince, and sometimes brainwash myself into getting stuff done. It’s not that I don’t want to do things… I want to solve big problems and accomplish big goals. But when House of Cards season five comes out, sometimes it’s easier to put on a VR headset and “playtest” for a couple hours instead of writing all of the emails that need writing.

How I trick myself into doing stuff

But there’s more to it than just telling people what you’re up to, being shameless about the goals you’re pursuing, and being ready at a moment’s notice to switch into business mode. Here are three more techniques I use to take care of business:

4. Measure how you’re doing

If you have big goals, it can be difficult to know just how well or how poorly you’re doing. Making a videogame can be a multiyear process, and building a self-sustaining company can take a decade. To make sure that you’re on track, you need to measure exactly how you’re doing on a regular basis. And you need to do this at least once a month, if not once a week.

The measurements you take will depend on your goals and the type of company you’re starting. If you’re doing a nights-and-weekends indie studio, a key benchmark will be how many hours you manage to work each week. If your product is for sale or in a beta program, you need to track how many people buy/download it, how many people actually use it, and how much money you make each week. If you’re starting a work-for-hire studio, you need to track your billable hours, as well as your bizdev pipeline.

There are lots of good articles on the types of analytics and funnels you need to run a successful free-to-play game. The fundamentals are applicable to any type of business — whether you’re tracking how many people walk into your bakery and comparing that to how many of them actually buy pies, or tracking how many meetings you had at GDC and comparing it to how many deals you actually signed.

My pal Ben Brown wrote a solid article about how he’s tracking stats, which was in part inspired by a conversation we had about tracking business progress:

How We’re Doing Stats at Howdy

5. Share your progress

I’m a big fan of developing in public. You don’t have to open source every piece of code you write, or share all of your trade secrets with the whole Internet. But if you give the public regular updates on your progress, you’re giving folks more opportunities to get involved, and you’re also holding yourself accountable for the promises you’ve made. Having this blog is part of my plan to share progress… much like my previous blog of weekly game ideas was a few years back.

The rise of crowdfunding is a big vote in favor of public development. The more public we make our projects and our progress, the more accountable we are to do the things we’re promising. The promises can be to our fans, investors, business partners, or employees. We all know examples of companies that over-promised and under-delivered. I think a big reason for this is that those teams weren’t sharing their progress in an objective way with the public, while their leaders were making unrealistic promises about a final product that could take years (or decades) longer to make.

I’m big on promises — I think trust is one of the purest forms of currency we have in society. If I say I’m going to do something, and I do it, I earn trust. And if I never end up doing the things I talk about, I lose trust, and eventually become known as untrustworthy. Does everything I plan to do actually come to fruition just like I hoped? No, of course not. But know that every day I’m simultaneously striving to only make promises that I can keep, and I do my damnedest to keep the promises that I’ve made.

6. Stick with it!

You’re going to stumble. You’re going to fail. You won’t be able to keep every promise you make, and it will sting. But that’s ok. No one is perfect, and we all get knocked on our ass from time to time. Don’t sweat it. Pick yourself up, or ask for help getting back up. Dust yourself off. Learn from what happened. And then get back on the horse and keep going.

If you’re feeling like you can’t do it, go back to step #1 and trick yourself into thinking that you can again. It can require a change, a shift in strategy, or perhaps something drastic. Maybe you need to shut down the last company and clear your mental plate to make room for the next great idea. Or maybe you need to take your biz partner out to breakfast and put all your emotional cards on the table. If you’ve brought friends along with you on the journey thus far, they can be there for you when you need them the most.

I’m not a fan of repeatedly banging my head against a wall… at least, not in the same spot over and over again. I’d much rather bang my head against lots of different spots in the wall until I find a loose brick. Once you find the loose brick, the magic can happen. With enough effort, one loose brick can turn into a dozen… a hundred… a million! So don’t be afraid to try different approaches to the same problem. As I’ve previously written, most of my prior companies have pivoted once or twice:

Startup curve balls and change-ups

That’s it for this week! Until next time, play nice!
Patrick

P.S. Social media requires this blog post to have a photo. So here’s me. Again.