One shiny object

Many of us suffer from shiny object syndrome – the inability to focus on one thing long enough to finish it before jumping to something else, and not finishing that.

For me (eventually), I realised that the problem wasn’t having too many ideas; It was not having a system for capturing and processing them.

I’d stupidly start acting on a flash of an idea before I’d explored if this thing even had a right to exist – buy a domain and build something… quick, before someone else thinks of it!

Older me likes a slower pace, so now I just capture the idea in my “Shiny Objects” note.

Giving the idea space in a document was an important step to get it out of my head, and prevent me from doing dumb stuff.

In a document it’s contained and can be considered… Left alone in my head, it’s urgent.

Once in the document, it has to earn it’s way out by answering a few questions. Something like:

• Have I delivered something like it before?
• How many would I aim to sell?
• How much could I charge for it?
• Does the time needed to deliver it instinctively feel like a good trade-off for how much I could charge for it?
• Is there something already out there that would hurt this idea… Or, is there possibly space for this too?
• Could I put a guarantee on it?

Just a high-level gut-check to gauge if there’s anything worth exploring here.

Make your shiny objects work for your attention – then shut everything else out by fending it off into your Shiny Objects document for another day.