A new website section, a small booklet, a long article: three ideas look promising, but your schedule has room for one. Scott H Young's article is useful here. It considers how to choose a project worth your attention.
Why read this: being busy is only part of the question
Scott argues that choosing what to work on is part of productivity. We cannot know in advance which project will turn out best, yet waiting for certainty would leave us unable to begin. He distinguishes having too many ideas from having too few: the first calls for a higher threshold for commitments; the second calls for more exploration.
If you have too many ideas, focus on “Ruling Out, Ruling In” and “Making the Choice.” They help you narrow the field before committing your time.
The core idea: rule things out, then give your choice time
Setting an idea aside leaves room to return to it later. Ask three practical questions: Can I make a minimum version with the time I have? Does it serve a reader problem I currently care about? What would I need to pause to make room for it?
Ideas without clear answers can stay on a candidate list while you choose this week's work.
Scott also suggests separating deciding from doing. Consider resources and risks when deciding; once you choose, allow a period of work without continually reopening the decision. His article gives a month as an example. For a website article, this site proposes a seven-day trial, an editorial adaptation of that principle.
Apply it to a personal website
Suppose you want to write a website-building tutorial, create a template, and start an interview series. Compare what you could deliver this week. You already have real screenshots for the tutorial and could draft it in two days. The template has no identified user yet, and no interview is arranged.
Choosing the tutorial and putting the other two on a “revisit later” list preserves both the ideas and this week's attention. This is a decision exercise developed by this site; the source offers a way to choose, with the outcome of any project still uncertain.
Try this today: make a choice card
- List up to three competing ideas. Describe each in one sentence: whose problem would it solve?
- For each, name the smallest seven-day output, the time required, and any material you must obtain first.
- Choose one you can start. Give it a first-delivery date, and give the other two dates for reconsideration.
- During the trial, capture new ideas. Reconsider early when significant new facts justify doing so.
Finish with a card that makes the tradeoffs clear and a minimum output you have started making.
Return in seven days
What did you deliver? Where were your estimates of time and materials inaccurate? Has new evidence changed the choice, or does another idea simply feel fresher? Record your answers before continuing, adjusting, or changing direction.
Original article and author
How to Decide What to Work On · Scott H Young · March 2022. The personal-website example and seven-day choice card were developed by this site.