
Getting shit done. A guide for lazypreneurs - herbst
https://www.lazypreneur.pw/2016/getting-shit-done/
======
kristianc
I'm waiting for the Google algorithm update that smacks down 400 word blog
posts with lots of headers, thin analysis and a "subscribe to my email
updates" callout at the end.

~~~
hueving
Hackernews does not depend on the Google algorithm though, so I'm not sure
that would accomplish anything if your goal is to get rid of these articles.

~~~
kristianc
Without search as a channel, there's little reward for writing them.

The chances of an article such as this rising up Hacker News and staying there
are thankfully, vanishingly rare.

------
amelius
> Toilet/Coffee break? Waiting for the Bus? Keep your project alive by just
> thinking about it.

Imho, if you aren't doing this already, you shouldn't be an entrepeneur in the
first place.

~~~
herbst
absolutely. one would think so. i know to many people considering themself
entrepreneurs who give their projects "business hours" tho.

thats like a guarantee to fail

~~~
msellout
I asked a guy who had taken four startups to IPO how it was he seemed to work
such reasonable hours while other entrepreneurs worked much longer. He said he
assumed they were mostly doing trial and error, while he had a better sense of
what to do.

------
davidbanham
> Talk about your project This not only should help you to focus by thinking
> about it. But also give feedback and social pressure.

I am feeling pangs of horrible boredom just imagining being seated next to
someone following this advice at a dinner party. Ugh.

~~~
Programmatic
Not to mention that talking about your plans appears to decrease the odds of
you doing them

[https://sivers.org/zipit](https://sivers.org/zipit)

~~~
jwdunne
Unless, as alluded at the end, you make a public commitment to achieving your
goal. This explains why the whole dollar if you don't thing works for some
people.

The gist is it's not great to prematurely celebrate an incomplete goal but it
may help having someone or something holding you accountable.

~~~
herbst
Exactly. I was thinking about peers asking "how is your N coming". 99% of them
wont care anyway, but there is a bit pressure and nobody would want to say "i
stopped it because i am a lazy bastard".

For me, it helps. I see what the article is trying to tell us tho, i see that
it may does not work for everything.

~~~
Programmatic
Anecdotally, I still wind up stopping because... I'm a lazy bastard. Feeling
like you've failed on a random project that you talked about is demotivating,
so I can see the point both ways. I renovated my master bathroom several years
ago and had talked about it at work, but I'm lazy ;) so it took about a year
to complete. Being the butt of the "so how's the bathroom going ;D" joke at
work did not really help my motivation on it, having an upcoming wedding and
needing to get it finished did.

I've been working on doing only one project at a time, which has helped with
my success rate and self worth. I still think about several and have a hard
time focusing, but I try not to talk about them until they're actually in
progress if at all.

------
obj-g
Pretty lazy article, too. I guess that should have been expected.

~~~
hartpuff
Pretty lazy site. Four posts total, about the same number of affiliate links
to Fiverr and Digital Ocean, and no examples of how he put this guide into
practice in his other (unnamed) "successful site", referred to on his About
page.

In fact the article that mentions his other site (the Adsense post) says
nothing of thinking about it in the shower, getting feedback or scoping ideas;
simply of _copying an existing site_ , knocking out 4 posts of barely 300
words, posting about it on Reddit, and _by accident_ creating something people
like.

Still, #3 on HN, so I guess someone likes it.

~~~
herbst
No idea how the #3 happened as this article (and as you noticed the whole
website) is pretty lazy (guess it fits the topic and the idea people love so
much to get rich from nothing).

Thanks for the honest critique, you are right. I should probably try harder to
build a connection between the articles and actually put some information in
there that people can relate to.

~~~
hartpuff
Well you lose marks (metaphorically, I don't mean downvotes) for talking about
copying another site and doing it better, and then not naming your own site,
perhaps because you don't want someone to copy it and do it better. (Unless
it's just so Adsense violating that you can't say what it is.)

I think a better article might be one which went through the process and
lessons learned in creating and building up your Adsense site. Even if you
weren't following your own guide posted here, and it was about how you weren't
100% sure what you were doing, but you learned that this thing worked, and
this thing didn't.

I suspect that's going to be more interesting to people than an article giving
advice and suggestions that there's no real evidence you've actually
(successfully) employed yourself.

Anyway, you win points (a literal upvote) for being good enough to tolerate
and respond to criticism here.

~~~
herbst
Afaik i am not allowed to talk about the numbers when i also mention the site
itself, it sucks but i dont want to destroy my adsense income for bragging
rights.

You idea for a article is great, i think i also could great something really
worth reading in that topic.

This whole thing is a play environment for me and see how people react to
different things. (Like again how did that even made it to the frontpage? It
was written in less than a hour)

Anyway, i really appreciate your input. Most honest response so far!

------
martin-adams
Putting the quality of the article aside that others have alluded to, I think
it's relevant to share what I've done to combat my 'laziness'.

I actually started daily vlogging and I'm going through the motion of creating
a startup in that vlog, sharing all the successes and failures. So bit by bit
I get to create something, move that needle and have the YouTube channel to be
accountable to. Only been doing it for a month and a half, but it's given me
more energy, I'm learning a lot and helping me reach out to other people to
move things forward.

While not for everyone, I think it's important to experiment with techniques
and try to find something that keeps you going.

~~~
herbst
That is a great solution. Glad it works for you!

I am to awkward to put myself in front of a camera every day, and honestly i
probably would not want to hear any negative comments on what i am doing (on
the other side, i am doing well in this thread, its just the anxiety that
scares me i guess ;)

~~~
martin-adams
For me, being on camera is a personal thing. I don't mind it, but I know doing
it every day makes it a lot, lot easier. There's always audio and of course
written text to share your journey with.

At the end of the day, you have to start somewhere, and the two things I think
are:

1\. You are only as good as the last piece of content you put out. So if it
gets critically slated, then go learn from it and improve for the next.

2\. Embrace the failure, and that includes the negative comments. Take a third
person view and treat it all as an experiment which you can learn from. Enjoy
the successes and share the learning from failures.

~~~
herbst
I love how your 2 points perfectly fit my post and the outcome in this thread
:)

You are right tho. Especially 2. is something that was hard for me to learn
but once i did changed everything. Failing is basically the main source of
experience.

------
pkorzeniewski
In my opinion the main problem with having a hard time motivating yourself to
work on a project is the simple fact that subconsciously we don't really feel
passionate about it - from the technical point, the problem it solves or the
niche it's intended for. Why not take a step back and think if this project is
really important to you and something you'd like to work on for the next X
months/years, maybe you do it only because you want to learn new technology,
or you hope it will make a lot of money, or you want to create something
related to your passion, but the project itself is boring, or you feel it's
the "future", but not your kind of future. You could read dozen of books, take
motivational courses, practive meditation and so on, but if you aren't really,
REALLY passionate about the thing you want to create, you'll need to push
yourself over and over again, until you get burned out.

~~~
herbst
Well it depends. My general interest usually starts to fade when i implemented
a solution for my problem. The "solutions" i find are not shipable and wont
help others in the way they are. The though time after that is polishing it
and build a product around it.

Sure i could just not do that ever, but that would lead to nothing as well.

------
krzrak
I found other article on this website, pretty entertaining: "Fiverr: my worst
experience and why i still like it" [https://www.lazypreneur.pw/2016/fiverr-
worst-experience-stil...](https://www.lazypreneur.pw/2016/fiverr-worst-
experience-still-like/)

------
elie_CH
This must have been upvoted by some bots.

~~~
herbst
(wonders himself what it does on the frontpage)

~~~
TheOtherHobbes
(Wonders if you can get on the frontpage through Fiverr.)

~~~
herbst
(waits for links to fiverr gigs, because #1 sounds sweet too)

~~~
zo1
Wow, I didn't think I'd find some, but here they are:

[https://www.fiverr.com/aashiralvi/upvote-your-reddit-or-
hack...](https://www.fiverr.com/aashiralvi/upvote-your-reddit-or-hacker-news-
posts)

[https://www.fiverr.com/nusratria/provide-you-30-real-
hacker-...](https://www.fiverr.com/nusratria/provide-you-30-real-hacker-news-
upvotes)

Found plenty of fiverr tasks for Reddit upvotes, too.

~~~
herbst
Honestly i did not check i was just joking. I am as surprised as you are O.o
But well its fiverr, we shouldnt be surprised. You can buy fiverr comments on
fiverr.

------
q3q3q3q3
Give me my 2 minutes back and also stop writing blog posts. (forever )

~~~
herbst
assuming i wont do that and chances are high you accidiently will read trough
one of my crappy articles in the future. what are the key aspects i should be
working on? (except the lazyness of the article itself)

~~~
q3q3q3q3
I liked the topic initially but you didn't provide value in that post, you
just stated out facts that everyone knew already.

Show research effort, bring value and I'll gladly read through and disable my
ad blocker.

~~~
herbst
This is more of a opinion written by a anonymous someone, i see the issue.
Kudos on the honesty, until next time ;)

------
milesf
One tweak I'd change: DON'T talk about what you're going to do, but only talk
about what you've done. [https://sivers.org/zipit](https://sivers.org/zipit)

