Ruthlessly prioritise

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Juggling too many projects

A few weeks before the start of this year, I committed to writing a post a week. I saw writing as an essential skill that helped with creative thinking and expression. A post could be related to an ongoing project, an idea I'd like to explore, or a completely random topic.

I was able to write a post for five weeks straight until it came crashing down. As soon as 2025 came around I had missed writing a post for the entire month of January.

What happened?

I had lost my focus and started to pile on additional projects that I thought I could commit to. Naturally, the task of writing a weekly post was the first to go. I was struggling to keep up with everything. After a month of constant juggling, I realised that managing all of these projects was not realistic and that I needed to kill some of my darlings.

I was having some fun with the new projects for the first few weeks. But I had an honest conversation with myself and realised that if I was going to be successful in building my site PathtoDesign.com I needed to make time for it and not be distracted.

It was a tough decision as I could see the potential of all of these new projects, but they were pulling my time and energy apart. I needed to focus and be okay with not pursuing all of my many ideas.

I needed to prioritise and stop myself from packing on anything more.

Getting back into the swing of things

After making this decision I immediately felt less stressed. I am more focused and I have the time to work on the projects that I have prioritised. Sure it sucks that I can't pursue the other projects right now, but I'm seeing progress in the project that I wanted to commit to in the first place.

I've been able to successfully get multiple designers to write a post on my site and have increased my network. I've even seen an increase in traffic to the site.

I'm on a good trajectory all because I was able to focus.

A gentle reminder

I lost my way a little. I tend to do this. I have a lot of unfinished projects. This was a learning lesson that I hope I won't forget or repeat. If I do, this post will help remind me to stay the course, ruthlessly prioritise and focus on what I deem to be important.