How hardcore focus can quickly lead to neglect
By: RJ McCollam
I recently listed my weekly goals in a mastermind that I am a part of and felt pretty awesome about not only what was on my list, but how much of that list I got done. Someone followed up their “Way to go man!” with the question of “What are you doing to get more clients?”. A question that kind of caught me off guard, but in a good way.
I am a freelancer, so my income is directly related to the amount of client work that I have. This year however, I am taking steps in a different direction, slowly starting the transition from client work to building products and productized services. And as a result I have been putting a lot of effort into thinking about, designing, and developing web apps.
The question was raised during a week where I had just come out the other side of a large stretch of client projects that were one after another so I had a lighter work load in that regard. I set all of my focus towards getting new content out and finishing design on an app I am working on.
Eye on the prize, the right prize
In the freelance/entrepreneur space you read and hear a lot about getting shit done and hustling. Regardless of your feeling on either of those phrases they are true if you want to reach a certain level of success, and that is what I thought I was doing. I thought that I was focusing and getting shit done, but I realized that instead of really focusing I might have been losing sight of my true priorities. The client work that helps me pay the bills.
A healthy balance
Having a side hustle, or whatever you want to call it, is a fantastic thing. It keeps you motivated and gives you a reason to push yourself. What I am having to be mindful of is keeping the scale of client and personal work balanced properly.
You can get lost in the excitement that comes along with working on something you feel inspired to work on. You can’t take all of these mantras and sayings that are flooding our Twitter feeds so literal sometimes.
Everyone has a different situation and works their own way, but as makers we are often plagued by having many ideas and having more than one thing we are working on at a time. Just remember to look up every now and then while you are crushing it and make sure that nothing is being neglected.
