Experience Tumblr Like Never Before
Source: https://martinrue.com/to-be-productive-be-prepared/
Motivation by itself gives us the willingness to do something, but nothing more. Once we make a start, the game changes and it becomes about knowing how to make progress.
Knowing how to make progress and making progress are two different things, but we often conflate them and treat them as the same thing. We basically jump into the task and start. Only, it’s not really starting because we’re repeatedly stopping to think about design, architecture, security, how it will look, how it will work, which database to use. The list goes on.
But knowing how to make progress before you start is important. Before you start your next task, complete the following in as much detail as possible:
Describe exactly what the new [feature/bug/thing] will do
Describe exactly how it will do it, giving as much technical detail as you can think of now
If it has a visual element, quickly sketch out how it’ll look
If you can do this before you start, you’ll have a good idea of:
What you’re doing and what the definition of complete is
What to add (or what to change) in order to make it happen
Roughly how it looks or feels, which often clarifies details of the point above