Pressure to do something meaningful and useful
Lately I've been feeling what I think is too much pressure to do something meaningful and useful.
I've found it hard to focus on my regular work and other trivial tasks because they don't feel meaningful enough - but not just that!
It seems that even things that are at first glance meaningful, such as learning more about AI or getting into game development or testing SaaS ideas, have become not the "perfect" use of my time.
It seems like I'm not satisfied unless I find the holy grail of how to spend my time.
It might be that I spend too much time on my own and my brain is trying to tell me that I need to have more people around me and a shared purpose, otherwise the survival instinct of not being on my own in the woods kicks in.
I feel like I need to explore all the communities, know what's going on in every industry, think about the best way to help society & make money & save the planet at the same time, and what happens is I just end up browsing the internet and consuming other people's content instead of actually creating something.
There might be some value in consuming a lot of content I'm sure, but is not having any output because other people's output is already better a justification?
Have you guys dealt with this before? How do you accept that there's no perfect way to spend your time and doing anything is better than doing nothing at all?
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I've been thinking a lot recently about how many things start off as trivial but end up being some thing more.
Personally, I only started Indie Hackers for the arguably trivial and selfish reason of not wanting to have a boss. It didn't matter to me if it could be impactful or meaningful, so long as it could pay my rent. I would figure the rest out later. The result, ironically, is that today I have a boss, and I spend 100% of my time thinking about how to make IH more impactful and meaningful. Things don't always end up where they started out.
So my advice is to just give yourself permission to do a small, trivial thing. Don't worry at all about some grand end goal, but also don't allow yourself to stagnate. The ideal middle ground is to instead always be thinking about how you can build off what you've done to make incremental progress to the next phase. As the cliche goes, you can walk a thousand miles by continually focusing on the next step.
This is a really great point IMO and something we should always keep in the back of our minds.
I've been here before. I still get the feeling occasionally. I used to play video games every moment I wasn't at work until I began working on projects of my own. This feeling disappears when you have a mission.
The easiest mission to have is to help other people. Find somebody that needs help and help them. No matter how small. It could be answering a question on Stackoverflow or Twitter or Indiehackers. Or it could be building an app to solve something big.
I also recommend writing. You can journal or write content online or both. Ideally, you should try to write to publish stuff online. Writing is the easiest way to create things. As you write, you also discover new ways to think about your thoughts. I start writing anytime I find myself with a million ideas in my head. Getting the thoughts down lets me stop thinking about them. It frees me up to focus on what I want to accomplish.
Finally, as a general rule of thumb, create more than you consume. Who's to judge if other people's output is better than yours? Those kinds of judgments are subjective, so you shouldn't worry about them. There's an insane thirst for content all over the internet. It feels like there are a million blogs, articles, and forums with all of the information anyone could need. But that's not the case at all. The same information written by two people will sound very different. Groups of people prefer different writing styles and perspectives. A lot of people like to get multiple perspectives anyway.
Don't worry about being original. Don't worry about being great. Just create something. The first versions are probably going to be terrible. That's okay. The only way to get to a point where you're creating good stuff is to get past those first versions. So just start.
I love this! I've never really had a writing habit, but I've been considering starting to journal for a while now. I think this might be the last thing I needed to hear before I actually take the plunge into writing.
One of the few pieces of advice I hear from everyone is "just start". And I really believe it is great advice, but that doesn't mean I end up following it
That's wonderful to hear! I hope you do take the dive and start writing :)
I discovered this about a year ago when I joined a "500 words a day" community (https://writetogether.space/). I stuck with it for about two months and found mental clarity that I had never had before.
I ended up not continuing there because I wasn't a fan of the tooling and process. I began searching around for other writing tools that not only encouraged a habit but helped with editing and publishing as well. I couldn't find anything that did all the things I wanted so I began building Polished!
The "just start" advice is sooooo good. I think I first saw it from @csallen. But it's one of those things where you don't really get it until you do it. What does "just start" even mean? It's different for everybody. There's no formula.
The best way I can think to break it down is to just do something you've been wanting to do - make a website, write about something, or any creative output - then go tell someone about it. Just keep iterating that loop of "Do something => tell people" and you'll end up somewhere pretty good.
Super cool! I clicked around in your demo and its such a unique take on journaling/writing I think you'll probably get some super polarized feedback. But that doesn't matter as long as you have some people that love it.
Out of curiosity have you thought about a monetization strategy? Are you thinking traditional SaaS or something else? I'll be following along your progress as you make it to launch!
Thank you! I'm prepared to welcome the polarizing feedback :)
I still have quite a bit of building to do. In the future, it shouldn't feel much different than a text editor when you first open it. Then as you use it more, you can pick up and use the features you want. Opposed to the conventional model of "here's a thing we built - here's a tutorial on how to use it."
I have thought quite a bit about the monetization strategy. I've tried to line it up with the product strategy. I'm hoping to get the first paid version rolling by the end of the year.
For the first version, there will only be a desktop app (the web demo will still exist). There will be a free version and a paid "Pro" version with more features and a pricing model similar to Sketch. The "Pro" version will have a lifetime license plus one year of version upgrades. After the year of updates expires, a customer is free to keep using the app. If they want more version upgrades (new pro features), they can buy an upgrade license. An upgrade license would be cheaper than the initial license.
I'm launching as a desktop app first so that I can hone the experience without needing to worry about supporting servers and storing data.
After that, if things are smoothing out, I plan to build cloud storage support on a monthly subscription plan (to people who want it - they can happily stay on the desktop version if they wish). The cloud tier would support accessing your documents and workspaces on any device. This phase is to lay the groundwork for the next one.
The final phase and pricing tier I have planned will be for creating an online community. Similar to the "write 500 words a day", it would be a community that helps you create a habit, but also get better at editing and publishing.
The details are somewhat vague as I look that far out because I'm super focused on the now. I'm hoping I'll get there, but I need to build out a solid foundation first.
Most of what I just wrote is on my site at the roadmap under the pricing tiers section in each phase: https://polished.app/roadmap/
P.S. - Sorry this is so long, I could talk about this all-day
That's awesome! It sounds like you have it pretty well thought out so far. Keep those long-term ideas in your head, but make sure you stay open to opportunities as they present themselves to you.
Hey, no need to apologize for being excited about what you're working on and sharing that excitement :).
Yeah, totally. I've kept the far-out stuff in just the idea phase and haven't considered a lot of details. I will definitely stay open to any opportunities that come around.
Thanks! Hit me up any time if you wanna chat or bounce ideas
"The easiest mission to have is to help other people." YES! This is a great starting point.
It gets even more motivating and focusing when you figure out who those people are and how you want to help them. This doesn't have to super-specific either. Mine has been "Help people with a (hopefully positive) message spread their voice on social media". This has resulted in 3 different companies and I have plenty more ideas to work on within this ethos.
Hope it helps!
Hey Marcos, I've definitely felt like this before. It almost seems like a form of imposter syndrome and it can be absolutely debilitating!
I can only speak to what has helped me to deal with these sorts of feelings when I have them, so take any "advice" here with a grain of salt.
I generally find that I feel this way because there is a cognitive dissonance between where I am in life/what I'm currently doing and what I want to achieve. It's almost like this self-imposed pressure that makes you feel like you're just wasting time. Then to remedy that you go online and start reading about what other people are doing (obviously because you want to find some direction for yourself to be more productive). Then you get into this cycle of feeling worse because you're wasting even more time watching other people be productive.
Like most people here, I assume that you're pretty driven and have some lofty goals (build a successful product/company, financial independence, etc.). The problem with big goals is that they are often too vague to know if you are making progress on a day by day basis. For myself, I find that making goals around the type of person I want to be rather than what I want to achieve is helpful in avoiding feelings of not doing something useful. Doing this means that success is a lot easier to measure.
For example (and again, these examples are from my life so they may not be relevant to you or everyone), I want to be a learner. So to fulfill this goal I try to learn something new every day and share it. This could be as small as reading an article and telling someone about it. I also made a goal to be a full-stack JavaScript developer. This is an easy one because I've met my goal by trying to set aside time to code every day. It doesn't matter what I code. As long as I do it I've fulfilled my goal. For me, it's more about the mental game of wiring myself to be productive. I've found that once my focus is shifted away from lofty goals to day to day activities/actions, then opportunities and ideas just seem to follow.
Hope this helps!
This helps, thank you. I'm sure you'll be the type of person you want to be. Cheers
You are not alone. This is my current situation
Yes, all the time!
You have to start somewhere. No one's path is a straight line. Those curved paths, stops and starts, going off the beaten path, going the wrong direction -- that is what will create a different vision for you, a better understanding of how things are and how things should be.
You need to take those steps. You need to make mistakes, fail, learn, see new ways of looking at things. These are all important steps, and that's what makes each of us unique in how we view the world.
From there, it's just about using your perspective to make the world around you better in whichever way you can.
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A quote I really like:
Your significance will remain forever obscure to you, but you may assume that you are fulfilling your role if you apply yourself to converting your experiences to the highest advantage of others
In my opinion all this search of meaning comes from a fear of being irrelevant and, after dead, forgotten.
The cure is to understand that on a long enough time frame nothing is meaningful or important.
Now you would think that this jind of reasoning will lead you to nihilism and for some people it does.
For the vast majority however, it is freeing. It will lead you to do the things that you like and that as a consequence will bring more meaningful results than planning about meaninful activities ever will.
feeling this hard.
you have many shots on goal, dont need to shoot for the moon in your first try.
once you have financial independence, a lot more doors open.
I recommend you this great blog post written by @levelsio https://levels.io/enjoy-your-tea-and-a-cookie/
Easier said than done, but always remind yourself that the most important thing is to do everything at your own pace, the way you like it.
It's natural to feel this way. I've find myself there plenty of times and I'm in the cycle of finding something new right now. It's hard.
I like what many others have already written, such as journaling, setting better goals, starting on anything, etc. All great tactical ideas.
One major thing has been missed though. And that's self-compassion. In other words, I try to be as kind to myself as I am towards others, not beating myself up for mistakes I make or using cognitive distortions (i.e. irrational thoughts that can influence your emotions). Finding an idea and direction times time and patience.
Self-compassion is critical for success in building a business. Give this book a chance if your interested in learning more => https://www.amazon.com/Gifts-Imperfection-Think-Supposed-Embrace/dp/159285849X
Been feeling that for a while. It's so hard to find the thing to work on. I want to create a magnus opus of sorts, but what? I don't have any real passions.
I don't think anybody doesn't have at least one thing they are passionate about. Perhaps you don't know what those passions are. I feel as though I still don't know what mine are. But I do know that there are things that excite me, and I love to pursue.
Is there anything you find exciting? Perhaps you need to pull strings a little more on stuff that makes you go "hmmm."
If you want to build something big, like a magnus opus as you say, the only way to get there is by starting small. Write one thing. Then write another thing. Repeat that, and eventually, all of the little things will amount to one huge thing.
Thank you for the reply! Yeah I have a lot of hobbies and activities. Still need to dig deeper into myself. Sometimes I feel like I want to do so much I don't even want to start. I have like 5 side projects I'd like to pursue. And all of them take equal priority haha. I feel I need to hone in on one and stick to it until the finish line. The ADHD makes it hard hah
Hahah yeah, I feel you. I used to start a project once a week until I found what I'm currently working on. I used to think that was bad, but now I've realized that starting a new project all the time was just the discovery phase. When you find that thing you want to work on, you'll know it, and you won't want to work on anything else.
All I can say is, don't let all the projects paralyze you. Work a little bit on each one. Start new ones. Just keep doing things. The fastest way to progress is to work on something, then tell people about it. Tell people on here, or Twitter, or in real life. You'll get feedback that will help shape your thoughts on where you want to go.
Don't feel any shame in switching a lot, either. That was my biggest hurdle. I'd tell people, and they'd be like, "but weren't you working on x." I didn't know it at the time, but my answer should have been, "Yeah, I'm still in the discovery phase."
Good luck!
Thank you! I'll for sure that take advice. I'm glad I'm not the only one hah. Good luck to you too!
I think about this occasionally, and while there are many noble causes such as feeding the poor, DV, saving the planet, children and animals; things that may seem irrelevant and whimsical too may be meaningful if you allow yourself to look at them from a different perspective.
People need ways to communicate, ways to get around, be entertained, jobs and ways to make income to improve their lives, social interaction, knowledge, and ways to grow. All of these are important causes in their own right, even though their immediate label may seem irrelevant.
YouTube is possible the easiest concrete example to convey this idea. People used to have to be discovered to be on TV. Internet, Youtube and everything that happened in between (faster networks, hardware etc.) has transformed the balance of power in who gets to have their face in front of millions of people. This is extremely powerful stuff. I am not sure the creators of YouTube realized this when they made a service for posting videos online.
Partly the reason why I think of this, is because I very often make "fun" things. I have also, over time, learned that the way I intended it, may not be the final function of the software /product, as it evolves over time.
For these reasons I consciously try not to chase things based on how meaningful I perceive them to be initially, and let things run at their own pace.
Another side note -- the power of your product will become apparent once it becomes more popular. Everything looks very different when you have 0, 1000, 100K, 1M users.
Hi there! I'm totally sympathetic. I feel exactly the same way and hope to find something worth pursuing soon.
I don't personally believe in the idea of a "Holy Grail" product, rather I like to think of all of my leanings, experiences and knowledge as the "Holy Grail" in itself that will get me to where I want to go. It's too easy to be hard on yourself in this day and age. We can always do better, but chances are that right now, you're doing just fine!
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