I didn’t think we would get a card together this year. Mary had this idea at the last minute and got us all organized to knock it out one evening. If you’re a child of the 1970s, or even close, you may remember the thumbprint books from Ed Emberley. See below.

And here’s a zoomed in shot of the back of the Christmas card:

Mary’s mother was a teacher and had given her the book that inspired the card this year. Ed Emberley’s Great Thumbprint Drawing Book from 1977.

This book reminds me of a t-shirt my brother had as a kid that looked like one of these characters and said “You’re Thumbody Special.” Good times.

Don’t try this at home! Actually, it was pretty fun screenprinting this lampshade, but it was also a challenge. White Plastisol ink is very thick and difficult to push through the screen, even when using a coarser mesh. I got the pattern repeat tweaked in Photoshop and very carefully registered the fabric each time it was printed. Overall I like the effect. 

Detail of lampshade with light off

Detail with light on

I built this mini bike using an Azusa kit and a Predator 212 engine. I don’t think I’ll ever buy another Azusa frame set. As someone who used to weld and fabricate for a living I think I can objectively say that the build quality on the frame is not great. Sure, the welds are strong and I have no concerns about it breaking. But the engine plate wasn’t square with the frame, the pin for the fork on the drum brake had to be cut down because collided with the sprocket, and the head tube for the fork had distorted from welding and I had to ream it out just to get the bolt through. Weld spatter and burrs are not a big deal but the structural problems were disappointing. I made it work though.

The design theme is a tribute to my father. I have never known anyone who is such a hard core DIYer as my Dad, except for his father, and my younger brother. From cars to houses to furniture and art projects. Dad just goes for it. Actually, my Mom is the same way. So I got the “do it” gene from both sides.

Various custom touches are detailed below. This video also lets you hear how the Predator engine with a straight header sounds. No wheelies were performed in this video. But this little scooter will pull the wheel up with ease. The first time I rode it the front wheel was a foot in the air before I noticed. Hang on.

Left side view shows off the clutch cover I made. Also, I blacked out the drum brake (and foot peg clips) to help break up all the silver at the rear wheel.

I used an old lamp to make the clutch cover. I’ve been hanging on to this old floor lamp I got from a neighbor YEARS ago. Obviously I was never going to get around to restoring it. Mini bike calling…

I sectioned about an inch out of the lamp ball and then notched it for the chain. I already had one of the common cheap chrome clutch guards so I modified that by chopping it down the corners so I could use it as a bracket. I then bent some flat bar to make an arm to hold the ball. It’s pretty solid and doesn’t vibrate or shake. As far as repurposing objects I’ve definitely been inspired by the work of Jeep2003 on Youtube, and the OMB forums.

I think the bulbous clutch cover helps to visually balance out the offset of the Predator engine.

This Predator engine is pretty ugly overall. I tried to fix that some by painting various parts, but that still left the big plastic air filter box. I thought about modifying that but eventually went the easy route with a filter upgrade, which also meant rejetting the carb and upgrading the emulsion tube. The gas tank and valve cover both vent to the stock filter box. Reading the forums at OldMiniBikes.com I saw that guys with a similar set up used a small breather filter to address this. I put a tee fitting into the original hose from the valve cover so I could also use it to vent the gas tank. I cut the hoses in a way that would position it straight back so it looked tidy.

Because the exhaust is visible here I’ll mention that I sprayed that with VHT White and it’s holding up great. I’ve always loved white headers from the 1960s drag cars and some hot rods.

Dad had a Gulf service station in the early 1970s. The young mechanic in this photo is a guy that worked for my father.

So I had to add a Gulf sticker to the starter cover. I found it on eBay. Originally I thought about going with the classic Gulf racing livery of light blue and orange. I love that, but I also see a lot on project cars. Plus, this medium blue metallic was calling my name at the hardware store.

The foot pegs with Azusa mini bike kit, in my experience, don’t work well. I had them tight enough that the clips were deformed and they still couldn’t take much weight without slipping. I got a piece of all-thread to replace the bolts, and used locknuts on both sides of the clips. Problem solved.

The Azusa frame and fork bang into each when you turn full lock. I made some handlebar bumpers from 7/8″ plastic furniture feet. I cut out the bottom, leaving a plastic ring. Then I cut that into and attached it to the frame with some strong double stick tape. Seems to be holding up.

Also, I tried routing the cables a number of ways but this ending working the best. I adjusted things so the cables don’t rub the paint off or kink up. Without a number plate going through that space would be a good option.

I knew I wanted a number plate with “44” because that’s the year my Dad was born. At first I thought I would use a vintage BMX plate but they are just too big. I made this one with a piece of steel sheet metal, some small angle brackets, and polished allen bolts up top. I radiused the corners to match the diameter of the frame tubes, you know, so it flows. Finding cool looking numbers was not easy. I was on the verge of making my own when I found these boat numbers. They’re not as funky as I wanted but I think they have a little flavor.

The low oil sensor and some other wires hanging off the front of the Predator 212 engine are an eyesore. I found an old plastic soccer ball pump in the attic and decided it now had a higher calling. I chopped off a third of it, got rid of the plunger and needle, cut a slot up the back, and hung it on small aluminum bracket I fabbed up.

Dad and me in his 1958 MGA. This was a good day. We’ve had a lot of them. If I’m a resourceful person at all, Dad is the major reason for that. There were no lessons, just leading by example. I hope I’ve done the same for my kids.

Thanks for reading.

This post is starting with a photo of the finished product. I’ve been lugging around a pair of Bose 901 Series IV speakers I got from a neighbor for more years than I care to admit. The cabinets are solid wood and are in great condition. But this “high tech” for-its-time speaker had problems. The primary one being that it holds nine (!) small speakers and every one, in both cabinets, 18 (!), has a foam “surround” connected to the speaker cone that had decayed over the years. There are kits available to restore these, but I decided to go for a modern upgrade instead. Vintage Bose fans will hate this. Most audiophiles, which I am definitely not, don’t consider these to be great sounding or “accurate” so I had no guilt about cutting them up.

I already had a Sonos Play 5 I and love it. I also love the funky retro-modern look of the Bose 901, especially when paired with a chrome speaker stand. The Bose cabinet is plenty big to hold a Play 5. By putting them together I got the look I want and great Sonos functionality. Plus, no speakers wires necessary! Just plug it in to a close electrical outlet and you’re good to go.

Here’s what I was working with.

I started by marking off my cut lines. The challenging part of gutting one of these cabinets is that they contain a complex, honeycomb-like web of plastic chambers. So, instead of cutting through a single layer of plastic I had to cut through multiple layers using a variety of tools. I started by plunging a circular saw to get some clean cuts on the front. Then followed up with a recip saw a long blade to get across the guts. I had to leave the borders intact to give the tweed front panel something to hold its shape.

I love the smell of  burning plastic in the morning. Smells like… victory! Or at least a gutted Bose 901:

Unfortunately, there’s still more work to do. The plastic webs are mortised into the wood and glued with a mastic. Quality assembly! No wonder they were expensive. I had to chisel out the bottom pieces so the Sonos speaker would have a nice flat resting place.

Almost ready to rock. Luckily the Sonos is not that deep so I didn’t have to remove to oval electrical port, which was seriously glued down.

And the Sonos Play 5 fits with room to spare.

The curvature of the Sonos is a perfect match for the front of the Bose cabinet.

As you can see from this view of the back there is plenty room to work with.

This next part was the least fun. The Bose 901 was designed with eight speakers pointing rearward and only one pointing forward. That meant the tweed front cover was a mostly solid piece of masonite. That wouldn’t do.

Obviously, I needed to make an opening roughly the size of Play 5. I used a utility knife to score two large squares and left some material in the middle to support the tweed fabric. Then I got under it with some chisels and carefully separated the masonite from the fabric. Yes, it was glued together. Tedious.

Next up was the chrome pedestal. It had a lot of superficial rust but fortunately no deep pitting.

I just used some super fine steel wool and a lot of elbow grease. It turned out well, but I may go back and more fully polish them when I do the second one.

You can see from this rear view that there is a very convenient hole for Sonos power cord. The outer holes had these cool plastic torpedo shapes protruding slightly. I wanted to preserve those but they were an integral part of the inner honeycomb structure. I decided it wasn’t worth extra effort.

It’s a pretty straightforward project. I’ve left out a couple steps, like locating the almost invisible staples attaching the front cover, but I’m sure you can figure out how to do this if you’re so inclined. One down, one to go…

Behold the solid wood Sonos!

Christmas Card 2013 – House Diorama (Click it to see it bigger at Flickr.)

In 2012 we couldn’t get a card done in time. Our dog had just died and Paris was away at college. The motivation and planning didn’t come together. But this year we’re back! Mary had the idea of a diorama and we decided to make one of our house decorated for Christmas.

• Roof – We cut up some extra shingles from the new roof we got this year.
• Bricks – We took photos of the different bricks, printed them life size, and cut them up.
• Windows – Mary cut out the windows and trim, using colors similar to the house. We tried to keep the whole thing slightly cartoonish and handmade-looking.
• Bushes – Those are made of leaves from the actual holly bushes we have. Dangerous work hot gluing those together!
• Christmas tree – My grandmother made that ceramic tree a long time ago.
• Wreath and “lights” – Mary strung up some beads to make lights and made the wreath from green pipe cleaners.
• Gravel – Straight from the driveway. Not exactly correct but a lot easier than making grass and a sidewalk.

Finally, each family member made his or her “self.”

We started with a piece of foam core cut out for the house and glued the bricks and other parts to it. Then we backed with a piece of drywall also cut to the shape. Then put the whole thing on a large square of drywall so we could light it from behind and have the Christmas tree “inside.” We put pieces of colored paper behind the windows to create the appearance of rooms. The photos below show the set up.

As usual, these cards end up being a lot more work than we expect. But I don’t regret one minute spent working with my family to make something for ourselves, and other family and friends.

(Previous Christmas Cards)

When I was a kid my Dad would sometimes make a joke after we would get in the car. He’d say “stick it in ‘R’ for race!” Even as a youngster I knew ‘R’ was for reverse, and the image of flooring it in reverse always made me laugh. Recently, I was heading out on a road trip with my wife. I had a large amount of coffee that morning. As we were leaving I said “stick it in ‘D’ for DO IT!” That got a good laugh from her, which is always a top priority for me, and so it has stuck with me.

I feel like I often stick it in R or N without noticing. Next thing I know days, weeks, months, and even years have gone by and I’m not driving in the direction I want. I come up with all sorts of games to keep myself in D, and “doing it”, but they never seem to fool me very long before I need to come up with another “system.” Maybe that’s all bullshit. Maybe elimination is all I need. Or maybe I just need a kick in the ass from a loved one, friend, coach etc.

I met Mark Bell last year but I certainly don’t really know him. That said, I feel like I know him from watching the excellent documentary Bigger Stronger Faster at least twice, and from watching a countless number of his YouTube posts. Most of Mark’s YouTube posts are about powerlifting, which is something I’m very interested in, but occasionally he drops some knowledge bombs that are relevant to everyone. The video below is one of my favorites. It’s an ass kick from a virtual coach, and as I tell my real coach, having someone up in your business staring at you always makes you try harder.

Heads up, Mark can meander a bit when he is freestyling and the language will not be appropriate for some people. I think you’ll enjoy it.

Stick it in D and DO IT! Start driving toward something.

OK, I don’t really mean you should stop “thinking” just stop making decisions about what to work on at work, at home, etc. Decisions will wear you out before you even get started. That’s why it’s called “decision fatigue.”

How can we simplify our lives? By coming with a tool to help us rationally process all the opportunities we have.

What kind of tool do we need? The Opportunity Priority Matrix! My wife and I even used a matrix to choose a car recently.

The steps are this simple:

1. Choose the criteria that are important to you, or your business, or whatever you are working on.
2. Choose a range of scores, e.g. 1-3, 1-10, etc.
3. Score each “opportunity” across all the criteria.

The highest scoring item should be your highest priority, and on down the list. Allocate your time, focus and other resources accordingly. End needless debate, in your head or with other people, about priorities by pointing to the outcomes in matrix.

Why do we need this again? Because you’re are tired of making the same decisions over and over. AND pursuing any opportunity means you have less capacity to pursue other opportunities. That’s why it’s called “opportunity costs.” So we should work on the most important stuff, first.

At home this may mean remodeling your kitchen is the highest “house” priority, based on the criteria and scores you come up with, and everything else has to wait in line. That doesn’t mean you have to say “no” to building a deck, or adding a swimming pool, just that they are lower on the list.

At work you may only have the resources (management focus, money, staff) to take on two or three initiatives at a time. You better make sure those things are the biggest opportunities then. To avoid adding every little task imaginable come up with a threshold (for the required money or effort) to qualify what gets added to the matrix. One example could be “only items requiring more than five hours time” go through the opportunity priority matrix.

Take a look at this example spreadsheet I made to help you get started. Go nuts and create your own criteria. Get your team on board. Then the next time someone, maybe you, brings up an insane project at work you can put it through the matrix and show him where it is on the list of priorities.

Maybe. This post is about using “sticks” instead of “carrots” to compel yourself to take care of business. This idea works for me, but if you don’t practice good email inbox hygiene then it most certainly will not work. In fact, it will just make you less productive, which is what most email does.

I’m not bashing people who leave hundreds or even thousands of emails in their inboxes. To me that does seems insane, and I would find it incredibly stressful (which is why this idea works for me). But I’ve known some very high-functioning people who never seem to delete or even just move emails to another folder.

I treat my inbox like a to-do list. While I strive for “inbox zero” the truth is I rarely get there. That said, I usually keep it to 20 or less by the end of the day. If there is some activity I want to make sure I do on a regular basis, a reminder in my inbox will certainly get my attention. More on that later.

First we need to make sure we’re getting as little email as possible before we add any to the pile. Managing email in general is a very big topic but here are four quick tips that help me:

1. Unsubscribe from everything. You don’t need whatever it is you’re getting. Use a feed reader or social media to keep up with your favorite bloggers etc. Consume information “just in time” (i.e. go look for it) instead of “just in case.”
2. Use Boomerang for Gmail. But not too much. In Getting Things Done author David Allen says to never put things back in the inbox. You wouldn’t do that with your postal mail so don’t do with email. There’s also an old expression “OHIO” for “only handle it once.” But Boomerang makes it easy to get an email you don’t need right now, delivered “just in time” when you do. I used to put any email that was going to take a lot of time to either read or respond to into a “Read/Review” folder, but I never would read or review them. Now, if I get something on Tuesday and don’t want to deal with it until Saturday, Boomerang to the rescue! My inbox is cleaner in the meantime.
3. Don’t keep email open. Give yourself two or three windows of time each day where you will ruthlessly dispatch with the inbox invaders. The email inbox has been described as “everyone else’s agenda for your time.” If you’re reacting all day you won’t be productive. I heard Tim Ferriss tell Kevin Rose on an episode of the Random Show that he didn’t have email set up on his iPhone. To which Rose replied “that’s insane” or something similar. But is it really?
4. Filter some email to trash. Let’s say you just can’t bring yourself to do step 1, unsubscribe from everything. I know how it is, you’re worried if you unsubscribe from all the marketing emails from Banana Republic that one day you will suddenly need some new pants and you won’t be able to “save 30%” because you didn’t get their promotional email. Instead of having that in your face all the time, making you want things you weren’t even thinking about, and compelling you to buy them before you need them, filter those straight to trash. It’s easy to set up filters like this in most email services. Then, when you have that new pants emergency and want to find a special deal, you can just search your email Trash.

Now that we’ve gotten our email load down to what’s manageable, and just what’s important, we can start using email reminders as self-inflicted pressure or “sticks” to encourage us to take care of business. Why are email reminders sticks? Because any extra email in your inbox causes pain! You want to do whatever it takes to clear those out.

I get my email reminders sent via my Google Calendar. I set up a recurring “Event” and have the calendar send an email reminder before each occurrence. You can schedule these at the actual times you want to complete if you want, but because you won’t be staring at your inbox all day it doesn’t really matter exactly when they are.

Here are a couple real examples from my calendar:

• Plan of the day (POD) – I find I’ll be more productive tomorrow if I give it some thought today. My memory is unreliable, so I get a reminder in the late afternoon. Before I can delete that email reminder from my inbox I have to post my POD for tomorrow on the whiteboard in my office. Occasionally chaos will reign supreme, meetings, calls etc. and I’ve dropped the ball, or POD, for a day or two. But once I’m looking at 2-3 POD email reminders (and I made a promise to myself that wouldn’t delete these, ever, until they are completed) you can see that it becomes almost inevitable that it will get done. I just can’t stand the reminder junk in my email trunk.
• Blog post – I have a reminder to write a blog post each week. With the holidays and traveling I’ve gotten way behind. So it’s apropos that my next post is about this very topic. I get to delete four(!) emails from my inbox. I’m so close now! But then I’ll get another reminder on Friday.

It’s not a perfect system any more than I’m perfect. But it works for things I want ritualize. I may get off a routine for a couple days, or weeks in the case of weekly items, but I won’t fall completely off the wagon for the things I’ve decided are important.

Of course, that depends on your ability to keep a promise to yourself. You can slip on the tasks at hand, but you cannot let yourself off the hook by deleting some emails, and thinking “I’ll catch up tomorrow.” If you can’t get it all done, then at least give the “pain,” the sticks, time to kick your butt.

P.S. There are some other great tools and ways to self-manage including check lists, The Daily Practice, the Lift app for iPhone, and many others. Some are more goal-oriented and some are great for important recurring actions. I look forward to writing about some these soon.

A few years ago at the age of 43 I set a very middling time at a popular bicycling hill-climb-time-trial in Asheville, NC. Seriously, my time was pretty much the dead-on median for guys in my age bracket. I thought I was in reasonably good shape at the time, but was certain I could do better the next year. I couldn’t. Or the year after that. In fact, I was so much slower, due to bad planning and training, that I didn’t even enter. At 46 this year, I knew the odds of me improving were not getting better.

I put a plan together and stuck to it. For something like 30 years this race has been in May. By April I was in great shape and knew a PR (personal record) was going to happen. My only physical or cycling goal at this time was to beat my performance from three years before.

I started checking the sponsoring team’s website for the exact date, but there was no info. I checked back a couple times, still nothing. Finally I emailed them. The response was devastating. “Yes, the race is on, but this year we are moving it to September.” Devastating because not only did I not want to maintain that level of fitness, I didn’t think it was even possible. I was at my limit. Depressed, I pretty much abandoned any organized training, got slow, gained weight, and put it out of mind.

At the beginning of August, with only five weeks to go, I decided I had to give it a shot. I still had some base fitness left, right? Maybe, but I had also gained some weight. I went out to the course and gave it my all. I felt like I was having an asthma attic at the end, and I don’t have asthma. The result, a miserable 27 minutes. Almost three full minutes slower than my goal. That is a huge deficit, over 10%. Success seemed beyond my reach.

But it wasn’t. Exactly five weeks later, race day, I posted another middling time, but at 24 minutes 9.45 seconds it was 1.76 seconds faster than my original time. Words fail me to communicate the intense feeling of satisfaction of reaching my goal.

Here’s what I learned or re-learned in the process:

Learn from defeat
I kept detailed notes for every training session and course test, including time of day, body weight, caffeine intake, warm up routine, etc. If I had a bad day I usually had a good idea what the problem was. I would correct it next time and see if I improved.

Small improvements can make a big difference
A new lighter bike or wheels were not in the budget. But super light tires and tubes were so I got some.  I figured if there was something that might help, even a tiny amount, and it didn’t cost much money or effort, I should do it. Any mechanical part that could be cleaned, overhauled, or lubed was. I took the extra bottle cage off my bike. I would have taken off my brakes if I thought I could get away with it (it is a hill climb after all). I even trimmed my fingernails to shave “weight”! If I had missed my goal by .01 seconds and hadn’t cut my nails I would have lost my mind.

Planning matters
Your plan will probably change… one cliche after another. But they’re all true! Yes, you will have to adjust to stay on course. But you have to have a course to know if you’re on it. Put a plan together.

Research, don’t be intellectually lazy
Don’t delay taking action due to analysis paralysis, but don’t assume you know what you’re doing either. I wasn’t sure how to best warm up for a short painful event like this. After reading a number of articles I came up with a protocol that worked for me and it really seemed to help improve my test times.

Never give up
Five weeks seemed like a ridiculously short amount of time to get back in form. Four days before the event I still tested 40 seconds slower than my goal. But I stuck to the plan I had all the way to the end. There’s an expression that pilots have that says “fly through crash.” Don’t stop trying to fly and you might get lucky.

Don’t coast when you’re near the end
People often lift off the gas as they get closer to their goals. It’s natural to want to rely on momentum, but don’t do it. Shit happens.  According to the “virtual training partner” on my bike computer I was crushing my old time. But the record shows I just barely beat it. Maybe the GPS was off. I didn’t care. I was going all out. My theoretical maximum heart rate is 174 BPM, but the last half mile of the course I averaged 180 and maxed out at 182. If I had let up even just a little the small margin of victory would have evaporated.

Be anti-social. Your friends will understand.
There is no “I” in team but there is in WIN. Sometimes working on your dreams means not hanging out with your family or friends. It means making less compromises. This is especially true when it comes to training for a cycling event like a time trial. Group rides are more “fun” but if intervals are the plan for the day, you need to do that.

Set clear goals
It sounds obvious, but knowing exactly what I was trying to do kept me focused, and motivated.

Publicly commit when the time is right
Some people recommend keeping your dreams to yourself. Talk about what you’re going to do long enough and you will leak off a lot of the energy required to do it.  I tend to agree, but when the time is right I think telling everyone you know what you want to do can help keep you committed. I did not want to hear any trash talk about me bailing out so I stuck with it.

Checklists
Atul Gawande wrote a whole book about it called The Checklist Manifesto. I highly recommend it. Bottom line, if it’s possible to forget to do something, then put it on a checklist. On race day I had a checklist for what I was going to eat or drink, and when, and every other pre-race step like what time to leave on my warm up ride so I would end up in the start line just couple minutes before. Not having to remember all this helped me stay cool as a cucumber so I could put energy into the pedals.

Measure results
How do you know you’re winning if you’re not keeping score? I’ve been called anal retentive more than once, but whatever. I measured what I could understand and used those numbers to track my progress and experiment. The spreadsheet I have with all my split times is definitely anal. But it worked for me, and allowed me to look for patterns. Longer warm up equal faster time trial? I’ll do that again.

Sacrifice
Some define sacrifice as “giving up something you want for something you want more.” Perfect. Dessert for losing weight and going faster. Comfort for performance. TV for training. And on and on. Knowing I had “sacrificed” to meet this goal was its own reward. If I hadn’t quite made it, but had done everything I could, I could live with that.

Maybe this doesn’t sound fun to you. I’ll tell you what is fun, winning. It was absolutely worth the effort, and it was fun.

Enjoy the ride!

My name is Tracy and I am a perfectionist.

That is not bragging; it’s an admission. Perfectionism is a real problem.

Perfectionism, in psychology, is a personality disposition characterized by an individual striving for flawlessness and setting excessively high performance standards, accompanied by overly critical self-evaluations and concerns regarding others’ evaluations. (See Wikipedia)

The good news is, that like a recovering alcoholic, I’m usually aware of it.  Eckhart Tolle says the “awareness and ego cannot coexist” and the same is true for perfectionism.

What causes people to be perfectionists? I came to my own conclusion that it’s a product of being introverted, shy, which I most definitely am. Shyness seems to be coupled with insecurity. And because I’m shy I have to make sure everything I do is as good as possible, and ideally far better than average. The obvious problem from that is, if you’re afflicted with this, that you won’t attempt things unless you’re certain you’ll be judged as excellent. Or, if you do, you’ll spend too much time researching and perfecting your plans, and not enough time applying the 80/20 principle to get more done.

The not-so-good news is that perfectionism is never fully in remission. Even when I think I’m being highly self-aware I still catch myself procrastinating in some area of my life or even or aspects of projects where I am managing to make progress. Procrastination is probably the major side effect of perfectionism. In The War of Art author Steven Pressfield says that the thing we are most resistant to doing, where we are procrastinating the most, is almost certainly the thing we should get to work on. But what if you don’t know what to do?

Learn by doing

There is no other way. No matter how much planning and research you do you will never understand a topic, or even understand how to learn about it, until you start trying. There will always be holes in your understanding, and you can’t fill all of those before you get started. “Learn by doing” is a familiar cliche but I need to remind myself of this on a regular basis.

All that said, jumping in without trying to plan or educate yourself is just intellectually lazy. After procrastinating for as long as possible, often without knowing it, I tend to shoot from the hip – just to get something done. And that is just is much of a problem. Often, this results in bad decision-making and far less-than-perfect outcomes. Forcing myself to have a “bias for action” to overcome the shyness, introversion and insecurity is fine but there needs to be a balance of action and planning.

Since there can be no perfect balance I’ve found that a see-saw approach can work, where planning and action take turns being on top. Learn/do/learn/do and learn by doing. “Iterating” mitigates risk while allowing to learn and make progress. Working with this way makes sense, but we also need to “ship” at some point.

Deadlines to the rescue

If you can keep a promise to yourself, that’s what a deadline is, then you can essentially guarantee that procrastination can do only so much damage. If you can’t keep a promise to yourself then deadlines will become just  lies and disappointment, and that will lead to nowhere good. Start as small as you need to in order make sure promises are kept. Go bigger as the wins stack up.

Remember, when you don’t know where to start, that you can only really learn by doing.