Issue 10

March 4, 2024

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Consistency Over Perfection

Week in Review

Last week was up and down for me like a rollercoaster! I continued to move forward with some of my projects, but I was also stuck in my head for part of the week.

I let self-doubt and feelings of being overwhelmed creep in. It's hard not to sometimes. I feel like my brain is overloaded with information most days. With each project I'm working on, I have a million thoughts per day about a million different things I need to do. Growing my mailing list and social media accounts has been on my mind too. And in case you forgot, I also have a full-time job and family!

I didn't feel like doing anything for two nights last week, which is rare for me. However, I don't regret taking two nights off. I listened to myself, which is a good thing. I'm in this for the long haul. There will be days and weeks when I'm not as productive as I want to be. And that's okay. I'm not interested in perfection, but rather in consistency.

I don't need to work on my side projects — I want to work on them. There's a big difference between need and want. If I don't want to do something I need to do, tough shit! I have to do it. If I don't want to do something I don't need to do, then I don't need to do it. Simple as that.

Valence

We've been meeting weekly as a team for a couple of weeks now and I have to say that I like it! More face time equals more decisions being made. And this results in action items getting created and work getting done! We probably should have started meeting weekly a while ago, but better late than never!

I made some more progress on our Slack app last week. I'm starting to leverage the App Home and Messages tab to display the content our app is tracking. We have a good feedback loop right now that seems to be working. It helps that Slack is our main communication platform and what we're building right now is a Slack app. It feels great to build something that most, if not everyone, on the team is excited about. We're stacking small wins on top of each other and making progress every week!

Daily Well

I decided to hit the pause button on Daily Well last week. After several weeks and attempts to fix the Chrome alarm bug, I wasn't able to find a solution. I talked with Adam about this and we both agreed to take a break from Daily Well right now and focus on other things in our lives. I'm not giving up on this project. I do want to get the extension working someday so we can have people beta-test it. Hopefully, a break from the project will allow me to come back to it with a fresh pair of eyes and fix what's not working.

While I hate to leave things unfinished and the future unknown with Daily Well, I am relieved to have one less project to work on. I can focus entirely on writing my weekly newsletter, Valence, and Agendaful. And don't worry. I won't be starting a new project. 😂

Agendaful

Last week was in a lot of ways a repeat of the previous week. I did some more icon design and continued to work on agenda items in the app.

I picked another one of my icon sketches and made a digital version of it although I'm not quite ready to share it. I feel like I can make it better so I might go back to sketching it out some bit to see where I can improve it.

I started designing the Agendaful logo almost a month ago! If I had to guess, I've probably spent about 12-16 hours on it so far and I'm not even done yet. I'm going to see it through and keep designing it however, I think my thoughts on creating a logo have changed.

If I build another SaaS app (which I probably will someday), I will likely create a very basic logo using one of several logo generator websites I've found. As a solopreneur, I think my time is best spent building and marketing the product, not designing a logo for it. When the product is validated and starts to take off, I can spend time designing a better logo or even get someone else to do it. However, an app doesn't need an amazing logo on day one.

I also finished the agenda item functionality last week! Now, you can create, edit, and delete agenda items. The core functionality of Agendaful works! 🙌

What's next on my radar? I've been focusing mostly on how managers will use the app, so I need to go back and make sure everything works when direct reports use it. I also need to start integrating the app with a database. I will be using Supabase for that. I've heard great things about it and I'm excited to start using it.

One last thing…

Somehow I've managed to write 10 issues of my newsletter! I wanted to take a moment to thank you, my readers. I appreciate you reading my newsletter every week and joining me on this adventure. It would certainly be lonely without you. I'm not sure where this journey will take me, but I'm happy to:

• Write every week
• Build my brand one day at a time
• Figure out the value I can offer you and others

Don't hesitate to contact me at any time if you have feedback, questions, or just want to chat. If you're viewing this from your inbox, just reply to this email. You can also reach me at david@madebydw.com or on X and LinkedIn.

Thanks for reading this week. See you next week! 👋