The One Concept Developers Exploit to Beat Procrastination
How to debug procrastination and get moving again.
Hey there, Solo Builder!
I’ve been completely stuck lately. I get home, sit down, watch some tv and eat some food. You know, everything the gurus tell you to feel bad about.
And I don’t feel bad, because I need the rest.
But other times, I feel bad, but can’t bring myself to start building. My first thought is always that I'm being lazy. But I've learned that's almost never the real problem.
What if the real issue isn't you, but your approach?
The Bug
You're not lazy. You're just being vague.
"I'm stuck" is a symptom. The root cause of this bug is almost always ambiguity.
When you feel stuck, your real job isn't to force yourself to power through, but to define the work so clearly that it becomes easy to start.
The Fix
This is the developer's secret to getting unstuck: we debug the problem. The smartest people I know are the ones who do this the best.
We know it as Divide & Conquer.
Lots of algorithms are built on this concept. If something is too complex, too time consuming: break it down.
Clarity is the antidote to chaos. By breaking problems into smaller parts we gain that clarity.
Your next step
Stop trying to "build the feature" and change the task to something small and concrete, for example:
Build the homepage → write three possible headlines.
Launch my product → write one tweet announcing the project.
Get more traffic → write one Substack Note
Small tasks create momentum. Break your big, scary goal down into the smallest, most obvious first step to create momentum and clarity for yourself.
What's one vague task you can turn into a tiny first step right now?
See you next Saturday!
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Every Saturday, I share a short, punchy mindset upgrade like this one, powered by developer thinking. If you're on the solo journey and want to build with more clarity, I'd love to have you.