🗞 What's New: Avoid these 5 anti-productivity pitfalls

Anti-productivity pitfalls are behaviors that lead to a decrease in overall performance:

• Not tracking progress, taking Pomodoro too seriously, and focusing on prevention instead of creation can all harm productivity.
• As an indie hacker, what is your "why?" Understanding this can help you identify which projects will truly excite and engage you.
• Three weeks. $1.9K+ MRR. Kazi Mohammed Erfan launched Pentaclay while balancing an infant and a full-time job.

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by Syed Balkhi

Anti-productivity pitfalls are subtle traps that sap your energy, dilute your focus, and inhibit your progress toward your goals. Here's five of the most common, and how to deal with them effectively.

Days without planning

Without a clear plan, founders often end up wasting time on less important tasks, or getting overwhelmed by the sheer amount of work that needs to be done.

Suppose you're a marketing manager, and you start your day by checking emails, social media accounts, and voicemails. Before you know it, half the day is gone, and you haven't even started working on your actual projects.

Focusing on prevention instead of creation

While preventing mistakes and errors is essential, solely focusing on avoiding them can result in a lack of progress and innovation.

This often leads to perfectionism, where you spend excessive amounts of time perfecting every single detail, instead of meeting deadlines and moving forward with your work.

Procrastinating

You're a freelance graphic designer, and you have a project due in two weeks. Instead of starting it right away, you keep putting it off because you don't feel motivated or inspired at the moment.

Before you know it, the deadline is looming over your head. It's important to recognize when you're using procrastination as an excuse, and overcome it.

Social media obsession

With every notification and scroll, you're pulled away from your work. One ping, and before you know it, you've spent half an hour scrolling through your feed.

Set boundaries for yourself when using social media during work hours. If you are struggling with creating boundaries, use apps like FocusMe and Freedom to help.

Taking Pomodoro too seriously

With Pomodoro, you work for a set amount of time, take a short break, then get back to work.

This method is definitely helpful, but sometimes people end up taking more breaks than necessary, or hyperfocus on the technique, instead of the task.

Use Pomodoro as a guide, rather than a strict rule.

Not tracking progress

Keeping track of what you've accomplished, even if it's just small tasks, can help you stay motivated and see how far you've come.

It also helps you see where you need improvement, rather than focusing on something you’re already good at.

Set realistic goals and deadlines, and find an accountability partner or system to help you stay on track with your goals!

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by George Hadj

As founders, we should be cognizant about always aligning our projects with our core purpose. The insights below are drawn from the transformative principles found in Start With Why, by Simon Sinek.

Understanding your "why"

As indie hackers and developers, we often jump straight into coding, captivated by the allure of creating something new.

However, the foundation of truly impactful work lies in understanding the "why" behind the project. What drives your work?

Take a moment to reflect on your journey so far. What inspired you to become a developer, marketer, creator, founder? Your initial motivations can shed light on your core "why."

When you are clear about your core purpose, it becomes much easier to identify which projects will truly excite and engage you. This understanding acts as a compass, guiding your decisions and helping you choose projects that align with your inner motivations and goals.

With this alignment, you'll notice an improvement in your focus and commitment to your projects. Knowing your "why" energizes and directs your journey, ensuring that each project you undertake is a step towards fulfilling your personal and professional aspirations.

Exercises

• Personal reflection: Spend some time alone, away from your computer. Ask yourself what aspects of your projects genuinely excite you? When do you feel the most fulfilled?

• Write your coding story: Create a narrative of your journey. Highlight moments that felt significant, and explore the reasons behind those feelings. This can reveal patterns that point towards your core motivations.

• Vision for the future: Imagine your ideal scenario as an indie hacker in the next five years. What kinds of projects are you working on? What impact are they having? This vision can help clarify what drives you.

The journey of an indie hacker is filled with challenges, but the clarity of our "why" lights the path forward. It keeps us grounded when shiny object syndrome tempts us, and lifts us up when setbacks and doubts cloud our vision.

Continually revisit and reflect upon your "why!"

Discuss this story.

by Rob Hope

Strengthen your landing page with these design, development, and conversion tips!

Alternate section background colors.

Consider a slightly darker or lighter background color for every alternate landing page section. This design tip will also help contain section content better as a visitor scrolls.

Subscribe to Rob's One Page Love newsletter for his favorite UI, design, and development finds.

by Kazi Mohammed Erfan

I've been doing UX/UI and graphic design for a decade now. Three weeks ago, I started a subscription-based design agency as a side project. Previously, I shared how I landed my first client and made $1K+.

Today, I'm writing about landing my second client, and my whole experience of launching Pentaclay.

The idea

Starting a side hustle with an infant and a full-time job is tough. I learned about subscription-based services a few months ago, and instantly knew I wanted to try it.

It took a couple of months to research and launch my agency. I launched my website in mid-November.

The launch

I started my X journey only a month ago, and announced the website launch there. I also joined Reddit, and shared my site in various subreddits. Later on, I discovered that this was not the proper way to launch on Reddit.

I posted on Indie Hackers, Hacker News, Facebook, and LinkedIn. I also submitted my website to One Page Love, and they approved and featured my landing page. Finally, I submitted to 10words, and got approved.

What worked?

• LinkedIn: I have a good reputation on LinkedIn, as I've been using it for years. I got my first prospect before launching. He was interested in a fixed price, but I convinced him to try my subscription-based agency. After two months, he subscribed.

• Reddit: I haven't gotten any clients from there yet, but I was able to get 1K+ visitors to my website. Also, I got 25K+ views in a single month with my posts on different subreddits. One prospect has messaged me there, but hasn't converted (yet!).

• X: Within a month, I got 100+ followers and 130+ visitors to my website. One prospect DM'ed me, but hasn't converted yet.

• Indie Hackers: I've posted three times, and got 3K+ views and 180+ visitors to my website.

• One Page Love: After my landing page was approved, I had to pay $29 to get featured. I got 500+ visitors to my website, and my second client converted from there.

What didn't work?

• Facebook: I tried posting on Facebook regularly, and even tried Facebook Ads. Neither worked for me.

• X ads: My ad campaign has been pending verification, with no response from the X team.

• Cold email: I find cold emailing boring and difficult. However, I cold emailed 500-1K leads, got a couple of responses, and also did an intro meeting. No one has converted yet.

Next steps

• This month, I'm trying to double the impressions, traffic, and sales from X, Reddit, or LinkedIn.

• I might try different marketing channels to get leads.

• I'm looking for affiliate marketers to partner up with.

• I have to retain my two clients to keep them subscribed for the next month. So, quality design service is key!

Discuss this story.

by Tweetmaster Flex

I post the tweets indie hackers share the most. Here's today's pick:

Forward it to a friend, and let them know they can subscribe here.

Also, you can submit a section for us to include in a future newsletter.

Special thanks to Jay Avery for editing this issue, to Gabriella Federico for the illustrations, and to Syed Balkhi, Darko, George Hadj, and Kazi Mohammed Erfan for contributing posts. —Channing