The biggest unlock I had in 2024 was that I wasn’t working on the right things.
My goal for years has been to build a software business, but YouTube has taken up the majority of my free time.
As I started making more videos related to programming, I realized the part of the process I enjoyed the most was coding for b-roll.
YouTube felt like something I needed to do, but it wasn’t helping me become a better developer.
I’ve essentially taken the last month or so off to focus on nothing but building side projects, and it’s been the most fun I’ve had in the last few years.
In hindsight it’s painfully obvious this is what I should’ve been doing.
I will make more videos in the future, but it shouldn’t be as much of a priority as I made it in the past.
I share this because I knew I wanted to focus on other projects, but I felt like I “had” to keep uploading.
It wasn’t until I worked backwards from my goals that I realized I was working on the wrong things.
A framework for reflecting that I came across recently is WOOP - Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, and Plan.
With 2025 just a few days away I think it’s worth experimenting with.
You ask yourself each of these 4 questions in order to help you reflect and plan how you should allocate your time.
- What is my wish/goal?
- How will it feel when I achieve my goal?
- What is an obstacle that could prevent me from achieving this goal?
- What’s my plan to avoid this obstacle if it were to come up?
Thinking about this question every day has been very helpful to keep myself aligned.
Focusing less on what you want and more on what will prevent you from getting it has always been valuable for me.
What I’ve Been Working On
I thought it'd be interesting to share a shot of the UI I’ve built for my recent side project. I’m building a Stripe integration for my dashboard boilerplate - the idea being this is a starting point for any future project I build. I’ve built out an authentication flow, basic profile settings and now am implementing billing so that certain features can be put behind a specific subscription plan.
Things I’ve found interesting
links to valuable stuff I thought was worth sharing
15 Years of Software Engineer Knowledge in 1 hour 30 mins - This was an incredibly tactical video on how to grow and network as a software engineer.
What Large-Scale Software Looks Like - An interesting overview on micro-services and building scalable code.
Have a great week.
Cole
P.S. If you found this letter helpful, please consider sharing it with a friend :)
Sign up to receive more insights on running a one-person business.