Invention Debt

I'll keep this one short. The basic idea is simple. If you're like me, you have no shortage of ideas. You can usually weed out the majority of bad ideas, and you might even be pretty good at putting another chunk of ideas into a bucket marked, "I am not ready to work on this yet." But inevitably you will be left with a handful of ideas you want to try, and you have probably already started working on a few of them in parallel. 

For those of us who weren't quite so rigorous in our initial selection process, we might have dozens of projects we have already started, only to start another before we finished our last side project. I call this, 'accruing Invention Debt.' Being in debt sucks, no matter what kind it is, and Invention Debt is no different. 

When you are juggling more than 2 side projects you run the risk of digging yourself into a deep dark hole of debt. Ok, so, that's the problem. Pretty simple concept. The solution is also just as simple, and is actually borrowed from sound financial practices, and applied here for inventions. The fastest way out of Invention Debt is to just kill the projects outright (a luxury you don't get with financial debt), but the second best way is to finish them quickly, and in the right order.

In the left most column you put the coming year by month. The next n columns are the projects you are currently working on in order of either importance, urgency, or nearness to completion. Then you begin adding in the number of hours you will work on that project or idea that month, making sure to prioritize the first column first, and doing the minimum amount of work on the other projects to keep them progressing at a reasonable rate.

When one invention is completed, you take the time you just freed up and pour it into the next invention until you finish it, too. Every time you finish an invention, just take the accruing time and use it to work on the next invention in line. Simply repeat this process until all your inventions are complete and have a home in the real world, instead of your brain. It's that simple.

A trust me, it works.

If this was at all interesting, recommend, comment and share this so others can see it, thanks! Have a mad scientist friend who is always starting new projects? This is for them.

Mason Wooley writes sometimes. Follow him on Medium to learn more about Xbox Labs, new inventions, Characters as a service, or just to hear his unique perspective on startups, and products. @MasonWooley on Twitter.