How Shortcuts Could Save Your Business
We’ve all been told that cheaters never win and shortcuts always bite ya in the back. But that's not really true, is it?
I think we all know deep down that someone who cheats on a test still passes the test, and although they lost in the long term of learning, a passing score is a passing score. Now I don’t mean that breaking the rules or laws are good shortcuts to take, (or cheating on a test) but what about the rules we tell ourselves?
What if it is okay to making studying fun by playing a game with a group, or get an extra hour of sleep before the exam, or a million other things that might help you, but that we told ourselves are ‘cheating’ or ‘shortcuts’.
This realization came to me while working on my latest app, Quickly Journal. This was my first app where I especially paid close attention to the design and wanted a neomorphic or SoftUI look. Building a panel that extends from the page is rather simple, making one look indented is a different story.
After some frustrating Googling, I came across the neomorphic design package for swift. Less than a line of code later I had an indented panel. The frustrating part is that this package was on the first page of Google, I had skimmed past it for hours because I told myself it was cheating to use packages because it was a shortcut.
Fast forward in the week and I’m reading “Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done” by Jon Acuff and come across the chapter on shortcuts.
Jon Acuff makes the simple statement that even using Googling something is a shortcut and shortcuts are just more efficient ways of doing things. From a programing perspective even using a debugger or programing language is a shortcut. I should be writing my code in binary if I was a ‘true’ hard-core programmer.
Choose What to Shortcut
Maybe you like writing in binary or perhaps you like building a website. That fine, keep that part of the process if it brings you joy. Other than that if it slows you down, and stops your business from meeting a deadline, making a profit, or any other hindrance, shortcut it by outsourcing or automating. Not using a simple package slowed me down for 2 days.
For me, styling an app is boring. I like the backend stuff not getting the colors to match just right. If you don’t like building websites from scratch then launch your eCommerce on Shopify, or WordPress, or whatever. If you hate graphic design then use Fiverr to get a logo. The list is endless, the point is simple.
Whatever it is if it is stopping you from progressing, do without, outsource, or find a way around.
Thanks for reading my article. Please consider engaging as algorithmic input. Links may be affiliate or otherwise monetized. If you would like updates on future stuff check out my twitter https://twitter.com/peterfoxflick
