Recently, I decided to build a customer relationship management system (CRM) for my solo business. It started as a simple list of my contacts. Then I integrated my Google Drive and my calendar. Then I decided to add a pretty interface in my brand colors, along with some behind-the-scenes automation.
The problem? That was hours of time I hadn’t planned to spend. Nobody was going to use it except for me, and the first version would have served my original purpose.
While it was certainly a fun project, it wasn’t necessary. Large organizations have project managers who set limits. Working solo, that responsibility falls to you, whether it’s for an internal project or client work. You’ve got to hold the line so that you don’t end up putting more effort into a project than it’s worth.
Decide what “done” looks like before you start
It’s easier to set boundaries around client work because your contract should outline the scope. But even a signed agreement can’t protect you from yourself. If you’re a perfectionist, it’s easy to turn a defined deliverable into something bigger. You keep tweaking and putting in more time, even though you had a version that would have made the client happy hours ago.
If you can’t describe what a finished deliverable looks like, it will keep going as long as you keep having ideas. You’re putting in more time for the same pay—which “costs” your business.
Write down what “done” looks like for a client project before you even start. You may have some additional back-and-forth with the client, but you need to determine the point at which a deliverable passes into their hands for review.
For internal projects, outline exactly what you plan to work on and what “v1” looks like so you don’t keep making the project bigger than it needs to be. Hold yourself to that boundary in the same way you would with client work.