Produce and Ship Daily

With the release of Seth Godin’s Linchpin (which I have yet to read) there has been a whole lot of buzz in the Blogosphere about “shipping it.” It’s good talk folks about the need to produce deliverable product each day and you should be paying close attention if you are not already doing so.

Ask yourself the questions what do I produce and do I ship it daily? When I answered these questions, my thinking once again went radical on me. My daily priorities have changed so much it makes me wonder how I was even modestly successful up to this point. Answer: I was working hard but not smart most of the time.

I have three priorities in my life;

• ColorMetrix CEO
• JimRaffel.com brand manager
• Most important, husband and father

Above all else and before the rest of my daily tasks, I must ship daily something of value to the constituents of each priority in my life.

In the case of ColorMetrix the highest value item I can produce is an engagement proposal. Buying into our ProofPass solution is a long-term (averaging 3+ years now) two-way commitment and nothing happens at ColorMetrix until an engagement proposal is accepted. The second most valuable item I ship for the company is communications (email and otherwise) related to completing engagement proposals or resolving existing client issues (happy customers are my number one priority).

Writing posts is the A #1 Priority for this blog. Without quality content you have no reason to visit and more importantly return again and again. I can only generate so much traffic with my email signature and witty tweets on Twitter. So, each day I focus on writing one quality post for the blog. In January I managed to produce one every other day. In February I churned out  17 posts in 28 days. With the new “ship it” mentality, March will be the month of 31 posts.

My family comes before my work. They may not always see it that way. Take a look at item #2 from My Top 10 Personal Development Tips.  What they need is what we all need; love, support, attention, and sometimes direction. It’s so simple that sometimes I forget to gaze into my wife’s eyes and ask the question “How was your day sweetheart?” What I then need to produce and ship is kind and patient attention while I listen to the good the bad and the ugly of her day. For the kids it’s a simple “Can I help you with that?” Mine are teenagers now but when they were younger it was showing up for Cub Scouts, Father/Daughter events, and sporting events. Well, more than showing up, being present. I wish I could have some of those moments back to have been more present than I was.

Is it reasonable to ignore all the noise in your daily grind until you produce and ship what provides maximum value to your audience? Is it alright to have only one or two A #1 priorities each day and all the rest of the list falls where it may? Please let me know what you think in the comments, I promise to respond!