Sunday (08/13/06)
My Personal Prioritizing Formula 5:05 pm
A problem that I’m sure all web developers, entrepreneurs, and internet geeks alike all share is deciding which projects to work on. You’ve got the client work, your latest blog post, that sweet JavaScript widget, your latest Rails app…How to choose?
Well, somehow, we all decide (or at least, pretend to decide). I was emailing with Adam DuVander the other day, and he asked me how I prioritise my projects. I quickly came up with a nice little formula that while I’m sure is not 100% accurate, conveys my thinking process quite nicely:
Money to be made + Fame to be gained * Fun to be had / Time it would take
Humble, no. Honest, yes. I’m modest enough to admit that I’m not modest enough to not put Fame to be gained in my formula.
So, what’s yours? If your prioritizing process could be written as a formula, what would it look like? 
I eat food. I listen to music. I sleep. Sometimes. I drink lots of coffee. I make pretty pictures. I talk to people. I believe in things. I write stuff. I take photographs. I have a laughing addiction. I am human. 
Mine would be something like the following:
I usually don’t get any money (yet!!! :)) for what I do every day in my spare time, but I like it anyway. And I’m improving my “mad coding skills” with every testing program etc., so that’s like a very important thing to me.
As soon as I’m going to get money for my work, I think my formula will miraculously change to something like yours.
If I priorize things at all.
Until you mentioned it, I had never considered fame, though it was definitely a missing element. I haven’t incorporated it in my most recent version:
Money + 4*Fun - 2*Time
Other stuff I’ve considered or used in the past: Has a partner, delegateable, difficulty (negative), investment (negative).
@Christian: Ah…Learning squared. There’s a worthwhile one.
@Adam: Investment is one I hadn’t thought of. I guess it’s true that the more I’d have to spend on something, the less likely I am to do it…Maybe I should add that in somewhere.
Priorities formula as a recipe, since I can cook but can’t do math:
Take what is really most important but can wait (painting the girl’s bedroom) and add it to what absolutely has to be done (prepare tonight’s dinner). Mix in a decent amount of the project without a deadline (say, writing a book that doesn’t have a publisher yet) and the occasional emergency (fish the kid out of the pool, just kidding, but you have to watch for it). Add a pinch of the things too irritating to ignore (ringing phones and doorbells). Stir well, pour into prepared pan, and dump in garbage.
Go read the book that’s been calling to you.
How badly is it needed * Fun to be had * What I would learn / Time it would take