How to stay focused on your goals when yak shaving takes over

Buffer we have a focus on self-improvement. We share what we are working on every week and receive encouragement and advice from other team members. Here is a recent example .

One of my improvements recently was to set up a software project. As I am a programmer by training, this shouldn't present any particular difficulty - but the software has this weird talent for making things a little more complicated than they shouldnt really be.

This is the story of the last few weeks - the end result of which is that there is still no visible side project.

So sit back and enjoy the history of the yak (and the alligator and the bicycle shed…). I hope it is more fun to read than to experience (and ultimately to write too!)

Yak-shaving: The tasks between you and your goal

You can usually tell a yak shaving story because its introduction will contain the phrase "All I wanted to do was .... And that is, in a nutshell, what yak shaving describes . It is the seemingly endless progression of boring but vital intermediate tasks that must be completed before the final and important task can be accomplished.

Software development is particularly prone to this in because of the plethora of versions, platforms and products which lead to a dazzling array of thingss that can go wrong. This, in turn, leads to the multitude of things that need to be corrected.

Let's deploy a web application

I want to deploy a web application. It's nothing special - it's the equivalent of "Hello World" for web applications. It can even say "Hello World ".

I go to my current hosting provider of choice and create an account. They want billing details, so I give them what they want, eager to make things work. I can already imagine sharing the link to this new web application in less than an hour. I click on "submit!" Work completed?

Sort my credit card

But my billing information is being rejected. My card has been declined. Probably for some arbitrary reason because I had the nerve to buy something from two continentsdifferent within a few hours.

Well, such is life - security is good, after all. The credit card company automatically phones me with their robot voice and asks me to confirm some recent transactions. No problem! Work completed?

But I cannot for the life of me understand what the robot is trying to tell me. I swear this is deliberately misrepresenting the names of the companies I buy from just to make things more difficult.

I squint and tire myself trying to make out the weird metallic utterances, but after a number of attempts I declare defeat. Don't worry - I have the relevant receipts in my email, so I can look at them up there and translate them into robotic language! Work completed?

Let's log into my email account

But I am not logged into the correct email account for theth moment. I have a few false starts, trying to switch accounts before going into incognito mode and logging back in. Oh, but I have two factor authentication enabled. Good for me - safety is vital these days after all! I'll just type in this code and that's it! Work completed?

But I need my phone for this very important code. And for some reason my phone isn 't with me. No problem - there are only a few places it can be. A quick search and I find it (it was a lucky escape - the yak could have been mowed a lot more if I hadn't). Right then - just enter the code. Work completed?

Let's resuscitate my phone

But the phone didn 't charge and turned off. Oops. It was a little careless of me. No problem, however. Just plug it into the laptop and we'll beoff. Work completed?

But the cable isn 't there either. Look for the elusive yarn that looks like every other yarn but is subtly different just about everywhere. It's probably in a bag somewhere to keep it safe. And of course he's - tangled around his coiled siblings. A few shots and twists and it 's free! Work completed?

But the phone doesn't even work with a wire. Oh no. He needs time to wake up and pull himself together, it seems. So I have to wait for what seems like an age, but the phone is more likely to respond to my increasingly insistent pushes of buttons asking me, "Are you still alive?" Yet it ends up stirring. Work completed?

Let's try to remember what we were trying to do

And the good news is that yes, this job is done, and the whole chaingoes back again, provided I can remember what I was doing at each step.

I think there was something about finding a web host. This was definitely mentioned…

Can we avoid yak shaving?

The good news is, with so much delay - work on the scenes in progress, something has to break through soon to take center stage and the undoubtedly enthusiastic applause and adulation that Such a trip deserves.

I see you shaving your yak as you try to be productive but things continue to get in the way - it's absolutely not your fault, just the world 's way. Not much can be done about shaving yaks except to experience it and remember your goal.

Now fight against alligators and loss of bikes ? This is an other story….

Have you ever shavede yak? How did you handle this? I would love to hear your stories in the comments.

Post-um: While writing the original draft of this post, everything was going very well. I was all through the yaks and was about to dive into the alligators and bike sheds when my laptop froze completely. Only a restart could restart it. And as a result, my first project just disappeared. I don't know if it was the yaks or the alligators or the bike shelters, but in hindsight it seems particularly apt. Maybe the productivity gods hate me.

Do you want to help Buffer grow? No yak required. We're hiring!

Image credit: NepalGateway Trekking

This post was originally posted to my personal blog . Follow me there for more wild anima l adventures in web development.