So many ideas, where to start?

If you're like me, you've got plenty of great ideas that you want to work on, but with schedule restraint and other responsibilities, it's hard to work on all of them at the same time. The attempt of working on all of them simultaneously creates often times a wasteful environment where very little effective work gets done; not good.

What I've tried in the past is to spread out the work by hiring college interns who work for relatively inexpensively or volunteer time to learn. Doing so help me get "more" done, but a few things I learned from that experience is most (but not all) college students need to be provided direction. In other words, it's hard to give an intern a project with a broad scope and have the project be driven the same way you would if you were running it. On the flip side of the coin, I've had some stellar intern that can take an idea and run with it, and in those situation I learned to let go of the need for total control and let the creativity flow. The bottom line is, however, that even with a team of interns, I had to spend most of my time managing the business and neglected my other great ideas. I was ok with this at the time because this business idea was further ahead than the other ideas which were in its infancy.

Now that I'm back to the role of developing new ideas, I often ask myself "which of the seven (7) great ideas should I work on?" and "if I don't spend time on this idea I'm going to miss a big opportunity."

HereTryThis: First start out by sitting down with a blank piece of paper and figuring out when and how many hours in a week you can devote to idea development. Keep in mind your other responsibilities, scheduled activities, and time for relaxation. Once you've determined your availability, figure out the activities that can maximize your impact at those given hours. For example, free times during the evening hours are better suited for research and emailing key contacts. Free times during the weekend may be best suited for on-the-road market research, reaching out to your potential customers, and speaking with your potential competitors/partners.

If you break down your schedule somewhat coherently, you would realize that you've only got so much time in a week to work on a few things (that is unless your full time commitment is to develop new ideas - I want to join that team). Prioritize your idea development by plugging in your planned activities ahead of time into these available time slots. When you're out of time slots, you're out of capacity. Good luck!