Stop Being a Professional Interest-Hopper
You’re scrolling through your browser bookmarks and find 47 half-finished online courses, 12 abandoned GitHub repos, and a language learning app that’s been sending you passive-aggressive notifications for three months. At some point, you have to listen to that green owl!
As a profressional interest hopper, One week I’m deep-diving into blockchain architecture, the next I’m researching medieval pottery techniques (don’t ask). It’s been fun, but also utterly exhausting. Here’s the thing, I’m working full time at Amazon, building products and managing a team. And on the side, trying to squeeze personal growth into the margins of my day. Time is the ultimate luxury, and I’ve been treating it like it’s unlimited. The math is brutal—if I keep jumping from interest to interest, it’ll take me decades to truly master anything or create something meaningful.
The Three-Pillar Strategy#
So I’m narrowing my focus to just three carefully selected projects for the next three months. Every potential project gets scored out of 10 on three criteria:
| Criteria | What It Means |
|---|---|
| Monetization Potential | Can this make money outside of my day job? |
| Professional Value | Does this boost my resume and future employability? |
| Fun Factor | Will I actually enjoy doing this? |
The Chosen Three#
After running my interests through this surprisingly ruthless scoring system, here are my three focus areas for the next quarter:
1. Learning Luxembourgish#
(Score: Monetization Potential 0, Professional Value 8, Fun Factor 3, Total Score = 11)
Wait, what? I know this seems random, but it opens the path to EU citizenship and that is professionally very valuable. Plus, that’s some serious cocktail party material right there.
2. YouTube Series on Indian History + Interactive Website#
(Score: Monetization Potential 3, Professional Value 2, Fun Factor 7, Total Score = 12)
This is my pure passion project— It also helps learn public speaking and narrative building. It might not pay the bills, but it feeds the soul (and potentially builds a personal brand).
3. Personal Finance Analysis with Python (Score: 5, 2, 5)#
(Score: Monetization Potential 5, Professional Value 2, Fun Factor 5, Total Score = 12)
The perfectly balanced project—decent monetization potential, some professional value, and moderately fun. Plus I’m doing quaterly personal finances any way, so might as well build a product around it.
The New Rules of Engagement#
Gone are the days of “ooh, shiny!” decision-making. Before I jump into anything new, I’m asking myself:
- Why am I doing this?
- What’s the end goal?
- What’s my completion milestone?
- Can I timebox this to under 3 months?
I’m also creating weekly schedules because apparently, “I’ll work on it when I feel like it” is not a sustainable project management strategy. Who knew?
The Road Ahead#
Over the next few days, I’ll be creating detailed milestones and timelines for each project. So here’s to trading breadth for depth, chaos for clarity, and endless possibilities for focused action.
*Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go delete about 30 bookmarks and unsubscribe from some newsletters. As they say in Luxembourghish, Äddi ! *