Sometimes, when you’re trying to get started on a new (epic) project, it can be tough to get traction right away. We always have a lot of questions we ask ourselves.

“How should I think about this?”

“This is really hard. I should think about this.”

You know the ones. Don’t make starting harder than it needs to be. We face a lot of complexity in life – much of it cannot be planned for. The guys from 37signals say business plan should be called business guesses because of the absurd nature for us to expect we can rationally guess where our project will be in 5 years time. I agree – but that’s no excuse to not be strategic in what your doing.

A good way to be strategic, without writing a massive business ‘guess’, is to just use simple acronyms to keep your thinking defined, and moving. Need a PR strategy? Use ROPE. Need a social media strategy? You can’t go past POST. Need a competitor analysis? Do a Blue Ocean Strategy. You don’t need a business strategy…you just need the first mission plan to give your project momentum.

Don’t sit in your chair all day stewing over the best way to structure your thoughts. Use an acronym, and just get started.