“It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s Law.”
- Cognitive scientist Douglas Hofstadter, from Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, 1979
Many of us have felt the rush of excitement that comes with the decision to begin living the writer’s life.
You’re going to start your freelance copywriting business. “I’ll be up and running in three months!” Six months later, your website’s still not done. You’re not clear on what services you’ll offer. You got bogged down in market research.
Where did the time go? Welcome to Hofstadter’s Law in action.
“Start before you’re ready.”
That bit of wisdom is usually attributed to Steven Pressfield, author of The War of Art. And it may be the most effective tactic for dealing with Hofstadter’s Law!
“Start before you’re ready” just means that if you’re waiting for everything to line up perfectly, you’ll wait forever. You have to acquire enough skills, pick a good-enough audience, and offer a select set of services to get started.
While you’re marketing to that audience, you can continue building your skillset, honing your audience, and revising your services. But waiting for perfection doesn’t improve your outcomes — field testing does. So, get out there and find clients.
Not convinced yet?
Here are some other strategies to be aware of. Let’s look at a few other ways to mitigate the effects of Hofstadter’s Law, especially in relation to starting your B2B copywriting business.
And if you have ADHD, like me, you have your own particular set of challenges on top of Hofstadter’s Law. We’ll look at some coping mechanisms for them, too.
Where Did Hofstadter’s Law Come From?
When he was writing Gödel, he noticed that experts had been predicting, for decades, that computers would be able to beat flesh-and-blood world chess champions “within 10 years.” And they continued to make the same prediction, even as they kept missing their mark.
He realized this was evidence of a more wide-ranging human bias, the “planning fallacy.” We tend to be too optimistic about timelines. We focus on best-case scenarios and fail to prepare for conceivable obstacles.
So, the long, drawn-out progress of developing computer chess, along with the general trials and tribulations of project planning, brought about the Law. Thus our tendency to underestimate the time it will take us to finish complex tasks.
Are there ways around it? Not really. But once you know about it, you can take it into account as you plan your business launch.
This is especially important for people with ADHD. Many struggle with time estimation and time blindness. (I’ll go into more ADHD challenges and solutions in a moment.)
For instance, you may think it will only take four days to get your website up and running. And technically, you can. But if you’ve never built one before… and you have several other items on your plate that have nothing to do with a website… you’ve already fallen into the planning fallacy trap.
Break Up Your Steps
Instead of arbitrarily deciding on a four-day timeline to “get my website up,” chunk this one big step into smaller ones — a day or two to research platforms (WordPress? Wix? Weebly? Something else?). Then another two to three days to plan your web pages, another two to three days to write them. Already you’re at more than six days, using the longer timeline, and you haven’t clicked “Publish” yet!
If you do have experience with a step, use that knowledge as a starting point to set your timeline. Don’t rely solely on instinct. Your familiarity can help expose usual causes of setbacks and clarify the real time needed for the task.
Check Your Progress
Maybe it won’t take two days to research platforms. But incorporate that extra time into your plan as a buffer. A subsequent step may take longer than you’d planned. Thank goodness for that buffer!
Speaking of buffers, consider doubling your estimated timeline. This isn’t a bad reflection on you, it’s based on the history of human behavior. Remember to do this for every step of your timeline.
More on Buffers
Plan the first two to four weeks in detail. Keep your long-term goals flexible. As your short-term goals are met, you may discover some “unknown unknowns.” That will help you make more accurate plans going forward.
Develop Dependency Maps
Draw a mind map showing which tasks depend on others:
- Web copy depends on which services you decide to offer.
- Services offered depend on market research.
- Market research depends on competitor analysis.
Knowing how these steps fit together, you can plan your timeline more effectively. It can also help you identify critical path items that could delay everything else.
Hofstadter’s Law and ADHD
Entrepreneurs with ADHD face additional challenges. A big one is difficulty with organization and prioritization. This can lead to procrastination and task paralysis. (Ask me how I know this.)
On the plus side, they can leverage specific strategies to work with their brains rather than against them. And since the rate of ADHD among entrepreneurs is much higher than in the general population, if you do have it, you’re in good company and in the right place.
Accountability Systems
ADHD brains work well with external structures. Accountability groups, mentors, and/or coaches can exert peripheral pressure. That sort of tension could replace internal motivation on difficult days.
Time Boxing to Combat Hyperfocus
Set a timer, but not for work periods. Use it to remind you to take a break. This can help prevent hyperfocus from derailing your whole day.
Interest-Based Task Sequencing
Make a list of business-building projects, sorted by your interest levels. When your eyes start to glaze over struggling with financial projections, pick something from your list that gives you a lift.
Conclusion
Hofstadter’s Law should be acknowledged and planned for. Your B2B copywriting business will take longer to launch than you think, even after reading this article and adjusting your timeline. That’s not failure, that’s just common sense and human nature.
Those who succeed aren’t the ones who manage to bypass Hofstadter’s Law, but those who build their plans around it. By understanding this reality, you’re able to deal with the difficulties, maintain your motivation, and in the end, build a successful B2B copywriting business.
Hofstadter’s Law was at work as I was writing this article. I thought it would take two days. Then I added a buffer. So four days, right?
No.
I’m too embarrassed to tell you how long it took me to write it. Suffice to say, it was the firm deadline that finally got this article over the finish line.
