‘Untitled Document’
Start. Ignore the headline. Ignore naming what you’re building. Name doesn’t really matter, taking action does. Can’t come up with a title for that awesome article, but feeling the words about to explode? No available names with dotcom domain for what you’re starting to code?
Skip that part. Don’t let title become the weight that pulls you down, drowning you even before you reach the pool. I’ve seen way too many projects stuck on the naming phase, killing the project even before it was given a chance to breathe. As your initial zeal fades fighting the naming battle, your project is defeated in advance.
Naming can be venom to your ideas.
With persisting headache today, I was going to write on importance of a break, when break is necessary. But, I got stuck. Laid back on a couch, with iPad mini as my writing tool, I fired up Google Drive and chose ‘New Document’. That’s where I lost it, starting the battle I wasn’t prepared for and being kicked, badly. Trying to come up with a title way before laying down foundations of the article, fighting with the title, words perished like thieves in the night.
Unlike browser version, Drive for iOS makes you enter project title. With default ‘Untitled Document’ standing in my way, highlighted in blue, asking for a ‘fight’, my mind blacked out. “Come up with a name or you’re not going anywhere” is what I’ve read on screen, an ultimatum imposed upon me.
Trying ‘this and that’ variations of the topic, strikeout made me realize I’ve got no topic any more to write on, anyway. Thoughts were lost, I got mad, blood rushed and sinus pain intensified. Tapping ‘Cancel’, I admited my defeat.
I was prepared starting over. Still without the title, one tap on ‘Create’ and I let the words out, like a pouring rain. It’s on totally different topic than I intended, but the flow is amazing. I didn’t allow myself to be lured into the same naming trap again, so here I am hundreds of words later. Regardless of a headache and urge to turn my head away from the screen, I did it.
That couldn’t be possible if I skipped the very first word of this article. I started. You should, too. The name will become obvious through undisrupted flow of your thoughts.
Luka Pensa
2 March 2014