Lessons From 80’s Arcade Games About Building A Writing Side Hustle
Don’t freelance like Frogger. Be smarter.
Remember Frogger?
The goal of Frogger is to direct a series of frogs to their home across the road. You’ll have to navigate the highway past the speeding cars and jump on top of logs to get across the river, all while avoiding snakes and alligators that’ll gobble you up.
And what do you get when you safely save these frogs?
Nothing.
You just proceed to the next level and start again.
Yeah, there’s a high score at the top of your screen that tells you that you’re doing a great job — but at some point, you have to ask yourself: isn’t there a more efficient way to get these frogs to safety, other than directing them one by one?
If only you could get all four frogs to hop along at the same time, right? Unfortunately, Konami’s code won’t allow that.
Thankfully, life has no such restrictions.
In the same way, in your freelancing, you should be looking to ask yourself: how do I produce more without working more?
After all, time is the one finite resource that we cannot scale.
Building Systems (For Business and Life)
Much of my time revolves around building systems that speed up output and production. Whether for finding new clients or writing new content, I like to define all the steps I expect from the process.
No, this doesn’t take the creativity out of the job. It does the opposite. Scheduling time and specific steps frees up mental bandwidth for you to focus on creating great content.
By building systems and setting times for focused work, you end up clearing your mind and getting rid of any distractions that might disrupt your thought process.
Start by taking the next week or so to document the natural flow of your systems.
Next, determine the challenges, obstacles, and distractions that slow your output production.
Finally, streamline and adapt.
Productize Your Services
Frogger didn’t understand efficiency. Instead of helping one frog at a time, why not have two, three, or four frogs hop together?
The service industry is very personalized. Each time we perform a service, we do so a little differently to satisfy client conditions — which means we need to spend time to curate each provide.
Productizing your services can draw similar comparisons to a factory assembly line. The assembly line was revolutionary during the industrial age because it allowed factories to produce goods faster and scale quicker than ever before.
In building your systems, you’ll eventually find a way to productize your services and scale your output. This frees up more time for you to do more enjoyable things, like networking or building your brand.
In the same way, productizing your services creates a standard set of operating procedures that clearly define a process’s scope, responsibilities, and expected output.
Here’s some actionable advice:
- Define your target market: note who hires you and create an offering that satisfies this market’s need.
- Package your setup: create sales pages that lead to your different offerings.
- Outline results and pricing: define how much this will cost a client and communicate what they could expect from your service.
Take a Breath
The goal of Frogger is to get a high score. Players rush through the levels thinking this is how to get the most points.
Eventually, they get slammed by an oncoming truck that they “didn’t see coming.”
So often do I see beginner freelancers make the mistake of going balls to the wall during their first run at freelancing — then falling flat on their face once they hit their first stumbling block.
Whether it’s a video game or life, approach each task with a deadly calm. Clear your mind, assess your surroundings, and sidestep that speeding truck.
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Lessons From 80’s Arcade Games About Building A Freelance Side Hustle was originally published in The Writing Cooperative on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
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Author: Matthew Du
