You can’t do everything, but you can do SOMETHING.

I’ve been having trouble focusing this week… let’s be honest… this month… ok, the truth is …I’ve been having trouble focusing this YEAR. There’s a pervasive sense of feeling utterly helpless to do anything useful, helpful, or impactful, when there are such BIG problems that need solving. What can one person do when the whole world is suffering? 

This afternoon I found myself at a weird convergence as I realized that the same practical advice that I always tell my clients about their websites, also applies to the world’s problems and our personal lives:

You can’t do everything, but you can do SOMETHING.

I can’t singlehandedly cure a pandemic or eradicate racism, but I can share information, make a donation, join conversations, speak up instead of staying silent, and vote. And you can too.

I’ve found that focusing on something, no matter how small, helps clear my head a little bit and gives me more insight to bigger problems. So I'll bring this back to where my life advice merged with website advice …  

The best and worst thing about websites is that there's always work to be done. That’s why I love working on them. Made a mistake? Fix it. Don’t have that new photo yet? Use stock photo for now and replace it later. Unlike a printed brochure or catalog, you can continue to make improvements after your website is published.

But it’s all to easy to get stuck in a perpetual loop, where your website isn’t working for you, but you don’t have the time or budget you need for a redesign, but you can't accept online payments, or you need to get more donations or sales, but your website isn’t working, but you don’t know how to fix it, so you need a new website, but you don’t have the budget, and on and on. 

Hold on… take a deep breath.

You can’t do everything, but you can do SOMETHING.

If you tell me you need a new website. Sure, ok. I can help with that. But if you have minimal budget or are short on time, what is your biggest problem right now? Your donate button doesn’t work? Let’s fix that first. Once we solve the urgent problems, we can then have the breathing room to do a needs assessment and plan a website that works with your goals.

Websites often go untouched for far too long, because of the expected high cost for a new site. What most people don't consider is that there are ways you can make improvements over time. We can prioritize and plan a big project in phases, to work with cash flow and minimize disruptions. This is why we always talk about budget up front. If you don’t have 5-figure budget for a new website, what do you have? $500? $2500? $5,000?

When the problems are too big or too expensive, we focus on planning first. We discuss needs, goals, wish list, assets, budget and timeline, and then start figuring out ways to fix, design, optimize, integrate and manage all of those puzzle pieces. We plan incremental improvements that are prioritized and adjusted as goals are reached and new challenges arise (like all of 2020 being a huge challenge).

So when faced with these world-wide problems that feel insurmountable, I've found a bit of reassurance in listening to my own advice to stop focusing on what I can't do, and figure out what I CAN do.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.“

Margaret Mead

What if each of us made small changes over time, and it adds up to hundreds or millions of people making changes for the better?

You can't do everything, but you can do SOMETHING.