It’s a good problem to have, but it is a problem. As of the date of this post, I have 112 published videos and I add a new one (almost) every weekday. In order to approximate catching up, I’m going to need to iterate through this and do it in waves. Here is my plan of attack.
Phase One: Working but ugly
I have written YouTube descriptions for each of these videos. They aren’t optimal in terms of what I would like to see for each of these posts, but they will help me get the content onto statelesscode.com. I will essentially CTRL+C, CTRL+V the video description, add a YouTube embed block for the video, and click Publish.
Phase Two: Detailed video notes
Next I will make a second iteration through the videos to better flesh out and update the posts. In this iteration, I will make use of the Enlighter code highlighting plugin and write out the concepts covered in the videos. This will likely be in value priority order rather than chronological order. I will prioritize the posts that would benefit most by an accompanying article.
Phase Three: Book quality
By the time I complete the articles for the video posts, some of the series will have enough material for a pretty decent quality book. Right now the Create a Ruby Gem: Nerd Dice series fits this bill.
The Challenge
If I release a new video every weekday, that means that I need to convert more than five video posts per week into articles just to tread water. I have a day job and a family, so my capacity to work on this while continuing to produce videos is very much finite. I’ll need to prioritize ruthlessly so that I don’t allocate a ton of effort on a post that nobody ever sees. This is where the WordPress Jetpack stats can be helpful. If a particular post is getting traffic, I prioritize getting a better article in place for it.
The Solution: Agile
Agile isn’t just for software development. When you have limited time, fixed resources, and large potential scope, you need to prioritize. This is the best way to deliver value over time. Get an ordered backlog based on value and pick out the most valuable item. (Take both time cost and value to end user into account.) Always be working on the highest value item. When something new comes up, decide where in the ranking it goes. That way you aren’t allocating your valuable time on items that would be at the bottom of your backlog.
In the Meantime…
Because it will take some time to get everything on statelesscode.com, be sure you are following us on social media. Subscribe to our YouTube channel. Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram. Star the GitHub repos.