DEV Community: Jaabir Yusuf

I Thought My Problem Was Lack of Time. I Was Wrong.

Jaabir Yusuf — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 20:35:53 +0000

For years, I told myself the same story:

"If I had more time, I'd finally make progress."

More time to learn.

More time to build.

More time to launch.

More time to grow.

It sounded reasonable.

The problem?

It wasn't true.

The Reality Check

In 2020, I started trying to build things online.

I spent countless hours watching tutorials, reading articles, researching business models, and learning new skills.

Looking back, I wasn't wasting time.

I learned a lot.

Website building.

Design.

Marketing.

Content creation.

Product development.

But despite all that learning, the results were much smaller than I expected.

Why?

Because learning became my comfort zone.

The Productivity Illusion

There's a strange trap that creators fall into.

You spend three hours researching.

You feel productive.

You spend two hours redesigning your workspace.

You feel productive.

You spend another hour organizing your files.

You feel productive.

But at the end of the day, nothing new exists.

No article.

No product.

No launch.

No customer.

No feedback.

No progress.

The work feels productive because you're busy.

But busy and productive are not the same thing.

What Actually Moves the Needle

The internet rewards output.

Not preparation.

Not planning.

Not organizing.

Output.

The article you publish.

The video you upload.

The product you launch.

The email you send.

The customer conversation you have.

That's where growth happens.

Not inside another productivity video.

The System Problem

One thing I noticed was that every time I sat down to work, I had to figure everything out again.

Where are my notes?

What project should I work on?

What task is most important?

What was I doing yesterday?

Those small questions drained energy.

Not because they were difficult.

Because they happened every day.

Eventually, I realized I needed a system that reduced decisions.

A place where everything already had a home.

Building Something For Myself

So I started creating a Notion workspace that solved my own problems.

Nothing fancy.

Just practical.

A place to manage:

Projects
Goals
Tasks
Notes
Content
Habits
Finances

The goal wasn't organization.

The goal was clarity.

When I opened my workspace, I wanted to know exactly what to do next.

No thinking.

No searching.

No confusion.

The Surprising Result

The biggest benefit wasn't becoming more organized.

The biggest benefit was becoming more consistent.

Because consistency becomes easier when you remove friction.

You stop relying on motivation.

You stop relying on willpower.

You simply follow the system.

And over time, that compounds.

Final Thoughts

If you've been trying to build something online for a while, ask yourself:

Are you spending most of your time creating?

Or preparing to create?

That question changed everything for me.

The internet doesn't reward the person with the perfect setup.

It rewards the person who keeps shipping.

And if you're interested, the Notion workspace I built to help me stay consistent is available here:

500+ NOTION TEMPLATES FOR DEVELOPERS PRODUCTIVITY.

I'd love to hear what's been the biggest obstacle in your own journey building online.

The Biggest Mistake I Made Online Was Starting Over Every Year

Jaabir Yusuf — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 20:26:52 +0000

The Biggest Mistake I Made Online Was Starting Over Every Year

I started trying to make money online in 2020.

Like many people, I thought success was just one good idea away.

So I chased ideas.

Blogging.

Affiliate marketing.

Freelancing.

Digital products.

Social media.

SEO.

Content websites.

Every few months I convinced myself I had found "the one."

Then I'd hit a roadblock.

Traffic was slow.

Sales didn't come.

Growth wasn't fast enough.

And instead of improving what I already had, I'd move on to something new.

Looking back, I wasn't failing because the ideas were bad.

I was failing because I kept resetting my progress.

The Cost of Starting Over

Starting a new project feels exciting.

Everything looks possible.

You imagine the future.

You see the potential.

But every new project comes with a hidden cost:

You throw away momentum.

You throw away data.

You throw away lessons.

You throw away trust you've already built.

The internet rewards people who stay around longer than everyone else.

Unfortunately, I spent years acting like a beginner.

What Changed My Thinking

One day I realized something.

The people I admired weren't necessarily smarter.

They weren't always more talented.

They simply stayed focused long enough for results to appear.

While I was switching strategies, they were improving theirs.

While I was rebuilding systems, they were shipping products.

While I was learning, they were publishing.

The difference wasn't knowledge.

The difference was consistency.

The Problem With Most Productivity Advice

Most productivity advice focuses on motivation.

Wake up earlier.

Work harder.

Set bigger goals.

But motivation wasn't my problem.

My problem was organization.

My projects were scattered across different apps.

My notes lived everywhere.

My goals changed constantly.

I couldn't see the big picture.

Every day felt like starting from zero.

Building a Better System

To solve that problem, I built a workspace that connected everything.

Projects.

Goals.

Tasks.

Learning.

Finances.

Habits.

Content ideas.

Instead of jumping between multiple tools, everything lived in one place.

The result wasn't magical.

But it was powerful.

I spent less time deciding what to do.

And more time actually doing it.

What Success Looks Like Now

I no longer chase every opportunity.

I don't rebuild my workflow every month.

I don't spend hours searching for the perfect productivity hack.

My goal is simple:

Show up.

Do the work.

Improve a little.

Repeat.

Because after years of trying different things online, I've learned that boring consistency beats exciting ideas.

Every single time.

Final Thoughts

If you're struggling online right now, maybe you don't need another strategy.

Maybe you don't need another course.

Maybe you don't need another productivity video.

Maybe you simply need a system that helps you stay focused long enough for results to happen.

That's what I spent years trying to build for myself.

Eventually, I turned it into a Notion workspace that I use every day.

If you'd like to see it:

500+ Notion templates for developer

What's one online project you wish you had stuck with longer?

I Spent Years Building Productivity Systems Instead of Doing the Work

Jaabir Yusuf — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 20:24:27 +0000

Since 2020, I've been obsessed with productivity.

I've downloaded apps, watched YouTube videos, read articles, built spreadsheets, tested habit trackers, and redesigned my workflow more times than I can count.

Every few months I convinced myself that the reason I wasn't making progress was simple:

"I just need a better system."

So I built one.

Then another.

The result?

I became really good at organizing my life and surprisingly bad at moving my goals forward.

The Productivity Trap

Most people think productivity means having the perfect setup.

The perfect notes.

The perfect dashboard.

The perfect task manager.

The perfect calendar.

But after years of experimenting, I learned something uncomfortable:

A bad system can slow you down.

A perfect system can stop you completely.

Because building systems feels like progress even when nothing important gets done.

You spend hours customizing instead of creating.

Planning instead of shipping.

Organizing instead of executing.

The system becomes the project.

The Real Problem

The problem wasn't that I lacked motivation.

The problem wasn't that I lacked information.

The problem wasn't even that I lacked discipline.

The problem was friction.

Every time I wanted to start something, I had to decide:

Where do I write this?
Which project does this belong to?
Where are my notes?
How do I track progress?
What should I work on next?

Tiny decisions repeated hundreds of times create massive resistance.

What Finally Helped

Instead of searching for another productivity app, I decided to build one workspace that handled everything.

One place for:

Goals
Projects
Tasks
Notes
Habits
Finances
Learning
Daily planning

Not because I wanted a fancy dashboard.

Because I wanted fewer decisions.

The simpler the workflow became, the easier it became to actually do the work.

What I Learned

A productivity system should disappear.

You shouldn't spend your day managing it.

You should spend your day using it.

The best system isn't the most beautiful one.

It's the one that helps you start quickly and stay focused.

Building My Own Workspace

After years of trial and error, I packaged the exact structure I use into a Notion workspace.

It's designed for students, freelancers, creators, and anyone trying to manage multiple parts of life without jumping between ten different apps.

The goal isn't to make you more organized.

The goal is to make it easier to take action.

Because action creates results.

Not organization.

Final Thoughts

If you're constantly rebuilding your productivity system, you're not alone.

I've done it for years.

But eventually I realized that success doesn't come from having the perfect setup.

It comes from spending less time designing the system and more time doing the work.

If you're curious, I've shared the workspace I built for myself and use every day.

500+ Notion templates Pack

I'd love to hear how you manage your projects and whether you've fallen into the productivity trap too.

The Biggest Lie I Believed About Online Business for 5 Years

Jaabir Yusuf — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 10:07:03 +0000

If I could go back to 2020 and give myself one piece of advice, it would be this:

Stop learning. Start distributing.

That sounds strange.

Especially because the internet constantly tells us to learn more.

Learn coding.
Learn design.
Learn marketing.
Learn copywriting.
Learn SEO.
Learn AI.

So that's exactly what I did.

For years.

And it almost became a trap.

The Endless Learning Loop

In 2020 I became obsessed with online business.

I discovered stories of people building websites, software products, blogs, digital products and online brands.

Some were making thousands per month.

Others were making millions.

I thought:

"If I learn enough skills, success will eventually happen."

So I started collecting skills.

I learned website building.

I learned graphic design.

I learned content creation.

I learned marketing.

I learned advertising.

I learned SEO.

Every month I knew more than the month before.

The problem?

My bank account didn't care.

The Dangerous Feeling of Progress

Learning creates a powerful illusion.

It feels productive.

You watch a video.

You finish a course.

You read another article.

You discover another strategy.

At the end of the day you feel like you've moved forward.

But sometimes you haven't.

You have only moved sideways.

You gained information.

Not results.

There's a huge difference.

I spent years confusing the two.

Builders Have a Hidden Addiction

I think many creators suffer from the same problem.

Building feels good.

Launching feels scary.

Building is private.

Launching is public.

Building gives certainty.

Launching creates uncertainty.

So what do we do?

We keep building.

We keep improving.

We keep tweaking.

We keep redesigning.

We keep learning.

Anything except facing the market.

The Hard Truth

Nobody cares how hard you worked.

Nobody cares how many hours you spent.

Nobody cares how many skills you learned.

The market only cares about one thing:

Value.

Did you create something people want?

Can they find it?

Can they understand it?

Can they trust you?

That's it.

The internet is full of talented people nobody knows.

At the same time, average creators with great distribution often outperform experts.

That reality frustrated me for years.

Now I think it's simply the way the game works.

The Distribution Problem

Recently I built a collection of hundreds of Notion templates.

The product was real.

The quality was real.

The work was real.

The launch?

Almost invisible.

Why?

Because products don't distribute themselves.

I had spent years learning how to build.

I had spent almost no time learning how to get attention.

And attention is the currency of the internet.

Without attention:

No visitors.

No customers.

No sales.

No business.

For those curious, this is the project I've been working on:

This is the project I've been working on:

500+ Notion Templates for Developers

What I'm Focusing On Now

Today my priorities look completely different.

Instead of asking:

"What should I learn next?"

I ask:

"How can more people discover what I've already built?"

Instead of creating endless new projects, I'm trying to improve distribution.

Writing articles.

Posting online.

Building an audience.

Learning from founders.

Documenting the journey.

Because a great product nobody sees is still invisible.

The Most Valuable Realization

Success online is rarely one big moment.

It's usually:

Showing up repeatedly.
Learning publicly.
Improving publicly.
Building publicly.

Then eventually people start paying attention.

The creators we admire often look lucky.

What we don't see are the hundreds of days nobody was watching.

My Question

For founders, developers and creators reading this:

What was the skill that changed everything for you?

Was it:

Building?
Marketing?
Writing?
Sales?
Distribution?
Networking?

If you could only master one skill starting from zero today, what would it be and why?

I'd love to hear your answer.

Suggested tags:

#startup
#buildinpublic
#entrepreneurship
#career

This topic tends to get more engagement because it challenges a common belief ("learn more skills") and invites people to debate it in the comments.

I've Been Trying to Build Something Online Since 2020. Still Not There. Looking for Advice.

Jaabir Yusuf — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 09:39:49 +0000

In 2020, I discovered the idea that people could make money online by building things.

Since then, I've tried almost everything.

I started websites.
I learned design.
I learned marketing.
I built digital products.
I launched projects that nobody used.
I launched projects that got almost no traffic.

Every year I thought:

"Maybe this is the year it finally works."

But somehow I always ended up back at zero.

The frustrating part is that I didn't quit.

For 5 years I've been consistently learning new skills:

Graphic design
Website building
Digital products
Content marketing
SEO
Social media

Yet I still haven't reached the point where I can say:

"Yes, this business is working."

Recently I spent weeks building a library of 500+ Notion templates.

I launched it.

The result?

Almost nothing.

No viral launch.
No overnight success.
Just another reminder that building is easier than distribution.

That's the lesson that keeps hitting me:

Building isn't my problem anymore.

Getting attention is.

I can create products.
I can design landing pages.
I can write content.

But distribution still feels like a puzzle I'm trying to solve.

So I'm asking developers, founders, and creators who are further ahead:

If you were starting again today with no audience and no reputation, what would you focus on?

Would you:

Double down on content?
Build more products?
Focus entirely on one distribution channel?
Spend more time networking?

I'm genuinely curious because after 5 years of trying different things, I'm convinced the answer isn't "work harder."

It's probably "work differently."

I'd love to hear your advice.