Internally, we’ve been talking a lot about managing growth and getting more organized. We’re a small company, super small in the grand scheme. So the fact that both Jumpchart and Staction each grow a little every single day creates a new job description for each of us daily. When we started building web apps, we thought these things would be our job:

• Coming up with cool interface mocks
• Making really cool code, and trying to push some limits
• Maybe writing a few blog articles about what we do

Turns out, that’s a pretty small part of what we do now… Of course we’re still actively developing out apps (as you can tell from the new Jumpchart) but the needle shifts with each new user we add, and new ambition we have. Here’s a list that reflects the reality of what we do day to day:

• Answering support emails
• Managing account related questions
• Promoting our apps
• Managing advertising
• Writing support articles
• Interacting with the web community
• ...and a bunch of other businessy stuff

So, the list grows. Daily. And the blunt truth is, we’re doing a lot less than we ought to be doing. We’re not trying to be the next Microsoft, but we are really passionate about our apps: We want people to try them, and if that’s going to happen, we need to do a lot better job of getting the word out. An amazing amount of time has gone into building our apps, and we didn’t do that just because we needed a hobby or needed money. We believed that we had a serious contribution to make to this space and it’s important to us that we expose people to our ideas and apps.

We’re guessing a lot of you are in the same boat. The things that get your company to a beginning level are mostly related to passion, execution, and ideas. We’ll buy you a beer sometime and tell you about how far those things have gotten us (it’s been a pretty fun and amazing ride so far). But the things we believe will take us to the next level are from a slightly different tool set. It’s time to grow in our thinking.

Our company has its roots in design and advertising, so its ironic how little of our own advice we’ve taken. Small things. Big things. They all fell to the bottom of the list behind the stuff that seemed, well, funner. It’s too bad really. We’ve probably missed out on a lot of momentum.

So as we’ve been talking about growing, and getting organized we decided we needed one of those things, what do you call them? Oh yeah, a plan. A list really. Just something to get our thoughts organized, and recorded. Call it an exercise in purposeful growth.

So we filled a Jumpchart full of ideas, and plans — a roadmap of sorts. Nothing with dates, and nothing that feels too rigid. (btw. Jumpchart makes a pretty good spot to organize this type of info. We find a new way to use that app every week!) It’s what you might call a cathartic process. Planning your future rather than just letting it happen to you. Maybe it’s not very zen, but then again Lao Tzu never built a web app or had to answer support emails…

The important thing to realize is that it’s o.k. to give yourself permission to plan. Stupid point, but it’s one of the main mental hurdles we had to get over (and it’s really the point of this whole article). We had cultivated a mental resistance to planning because we felt that it was a waste of time. Our business was creating its own plan. Our days were filled up with putting out the fires that were created in our path. Any time spent making a plan today would be wasted when the first email came in the morning.

But it was garbage thinking. Procrastination in the disguise of proactivity. It was just us counting mile markers on a highway in a random direction. Analogies aside, it was dumb, and we knew better. We needed an over-arching direction, some destination in mind as we make the hundreds and thousands of decisions that we make on a daily basis.

So one afternoon we took some time, and we talked about that direction. Not that we had never talked about where Paste was headed before, but we had never discussed it in such an organized fashion. Using our list in Jumpchart as a starting point, we started to think about things like:

• Changes to the sales sites
• A prioritization of new feature development for the current apps
• Handling support better
• Handling promotions smarter, and monitoring the success of individual efforts and campaigns
• Company attitude. (No, we didn’t write a “mission statement.” But we did talk a bit about defining our passions more concretely)

Nothing too shocking on the list. You’re probably not reeling in amazement at our brilliance in talking about these things. But we might ask you: What’s not being talked about in your business? What are you taking for granted? Where do you see your company in a year? And maybe you don’t have any of those high level questions that are unanswered, if so, congratulations… But many of them were unanswered here at Paste. Our apps haven’t grown by accident, but the process has been somewhat more evolutionary than purposeful.

An interesting thing has happened since making the list. We’re actually doing more. Same number of people. Same number of hours in the day. But more somehow gets done. What a weird, and wonderful effect this thing we call a “list” has had. Apologies to David Allen for not heeding the advice earlier.

When there’s a path, even a tentative one, your next step is easier to take. Uncertainty is the enemy of productivity. Having over-riding concepts and a sense of direction increases fulfillment, and the overall pulse of your company.

So as we’ve been thinking about purposeful growth, and the future of Paste. We’ve had this major revelation that we think you all should know about: You get a lot more done when you have a plan.