So it is a common startup idea generation technique to search for pain points. So I'm hoping this thread we can all list the things that annoy us to brainstorm startup ideas. I'll kick it off:

1. Organizing the dozens of things I have up in the air on any given day for clients with deadlines, responses, updates...
2. Stressed out or frustrated coworkers.
3. Doing my own laundry because I hate other people losing and shrinking my clothes.

-being distracted by entertainment (like 2+2) or 'news' and 'resources' masquerading as something useful that turn out to be useless attention bait, or make me lose focus on the primary task at hand and the big picture.

I've noticed that a ton of really smart and productive people don't screw around watching TV and browsing the web... There's probably something to that. hehe...

1. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Getting-Thin...2008561&sr=8-1

Also for 3, the best solution I've come up with is doing the actual laundry myself, but having my cleaning lady fold and iron it.

This is a big one for me as well. I should add that Getting Things Done has helped a lot with this (and I'm not yet categorising my to-do's by context or being very good about making them actionable steps).

Finding a way to give a **** about the things I need to do but don't want to do.

Alternatively, finding a way to make buckets of cash by only doing things I want to do.

1. Missing courier deliveries and post packages
2. No well priced service for sending small packages
3. Structured learning activities for kids on summer holidays.

1. Live in location where internet poker is banned
2. Kids refuse to sleep--waking up at 3 AM in the morning saying "play" and sometimes hitting me with a frying pan saying "eggy"
3. Learning requires sleep and doesn't go fast enough. Remember that scene in the Matrix where Neo learns to fly the helicopter in 10 seconds? Yeah, I want that.

+1

Also just insufficient time. Even as someone who doesn't sleep much there is not enough time to keep all aspects of life optimal and when it comes times to triage the less fun but more profitable tasks are usually the ones that go.

Wasting my time doing stuff that I could pay someone next to nothing to do. I realize there are options like elance but I tend to have a lot of very particular but unique tasks. I feel-- although I have nothing to base this on-- that the amount of time it takes to contract out with proper instructions would eat up almost as much as just doing it myself. I also suspect that there is at least a 25% chance that it will not be done right. Sometimes it is wasting time doing monkey work that I could pay min wage to have someone else do but it is sporadic, unexpected, and short making having someone else do it a difficult option.

Haha that is adorable (while not happening to me of course).

1. People who take a week to answer to a simple email.
2. No connections and no traction in the industry.
3. Not being able to do everything well by myself - When you have a equity holder who does absolutley nothing, it´s really tilting. Just now I start to know how awesome it would be, if one could only relay on himself.



I did not add the tons of things to do and hard to start doing them one by one, because it has been said mulitple times +

hard to do just 3.

1) partners, a necessary evil. sort of like a jail sentence with no chance for parole
2) troublesome clients you should have fired 6 months ago
3) suppliers that use back order on a packing list. If I didn't want it today, I'd have told you. I had 3 other options as a backup ffs.

Reading this thread while trying to get some work done. Oh, irony.

And +1 to partners. I love them both to death and we'd surely be out of business by now without them, but damn they can drive me crazy sometimes.

1) Cash flow

2) Long drawn out sales process with little communication and going through a bunch of morans who can't make a decision to get to someone who can "selling UP" the chain of command.

2) Dealing with a partner

4) Fickle, frustrating industry

5) Work from home distractions

6) Cash flow

Archaic work environments & structures.

This is basically it, and it feels as if just about all my other pain points are directly related to that.
I have been in plenty situations where my clients/employers were expecting me to be present when I could do the same job easily from any place in the world given a proper internet connection.

Hand in hand with that goes that (even as external contractor) I have been wasting tons of hours sitting around with nothing left to do and nothing else left I can grab of anyone else's list (who always seem overworked).
I've declined contract extension offers because I only had half a day of work and had to kill the other half. I don't want to get paid for sitting around, I want to get paid for actual work done. They always offer an increase but will not even consider defining more flexible terms where they could actually save money during quieter times and have easier access to my service during intense times.
Wasting 1/4 to 1/2 a day leads to not having enough time for other, more fun things.

I absolutely hate the culture of showing presence and/or faking being sooo busy. I don't participate in the latter anyway but the former is required it seems. If I don't have anything to do after asking for extras, I won't even try to hide that I'm doing zip. If I could without losing the contract, I'd just head out the door and do more fun things.

1) Just missing the bus when I leave the house and have to wait the maximum time for the next one
2) Putting sheets on my duvet (I know the inside out trick but I still look like a trapped animal in a sheet when I try and do it!)
3) Keeping lists of important contact up to date

not to defend their position, but to give a perspective. Sometimes the question arises, Will they come back when I need them? Because no one can really guarantee where they'll be tomorrow, some companies would rather have people waiting, as opposed to be the ones who are waiting.

I used to pick up my daughter from school, then from a transit station. I was always there 10 minutes ahead of time. One weekend when she came out I was running behind, so she calls me, Where are you? On my way I replied. She didn't like to have to stand there waiting. I had to explain that someone ALWAYS has to wait, and this time it was her's. Well that didn't at first go over very well, until I explained how many times it was my turn to just sit there.