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Ask HN: How do you motivate yourself to keep working on a project?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you motivate yourself to keep working on a project?

#121

Post by newnewpdro »

I just tell myself "this too shall pass" and carry on.

Not just dev projects, everything in life that I decide to do but in the thick of it start hating myself, I repeat those four words. It's usually when running or digging, physical stuff that starts to really suck halfway through.

I also think subjecting oneself to activities which really suck, physically difficult and painful things, and persevering through them, is generally helpful. It tempers oneself by conquering higher forms of suffering, no amount of poorly documented APIs can shine a light to a week of digging with a pickaxe and shovel.

Just getting to being able to run 4+ miles teaches some useful lessons IMO. There's an entire headspace to be explored in doing endurance activities that probably confers benefits everywhere in life, not even considering the exercise aspect.

Re: Ask HN: How do you motivate yourself to keep working on a project?

#122

Post by mango_ »

robbrown451 wrote: post #43
astockwell wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would love to see a "whole system in more detail" write-up!

It's in the works, really! But right now I am on a schedule and don't have time to do something for public consumption. :) However, I'll add a few things. Optimum group size is about 7-10. Everyone has a monitor, that is, a person who is holding them accountable. These get randomly switched out every two weeks. You never are monitoring your own monitor. Every monitor has a manager. Again, switched out randomly every…

This seems like a very effective solution, thanks for the idea.

Re: Ask HN: How do you motivate yourself to keep working on a project?

#124

Post by jotm »

tjkrusinski wrote: post #31

One day, you will be dead. Each year that passes after your death, fewer and fewer people will remember who you were, what you did or what your face looked like. Eventually, you'll be completely forgotten. Who cares if that side project you put out sucked or not. Might as well put it out there and see what people think. There's a good chance too that the project won't even be remembered even by the time you die. The…

Haha, that's the only thing keeping my depressed ass from killing myself. Gonna die anyway, no need to rush it, might as well do something. Not doing much, though.

Re: Ask HN: How do you motivate yourself to keep working on a project?

#125

Post by burtonator »

stickfigure wrote: post #56

Launch without billing. You can implement that later. "Free while beta! Early adopters will get a special discount!" Make sure you are breaking up work into small releasable steps. You should get the "oooh ahh" feeling of tangible accomplishment at least a couple times a week. Get users as quickly as possible. As soon as you have one real user, it suddenly feels like you're participating in the real world instead of…

Revisit every decision... Do you REALLY need it to ship MVP?

Shipped code is better than perfect code.

Wait until people complain about something before fixing it. This is how you prioritize.

The worst thing is not that it breaks but that people NEVER use it. If people use it and don't complain that means they don't care.

Force yourself to ship every 1-2 weeks.. no arguments. Ship continually.

Use feature toggles. This way if something breaks you can turn it off.

Re: Ask HN: How do you motivate yourself to keep working on a project?

#126

Post by mrburton »

SamWhited wrote: post #104
mrburton wrote: post #98

It's simple - stop trying to right prefect code because it doesn't exist. Next, go sell it. Building a company means creating a balance and from what I hear, it's one sided; software development. Get people using it. Get people to give you feedback to drive the features, Engineers typically suck at sales and get caught up in building. Release it. Your customers don't give a shit about the code. I know you do and I re…

The customers care about the code when it breaks, overcharges them or keeps billing them, and then they sue me. I don't need to build perfect code, but I do need to make sure that something as important as this is done right the first time and doesn't hurt my customers. Customers are trusting me with the ability to charge them, that's something I won't take shortcuts on.

The customer doesn't care about the code - they care about how the system functions. The code could look like shit, but if it "works" that's all they care about. There's a difference between how the code looks and how the application functions.

Re: Ask HN: How do you motivate yourself to keep working on a project?

#127

Post by justinclift »

> What do you do to keep yourself motivated? Especially when you hit something you hate to work on but is necessary.

Refresh the end goal you're working towards in your mind. Re-establish your connection to it.

It's the end goal that you're working towards, and this (crap) next step is just a small part in the way of you getting there. :)

Saying this from the perspective of "Loss of motivation generally means you've forgotten or lost the emotional connection to your end goal".

Much of the time, if the end goal is really something you personally value, it shouldn't be too hard to re-establish the connection to it.

For me, it's mostly a case of needing to find a quiet place, then think of the goal, what it means to me, etc. Motivation seems to then spring forth fairly readily.

Only works (longer term) for goals I feel are really important (to me). For trivial stuff, trying to regain motivation like this just doesn't work. :)

Re: Ask HN: How do you motivate yourself to keep working on a project?

#128

Post by croo »

mgolawala wrote: post #69
badatshipping wrote: post #35

Tell yourself you’ll spend five minutes working on it. This tricks your brain into thinking it’s not a big pain commitment. Once you’ve spent five minutes immersed in it you’ll be more willing to keep working. Another trick is to break down the task into as many subtasks as you can, and when you’re feeling obstinate about working, just get one small subtask done. It also helps you visualize the finiteness of the tota…

I use this exact method to get myself to workout when I am not feeling like it. I tell myself I will slack off and not really go hard today. ie. It's better to do a workout at 75% effort than skip it altogether. Inevitably, once I start I find myself working out as I normally would.

My method is if I show up at the gym I already succeeded and pat my own shoulder that I'm great. The workout itself seems easy compared to get up in the morning and drive there...

Re: Ask HN: How do you motivate yourself to keep working on a project?

#129

Post by quickthrower2 »

scarejunba wrote: post #82

By applying the Agile methodology. I just stick it out there in whatever state and let people have access.

That’s not really what agile is about. It is about early feedback, so yes the customer might see an incomplete product. This is similar to watching a bespoke house being built. As long as they wear a hard hat, it’s ok for the client to inspect the footings.

Re: Ask HN: How do you motivate yourself to keep working on a project?

#130

Post by quadcore »

badatshipping wrote: post #35

Tell yourself you’ll spend five minutes working on it. This tricks your brain into thinking it’s not a big pain commitment. Once you’ve spent five minutes immersed in it you’ll be more willing to keep working. Another trick is to break down the task into as many subtasks as you can, and when you’re feeling obstinate about working, just get one small subtask done. It also helps you visualize the finiteness of the tota…

Yes to that. There is this guy who once broke his leg climbing a big snowy mountain. He was alone and got to go back in the valley. But it could barely walk, was dehydrated and hungry. In very bad shape. What he did was looking ahead a couple hundred meters and telling himself "Ok, I just go there and stop". Once he got there, he was like "I might just go there and stop". He reaches the valley and got saved.
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