Ask HN: How do you manage your one-man project? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage your one-man project?

#51

Post by jgeewax » Wed, Dec 12, 2012, 7:06 PM UTC

I use codebasehq.com and religiously create separate tickets for each commit/"feature" (commit logs look like: "[completed: 1234] Added feature X.")

The reason behind this is that I might go for a few weeks without even looking at the code and then when I come back to it it's like picking up someone else's work...

I also have boatloads of unit tests so that I don't have to be as terrified about making big sweeping changes, and try to add tests along with every "feature" I put in.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage your one-man project?

#52

Post by shimsham » Wed, Dec 12, 2012, 8:50 PM UTC

pen and paper, with me at all times. less distracting. less weight.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage your one-man project?

#53

Post by christl11 » Thu, Dec 13, 2012, 3:07 AM UTC

At the moment I've found a stack of index cards, with one task or feature per card, works best for me. You can sort through and prioritise, and write more detailed notes on the back. Also helps with motivation as the 'Done' pile builds up.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage your one-man project?

#54

Post by fidanov » Thu, Dec 13, 2012, 7:28 AM UTC

Personally on one man projects I have some sort of a text file where I organize everything that I may forget but I consider critical. I don't put everything, I also rely on my memory. One important thing, keep that file short. If the file grows, too much and as this is a side project you don't have much time and motivation to re-read long paragraphs, keep the file short, one screen page at max. I've dome some complex one man projects and this has worked super well for me.

To me scrum and similar practices provide value when you are at least two people, and it gets better when you are more.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage your one-man project?

#55

Post by dorsiak7 » Thu, Dec 13, 2012, 10:21 AM UTC

I suggest to use Workflowy and Paymo Plus (automatic tracking tool), these two together will help you be organized and know exactly how much time you put into the project.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage your one-man project?

#56

Post by chris_dcosta » Fri, Dec 14, 2012, 3:32 PM UTC

rburhum wrote: post #22

The best thing I ever do is shutdown tweetdeck, my e-mail client and any browser tabs to social networks / HNs / reddit. Productivity shoots up the roof.

I agree with this.

I have a separate dev user on my machine that has no email or any other distraction and I keep my browser clean and purged.

This means it's a pain in the a*se to login to sites I visit in normal life.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage your one-man project?

#57

Post by gte910h » Fri, Dec 14, 2012, 6:41 PM UTC

I use github issues and pomodero

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage your one-man project?

#58

Post by vladexologija » Tue, Dec 18, 2012, 10:58 AM UTC

http://www.realmacsoftware.com/clear/

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage your one-man project?

#59

Post by smartial_arts » Thu, Dec 20, 2012, 5:02 AM UTC

I am a big fan of the whole "if you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it" mantra, and while there are some edge cases it tends to work pretty well for the majority of cases.

So, I use:

1. RescueTime to track where my time has gone - after seeing exactly how much time gets sinked into FB/Twitter/App.net sor tof activities I, somehow unexpectedly for myself developed a particular type of anxiety - if I stay on those pages for roughly over a minute it freaks me out and I close it immediately. (I guess it's the realisation of wasting time is freaky).

2. PivotalTracket - to manage the priorities of tasks and to measure my "burn rate".

3. Evernote - I try to stick to the following procedure when reading/watching anything new: 1. Take short notes on stuff being watched/read. Express things using my own words, NOT copy pasting or typing same stuff I just read. 2. Create actionable items from what I read 3. Break those actionable items into PivotalTracket tasks

This helped to reduce the unnecessary news intake dramatically - in the very beginning of each article that I start reading I ask myself - "is it worth taking notes on?" if not - close the tab.

Thanks!

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage your one-man project?

#60

Post by smartial_arts » Thu, Dec 20, 2012, 5:02 AM UTC

I am a big fan of the whole "if you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it" mantra, and while there are some edge cases it tends to work pretty well for the majority of cases.

So, I use:

1. RescueTime to track where my time has gone - after seeing exactly how much time gets sinked into FB/Twitter/App.net sor tof activities I, somehow unexpectedly for myself developed a particular type of anxiety - if I stay on those pages for roughly over a minute it freaks me out and I close it immediately. (I guess it's the realisation of wasting time is freaky).

2. PivotalTracket - to manage the priorities of tasks and to measure my "burn rate".

3. Evernote - I try to stick to the following procedure when reading/watching anything new: 1. Take short notes on stuff being watched/read. Express things using my own words, NOT copy pasting or typing same stuff I just read. 2. Create actionable items from what I read 3. Break those actionable items into PivotalTracket tasks

This helped to reduce the unnecessary news intake dramatically - in the very beginning of each article that I start reading I ask myself - "is it worth taking notes on?" if not - close the tab.