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Ask HN: How to finish personal projects?

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31–38 of 38 posts

Re: Ask HN: How to finish personal projects?

#31

I've always lost motivation sometime shortly after starting on a new side project.So what I've done lately is when I think of something I'll then determine if there is a way to get it built and usable by the end of the day, even if it is just a simple script. This way I can actually later use the thing and when I have another idea to expand on it I can take that on later as another day's work. This might not work for…

Discipline replaces Motivation

Re: Ask HN: How to finish personal projects?

#33
Finish the minimal viable part of the project very quickly.

Add the housekeeping parts and extra features later (if it's worth it i.e. being used by you or others).

Eventually when you do enough personal projects you will find that the housekeeping parts are the same and can be bolted on easily. That's another reason it's not worth doing anything except the minimal viable part of the project.

Re: Ask HN: How to finish personal projects?

#34
post #7

Three steps to make sure you get more than 1 or 2 days out of it. 1.) Make it very crappy, and put it live for the world to see. 2.) Be embarrassed that this thing you made is so crappy. 3.) Use that embarrassment to make it better. However, I suspect that the problem might be something else. They say you should always be working on your best idea. Maybe you are jumping from project to project too fast? Maybe you nee…

Thats how I do it for my website projects.

I usually plan the main process (User entry => Checkout) and make sure its working, and leave things like design and user experience for later. I always add live chat support on my projects so users and prospect-buyers can complaint anytime.

Embarrassment + Money makes good source of motivation to make my websites better. Also another good thing about this approach is you never waste time on bad ideas.

Re: Ask HN: How to finish personal projects?

#37
increase human to project ratio! Humans keep humans accountable. Find people fun to work with.

Choose to work on projects that help other people, or are inspired by others' passion.

Keep a list of tasks always visible next to your bed, to remind you to work on stuff when you have time.

Be okay with taking a few months break if you need it. Guilt for not working on your own projects accrues, only making it worse. You have to be able to easily alternate between actively working on it, and not.

Re: Ask HN: How to finish personal projects?

#38
I've spent many many years half-completing things... I think it's a really common pattern. I recently, finally, completed something and launched it (https://schezzle.com). The trick is to just make yourself launch. Stop thinking about the business aspects, or scale, or really anything other than launching and just do it. I made a New Years resolution and held myself to it, and it feels great. Instead of watching TV or reading in the evening, pour a cup of coffee, make a TODO list, and start checking things off!
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