Find something you want to do personally and do it. If It will follow you around and demand you work on it when you should be doing something else you found it.
Ask HN: How can I pick a side project and stick with it?
211–220 of 372 posts
Re: Ask HN: How can I pick a side project and stick with it?
#212My software side projects became my career.
I write down my various ideas. I then think about them occasionally for months or even years before committing to working, writing additional notes. This reduces the chance of abandoning an idea for something else after starting development.
I tend to do multi-year projects, so I have to be careful how I spend my time.
Re: Ask HN: How can I pick a side project and stick with it?
#213I need an end goal with actual people using what I'm making to be really motivated. And having achieved that on some open source projects (one in particular with tons of usage, now deprecated), I need some kind of personal increase in value to hold my interest. Maybe that will change once I'm financially independent but I think focusing on increasing value is a good thing and value can mean different things (doesn't always have to be money but often is -- there is some value from being one of the big contributors on an open source project but, having been there, the value is typically seems to be very low even if you have 1M+ downloads).
That said, deploy, maintenance and support can be a grind. I like the challenge but your experience may vary.
Re: Ask HN: How can I pick a side project and stick with it?
#214I have the same issue. I try to remember a quote, origin I can't remember, "If we want to do anything, we must not try to do everything."
If you're interested, want to help me work on my web project? :-) I'm not a front end web dev and am having a slow go at it.
Re: Ask HN: How can I pick a side project and stick with it?
#215Yes I have this problem. No I haven't found a fix. One thing I do is keep a trello board of "product ideas". I have a couple hundred. I review them and move the ones I feel are best by various criteria (ease to build, value to others, income potential, etc) to the top of a "I Keep Coming Back to These" list. I only allow myself 5 on this list.
Really, I should just allow myself 1, and focus on that. I'm just so bogged down with day job and family life, I haven't done it. Some days I console myself that I'm doing the right thing keeping a steady well-paying day job and providing for the fam. Other days, I'm ready to toss it all and do my own thing. What I hope will happen is a small break in day job where I can fit in and focus on side gig.
Re: Ask HN: How can I pick a side project and stick with it?
#216This is common for most people, at least in the beginning. This is the nature of creative projects because it's just always going to be easier to think of an idea than execute it.
1) you have to recognize that the dopamine rush of new ideas will not carry you through the project to completion in the same way it drove you to start. Inspiration is useful, but it's fleeting or at best inconsistent. The sooner you stop relying on inspiration to last, the sooner you'll learn to find other ways of motivating yourself. That being said, it's useful for inspiration to fade. This can help you decide the difference between a project that's really useful or was just an idea you had that is not necessarily worth your time.
It also depends on how you work. Some people prefer long bouts of work and long breaks, others prefer a little bit each day. It doesnt matter which or both you try, just keep moving forward.
2) Nearly everyone who creates things has way more ideas or unfinished projects or projects that didnt work out than completed projects.
3) finished projects rarely end up the way you expected and wanted in the beginning. The sooner you accept this the sooner you can be flexible throughout the process to bring what's feasible to completion, rather than an idea that hit many snags
4) related to #3 is learn to recognize asymptotic progress. In other words, many projects are never "finished". You'll always have more to add, and that's ok. You can keep adding, but dont let that hinder taking a break or showing version 1 to the world. Recognizing "good enough" is important
Re: Ask HN: How can I pick a side project and stick with it?
#217Keep the scope small so you’ll be done fast
Become accountable, e.g. partner up with somebody else
Re: Ask HN: How can I pick a side project and stick with it?
#218what has worked pretty nicely for me is working on something with someone. its nice to know you are working on something and are not alone. it also helps with accountability.
i know not everyone will be able to work with someone but this is just from my experience.
Re: Ask HN: How can I pick a side project and stick with it?
#219The best thing that you can do to give a project legs is to get other people involved. Even if you don't have someone who can work on coding with you, just sharing it and enrolling other people in your vision for a project is the number one way to give you the motivation to continue working on it.
Re: Ask HN: How can I pick a side project and stick with it?
#220After several years of struggling with side projects I found one thing that motivates me: money. I don't even start a project if there is no possibility of some revenue. %99 of ideas got eliminated immediately. Every people have their own motivation though but having side income from a side project even you are sleeping is different thing. I have limited time for side projects. I always think I have one bullet so try…
This is certainly a useful lens through which to help you focus, but I've found that I'm now ONLY motivated to do things because of the possibility of financial upside. Have you encountered the same?
Actually speaking yes. I spent a lot of time to think about it. Here is my little thought process to keep my motivation;
Why am I working? Why am I spending my 1/3 of my time with my daily job. Is career real thing or other words is it really necessary to make money? Does it really matter to have high work satisfaction even though you earn little? I am working because of money. Money doesn't bring happiness but it brings freedom. At the end of the day what I need is freedom. It doesn't matter if I have shinny career if I can earn same money with something else. I have limited time and more money to become free. So I need to use my time wisely to get more money to become free eventually. It doesn't matter if I am using shiny programming language, technology or IDE. At the end of the day nobody will give a shit about what I am using. Quickest is the best because I have counted days in my life. I don't have time to learn new things every time I start a new projects. I already know everything I need to make money. Learning is not a goal but it is a reward when I become free.