Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Finishing a side project

hugozap.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 154 posts

Re: Finishing a side project

#71

Post by josefrichter »

peterkos wrote: post #58
ramraj07 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great that works for you, but your argument sounds akin to asking why someone couldn't score high on the exam when you did. Different people, different motivations. I relate more to the OP than you. Just saying "be disciplined" doesn't help. This isn't the army, it's a voluntary side project I want to do when I can be watching Netflix.

To refame that comment a bit: almost every single resource you find on motivation will mention that motivation is not a matter of passion, it's a matter of discipline. In every hobby there is always a sense of discipline, it's just usually implicit. For myself: composing orchestral scores started off as a fun little "oh this melody would sound neat". Ever since then, there have been times when I need to sit down and…

Nope. Almost every single resource you find on motivation will mention that motivation is not a matter of passion, it's a matter of habit. Discipline and motivation is pretty much the same in this context, and wears off easily.

Re: Finishing a side project

#72

Post by pr0j3ctaway »

Lots of people mentioning tricks and "hacks" that work for them, and seconding techniques from the article, which is helpful.

But after reading a lot of these sorts of articles and threads over the years, the most consistently useful advice that I've seen is simple:

Learn discipline, because motivation will always fade.

It's like getting yourself to exercise regularly, or read at least a half-hour every day. Easy to get started, but even easier to skip a couple of days, then a week, then to stop altogether.

Like they say at Nike: "Just do it."

Re: Finishing a side project

#73

Post by hnzix »

bbx wrote: post #52

If you need to go to a café and create a new user for each new side project, you’re not gonna work a lot. I understand needing separate contexts for separate projects but this seems like overkill. The context is in your mind, not your environment. I have my share of past and ongoing side projects, including hobby websites [1], funny tutorials [2], an ebook [2], coding references [4] and a CSS framework [5]. Like the…

> I understand needing separate contexts for separate projects but this seems like overkill.

Some people have ADD and/or anxiety and need the minimalism so they don't get overwhelmed or trapped in rabbit holes.

Your advice is akin to telling people "don't bother disabling notifications on your phone apps you can just ignore them".

The real answer is find a system that works for your particular brain. Personally I need the approach in TFA or I get analysis paralysis.

Re: Finishing a side project

#74

Post by catchmeifyoucan »

I resonate a lot with this article and I wanted to share a tool I've been working on to help exactly with with context switching. I talked to so many people on how they use their computers - nobody finishes a task in one sitting.

This line perfectly states the reason why context switching is such a drain:

> With the limited amount of mental energy, is crucial to reduce the number of setup tasks required to do a working session on your project.

Setup is like one of those hidden costs that we take for granted.

Anyways, I built amna, and it's an information manager. It's organized like a to-do list rather than disparate documents. Amna allows you to do research, document compilation and quick app access. I'm not quite done with the website to launch broadly, but this seemed like a great thread to post early on. (open to feedback, and would love to chat if you're interested)

https://getamna.com

Re: Finishing a side project

#75

Post by fiddlerwoaroof »

abiogenesis wrote: post #55
fiddlerwoaroof wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve also just decided that it’s ok to have a dozen incomplete projects I work on occasionally over the course of several years.

I'm in the same boat but the problem with that approach is the technology stack and/or the problem the project solves become obsolete in the meantime.

It’s a matter of picking slow-changing technologies: so, not the latest JS framework or whatever, but something like Clojure or Common Lisp that has a track record of maintaining backwards compatibility. And then learn to solve problems in ways that can easily be adapted to solve related problems.

Re: Finishing a side project

#76

Post by mkl »

legends2k wrote: post #69
wolco wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So much more is going on. Sand storms so large they are blocking the sun in the US. Radiation forest fires in Russia. Ufo's existance were confirmed by US navy. Stock market crash / rapid recovery What's next...

Can you share the link on the navy bit?

Discussed on HN a bunch of times: https://hn.algolia.com/?q=navy+ufo

Re: Finishing a side project

#77

Post by mkl »

mundo wrote: post #34
willcipriano wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work this way and use this method to help keep me on track: https://lifehacker.com/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-secret-2...

Ironic, considering that his new Netflix special is mostly material he's been doing for years, but this does sound kind of cool: > He told me to get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall. The next step was to get a big red magic marker. He said for each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big red X over that day. "After a few days you'll have a chain. Just…

Seinfeld denies it: "This is hilarious to me, that somehow I am getting credit for making an X on a calendar with the Seinfeld productivity program. It's the dumbest non-idea that was not mine, but somehow I'm getting credit for it." - https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1ujvrg/jerry_seinfeld...

Re: Finishing a side project

#78

Post by ZainRiz »

He emphasizes waning motivation as one of they key factors, but there's a logical consequence of this which he didn't point out.

Instead of trying to keep your motivation up, figure out how long your motivation tends to last for (mine is ~2 weeks). Then at the very start of the project ruthlessly cut down the scope to something you think you could actually get done in that time period.

Perhaps this will require you to simplify some of the stuff you were planning to develop

Maybe you'll adopt just one new tool you need to ramp up on instead of five.

But by embracing the ticking motivation deadline you can modify the work you take on to something that you'll actually finish.

I wrote about this just a few days ago, and how I applied this technique to a project I was working on.

https://twitter.com/ZainRzv/status/1275276323120746498

Re: Finishing a side project

#79

Post by GreedCtrl »

mundo wrote: post #34
willcipriano wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work this way and use this method to help keep me on track: https://lifehacker.com/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-secret-2...

Ironic, considering that his new Netflix special is mostly material he's been doing for years, but this does sound kind of cool: > He told me to get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall. The next step was to get a big red magic marker. He said for each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big red X over that day. "After a few days you'll have a chain. Just…

There's a side project idea: create a `git calendar` command.

Re: Finishing a side project

#80

Post by agumonkey »

fiddlerwoaroof wrote: post #14
deeg wrote: post #8

I find that the best way for me to finish a side project (for some definition of "finish") is to work on something that I want to use. Sometimes my motivation will flag for a few months until I want to use it; then the motivation kicks in and I'm productive while I improve/fix the project to make it work better for me.

Relatedly, it’s about working on something that will be useful quickly and you can polish after you’re already using it every day. E.g. I got really fed up with how clunky the AWS assume-role workflow was at work with multiple AWS accounts so I wrote a little tool using Lispworks’s CAPI for a GUI that would handle authentication and embed a webkit browser so I could control the cookies more precisely. I got an MVP th…

Yes, this a thousand times. I couldn't find the right way to articulate but you did the job.

I'm sure many of us want beauty, conciseness, and every other quality in our writings but it's 99% of the time a neverending rabbithole.

On side projects a little bit of quick'n'dirty is extremely valuable to progress in assembling the bits of a system and see it operate for real.

It's a hard balance because no one wants to come back and fix things later but the fact that you walked forward into building the system means you have more concrete knowledge of what is required and this will make it a lot more clearer and motivating to adjust and fix the previous modules.

There's also a different kind of pleasure involved. I can be proud of super clean code in a project that is never done.. but the feeling of having finished a tool that is actually useful is so much nicer. And it makes you want to keep doing it this way.

Post reply on HN