There are too many shiny objects and it is killing me

This page [1] convinced me, against my own intuition, that I'm a perfectionist. I thought I was lazy, but I'm not. Perfectionism is simultaneously one of my greatest strengths and weaknesses.

If you can identify perfectionism and put a name on it, it's easier to manage. This book (short, small, cheap) [2] contains useful coping strategies.

[1] http://depts.washington.edu/hhpccweb/content/student-health/...

[2] http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Procrastination-Lollygagging-P...

One of our great motivators, by nature or as a cultural byproduct, is avoiding criticism. As we accrue expertise, we're also slowly filling an invisible backpack. We slip in a little stone of frustration every time we deal with something done "wrong". We feel powerful when we stand up with this hard-earned weight about us, but now we have to circle every mountain a few times, looking for the unimpeachable path to the summit; our backpack is too heavy for anything but the best route.

Because we've learned most any quandary can be solved with some extra research and new knowledge, every choice can turn into its own mountain. This was probably a virtue and not a trap when there wasn't so much to read on even trivial choices to keep the studious engaged for weeks, months or years.

When you work for someone else, it's clear they'd rather have an imperfect solution on time than a perfect solution two years late. It's also clear they'll only pay for one of these (if they know what they're doing...). But when you're doing unpaid work for yourself, you have a really naive boss who doesn't have the sense to call you off when you're in the weeds hunting perfection.

So, here's the plot twist: you've learned this is a switch that seems to get flipped for you when the pressure is really on--let's call that pressure what it is: your desire to avoid criticism. Unpack this for a second. The motivation that drives you to optimize every decision is the same one that drives you to deliver when you must.

You no doubt notice the healthy crowds refining productivity systems/tools, or looking for new ones to try; they are all searching for a boss by another name. They are all trying create a surrogate for fear of public failure out of paper or code or an egg timer. Don't be deceived by sugar-coating; people who extoll the virtues of getting an MVP into the hands of users and iterating are talking about giving people something good enough they will use but bad enough they will criticize. They are talking about manufacturing opportunities to fail and about leveraging that fear to succeed.

It looks as if you are good in doing lots of small projects. Elance projects pay shitty, and you still claim you can make a living. But they are often small, very constrained, payed by hour. Thats different to coding something big for your own progress.

At first a tip from someone who learned coding with paper tapes: Code for max 4 hours directly after getting up. Do not read any mail, no forums or news sites, before your 2nd breakfast. Relax the remaining day, after replying to mails. Try not to procrastinate to much at a computer. A computer should be your work tool, not an entertainment device. Try to get a balance outside, e.g. a dog can be a great excuse to walk around the neighborhood, and walking around is one of the best ways to focus thoughts.

We all know the moment of the glorious vision at the evening, a small joint to get into flow, and at sunrise you suddenly realize you have written 500-1000 lines of extremely smart and perfectly working code, of a prototype of our vision. But sorry. I'm coding for nearly 40 years. This magical flow in the night shift happens once or twice a year, if lucky. Trying to force yourself into flow in the night shifts, will only lead to procrastination.

Many of my own projects started in such a magical flow. But to execute the prototype into a product requires continuous bring coding work. This means, that after I started to code the idea, I'm taking an even bigger debt to execute it. This is sometimes difficult if big $$$ customer calls with a problem. But I can continue on my own project, once I solved his problem, and wrote my invoice.

Its really easy to get into flow, once you got the habit, to make a coffee and perhaps a toast, and instantly start coding after wakeup. Its important not to code more then 4 hours, but to stop at noon, when you think its a good point to commit work, and to do something different. You'll code more errors, if you become tired, and nobody can sustain long coding sessions every day. Enjoy the real life outside of the computer screen.

About development stack: Less is more. Learn to code without all those framework bloat, and also avoid over sophisticated development environments with tool chains for hyped software development methodologies. You don't learn to play guitar with lots of effects, but on an acoustic for good reason. One can add effects later, but its important that you sound great even without. I'm a bad musician. Adding gimmicks between me and the sound wont improve my music, but instead causes me to play around with those gimmicks instead of making music. I'm a coder, sure I know a lot of music theory. Gimmy a line and I can compose and arrange a song in an evening, and everybody in the band has fun, but if I try to compose a song on computer I end up with nothing but junk.

Any recommendations for yoga/meditation resources to learn the techniques/methodologies? I've been thinking about trying that for a long time now.