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1) Begin a new projects
2) Work in this project 1 or 2 days
3) ...
And that's it... Do you work everyday in your projects? You decide to work X days in a project and then "is finished"? Maybe you have a feature list and once everything is ready you stop working?
How you do this? :)
Thanks!
1. Solve an actual problem. E.g. I built a library based on some use cases I saw at a training session I did at Cisco. Building yet-another-thing-that-has-900-implementations doesn't count.
2. Set a really hard deadline or limit. E.g. "must be feature complete by end of the weekend."
The goal either way is not to end up in place where it's 20% done: either you have problem or a deadline to keep you focused on completion
Longer writeup: https://codewithoutrules.com/2016/09/09/side-projects/
Bottom line, both of the projects I've started and finished have had monetary gain to it. The product and then the task. The task is helping with contracting I'm doing so making my job easier is sure a big incentive.
4) Do something on that list
5) Go back to #3 until you are launched
By postponing additional work you give those ideas time to mature while making concrete progress and finishing your project at least to some sort of functional state. By the time you're up to those tasks you will probably have identified why most of them weren't ever worth doing let alone derailing projects for.
* Know the definition of "done" from the start. Working against a moving goalpost is a motivation killer.
* Have a consistent way to measure and track progress (word count, features completed, etc), and graph it over time.
* Break the big project into smaller, bite-sized projects. Each time you mark a small part as complete, you'll feel a sense of relief.
* Make progress every day. Even if it's just a bit, it'll feel good to know that you're that much closer to finishing.
1. Work on your project most days. It doesn't need to be long - 15-30 minutes. This is mentally doable most days, and you'll find days that you just work. After a while, this becomes part of your daily routine and it gets easier. It might be even easier if you do right after something else you do every day - yup, make it a habit.
2. Have a variety of tasks to choose from when you can. This helps with the motivation as well.
3. Be able to congratulate yourself for getting chunks done - or something similar. Whatever works for you.
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 need to take more time to think about why you're starting certain projects.
Maybe the answer isn't finding more time working on projects. Maybe the answer is spending less time working on projects and more time thinking about possible projects.
Some random thoughts here. Sorry that it sounded a little Seth Godin-ish.
On a day to day basis, I dedicate 2 to 3 hours to my side project (side business). This includes maintenance for previously launched projects and work on the "new" project.
I only ever have one "new" project going that hasn't been launched.