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Finishing a side project

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Re: Finishing a side project

#3
Back a few years ago when I first started dabbling in side projects and wanted to grow some side income, I found the greatest motivator was wanting to get out of my day job (which I hated). I wasn’t organized and in retrospect nothing was well thought out, but the need to survive and the desire to escape was enough.

Re: Finishing a side project

#4
>Unexpected life events.

Like a world-changing pandemic and riots? I'll be honest, it is getting hard to focus on building my cute little software bullshit project when a voice in the back of my head is telling me to spend my time prepping for social collapse.

Re: Finishing a side project

#6
Factor out smaller projects. Try to break up the next step if there is no progress for a while. Separate task definition, implementation and testing into separate steps. If the last project got stuck, try something with a smaller scope.

Re: Finishing a side project

#7
post #4

>Unexpected life events. Like a world-changing pandemic and riots? I'll be honest, it is getting hard to focus on building my cute little software bullshit project when a voice in the back of my head is telling me to spend my time prepping for social collapse.

That can be your new side project.

Re: Finishing a side project

#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.

Re: Finishing a side project

#9
From my personal experience, it took me years of discipline to build up the skillset to finish a project. It took me years to be able to learn what I can do and what I can't do given a specific timeline and be able to set tangible and achievable goals and focus on that to complete them. (And tangentially, if you ever want to offload your side project, here's a place to submit if you like :) https://www.sideprojectors.com)

Re: Finishing a side project

#10
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.

I concur.

It especially helps motivate learning new tools. I find that if I want to learn a new tool, I look for something I'd want to do with it and use that to drive the project.

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