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Ask HN: How you keep yourself motivated for year long projects?

28 points by codesternews 9y ago

I have started few projects recently but not able finish any of them. Lost interest in all. How you keep yourself motivated for long side projects?

didgeoridoo 9y ago
Get a partner or two to work on them with — even if they’re just acting as a sounding board once every couple weeks. It’s much easier to feel accountable to another person than it is to be consistently accountable to yourself.
atom-morgan 9y ago
I'm currently in the process of writing a book covering automated testing within Angular (2/4). The most practical advice for maintaining motivation is to look at things on a day or a week basis. I've described the process to others as running a mental marathon so I simply can't think about mile 26 right now. I have to think about the next eighth of a mile. Trello has been very helpful with this. I break up my work into small tasks and stack them into a completed list each week. Seeing that stack week after week has been very beneficial for my mindset by giving me the feeling of accomplishment. Without this, progress would be a lot more abstract. The other motivating factor which I imposed on myself was to quit my full-time job. I saved up all year so I could work on this giving myself as long of a personal runway as possible but there is an end. That motivates me.
dhruvkar 9y ago
Incremental feedback. How this works depends on the project. Instead of one multi-year project, it needs to be broken down into digestible chunks, at the end of each you have to have a mechanism that tells you a simple 'yes, keep going' or 'no, you need to adjust'. I'd argue that this mechanism is almost always your end users. That feedback regenerates your interest periodically and will push you to keep working on the project. Without feedback, it's harder to justify your time and effort when interest starts to fade.
itamarst 9y ago
1. Try to get as much motivations lined up as possible, and motivations that point in the same direction. E.g. "I care about this topic" and "I can make some money." (https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/08/03/stay-focused/ https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/08/03/stay-focused/) 2. Avoid contradictory goals. "I want to make money selling a product" and "I want to learn a new tech stack" don't work well together. 3. If you're trying to make a product, start with evidence there's real demand for it. 4. If you're trying to learn, pick either a really short hard deadline, or something you will actually find useful. (https://codewithoutrules.com/2016/09/09/side-projects/ https://codewithoutrules.com/2016/09/09/side-projects/) Real example: I wrote a book (https://codewithoutrules.com/saneworkweek/ https://codewithoutrules.com/saneworkweek/). 1. I wanted to sell a product, but also really care about the topic. 2. I very carefully avoided spending time coding or learning new technology, focusing purely on writing (e.g. https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/07/10/stop-writing-software/ https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/07/10/stop-writing-softwar...) 3. I had multiple posts reach front page of Hacker News for this topic, clear evidence that people cared.
- ckdarby 9y ago
  You would have better checkout conversion if you switched to Stripe. That checkout prompt is too much on mobile. Also, I wanted to see a preview of what is in the book ;_;, could not find and abandoned cart.
  - itamarst 9y ago
    Thanks for the info! I'll see what I can do about the popup. (Unfortunately on its own Stripe is problematic, due to things like EU VAT MOSS, so I'm limited in what I can use to services that do taxes for me.) If you want to see a preview, you can sign up with your email to get an excerpt on the email form on the original page.
- muzani 9y ago
  I like the tips and would have bought the book if it was on Amazon. But the checkout page is quite a lot of work. I'd have to dig up my card and possibly deal with the pain of it getting rejected, and not being able to see reviews. So it's too much for an impulse purchase.
nunez 9y ago
Plan something to look forward to. Whether that's a vacation, a long bike ride or a day of nothin' but Netflix, planning something in advance does a few things: 1. It gives you a personal goal to look forward to that you'll know you hit as long as you're patient. 2. It gives you a span of "work hard" time that you know will expire, and 3. It gives you something fun to do in the future! That's how I keep my head sane!
- ralmeida 9y ago
  Makes total sense. In fact, there’s a book called The Now Habit by Niel Fiore which advogates this structure (“guilt-free play”), which I can recommend.
mattbgates 9y ago
I have been working on 3 projects for nearly 2 years.. they are actually done, but I'm finishing up some testing. Basically, they are creative ways to help you remember information in different ways, started out as 1 project and eventually turned into 3. No idea if they'll be a hit or not, but I never create projects for anyone else... I create them for myself, and then I share with the world.. if I'm using it.. I'm sure someone out there, eventually will use it too, free or paid. When I get bored, I usually get another idea for another project.. and I start working on it. Since the creation of those 3 projects that I won't mention at this time (as they are being saved for a Show HN) ... I've created: https://mypost.io https://mypost.io : allows anyone to create and publish web pages on the Internet in seconds. https://scamshare.com https://scamshare.com : helps expose scammers and scams to the world, specifically those scams being sent via email or text. https://callmeprivate.com https://callmeprivate.com : helps mask your real phone number behind a virtual number to receiving and make calls; great for individuals, entrepreneurs, or businesses. https://textmeprivate.com https://textmeprivate.com: helps mask your real phone number behind a virtual number, designed specifically for SMS-only. Working on these other projects has helped me to understand the original three and even optimize the code to clear up any "uncertainties" that I had when I first started. Now that I've completed several more projects, I can go back, and although I realize I could've coded something better.. I'm actually seeing that you can code things in different ways and still get the same process done. As for what keeps me motivated to work on so many projects? Success or failure.. the creation of a project [ and sending it off into the world ] means success to me. The other contributing factor for motivation: I want to run my own [ SaaS ] business and get away from having to work for someone, except my customers, of course. The continuing motivation would obviously be: the more people that understand and use and even pay to use my projects will give me more incentive to keep working on them and create new ones.
- codesternews 9y ago
  Thanks for very useful advice and really great projects. One another question I have is what initial motivation for you to create above projects. These services already existed and I setback after some time if I see same kind of service and loose motivation to keep on working on it. Never finishes the thing. Can you please provide advice how to deal with it and what should be my intial motivation and thoughts for recreating something.
togusa2017 9y ago
I have been in this boat for the past one year. What worked for was make small goals and write it down and finish it and stop thinking about the final goal. Just keep ur head down and finish goals and take rest.

28 points by codesternews 9y ago

I have started few projects recently but not able finish any of them. Lost interest in all. How you keep yourself motivated for long side projects?

didgeoridoo 9y ago

Get a partner or two to work on them with — even if they’re just acting as a sounding board once every couple weeks. It’s much easier to feel accountable to another person than it is to be consistently accountable to yourself.

atom-morgan 9y ago

I'm currently in the process of writing a book covering automated testing within Angular (2/4). The most practical advice for maintaining motivation is to look at things on a day or a week basis. I've described the process to others as running a mental marathon so I simply can't think about mile 26 right now. I have to think about the next eighth of a mile. Trello has been very helpful with this. I break up my work into small tasks and stack them into a completed list each week. Seeing that stack week after week has been very beneficial for my mindset by giving me the feeling of accomplishment. Without this, progress would be a lot more abstract. The other motivating factor which I imposed on myself was to quit my full-time job. I saved up all year so I could work on this giving myself as long of a personal runway as possible but there is an end. That motivates me.

dhruvkar 9y ago

Incremental feedback. How this works depends on the project. Instead of one multi-year project, it needs to be broken down into digestible chunks, at the end of each you have to have a mechanism that tells you a simple 'yes, keep going' or 'no, you need to adjust'. I'd argue that this mechanism is almost always your end users. That feedback regenerates your interest periodically and will push you to keep working on the project. Without feedback, it's harder to justify your time and effort when interest starts to fade.

itamarst 9y ago

1. Try to get as much motivations lined up as possible, and motivations that point in the same direction. E.g. "I care about this topic" and "I can make some money." (https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/08/03/stay-focused/ https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/08/03/stay-focused/) 2. Avoid contradictory goals. "I want to make money selling a product" and "I want to learn a new tech stack" don't work well together. 3. If you're trying to make a product, start with evidence there's real demand for it. 4. If you're trying to learn, pick either a really short hard deadline, or something you will actually find useful. (https://codewithoutrules.com/2016/09/09/side-projects/ https://codewithoutrules.com/2016/09/09/side-projects/) Real example: I wrote a book (https://codewithoutrules.com/saneworkweek/ https://codewithoutrules.com/saneworkweek/). 1. I wanted to sell a product, but also really care about the topic. 2. I very carefully avoided spending time coding or learning new technology, focusing purely on writing (e.g. https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/07/10/stop-writing-software/ https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/07/10/stop-writing-softwar...) 3. I had multiple posts reach front page of Hacker News for this topic, clear evidence that people cared.

ckdarby 9y ago
You would have better checkout conversion if you switched to Stripe. That checkout prompt is too much on mobile. Also, I wanted to see a preview of what is in the book ;_;, could not find and abandoned cart.
- itamarst 9y ago
  Thanks for the info! I'll see what I can do about the popup. (Unfortunately on its own Stripe is problematic, due to things like EU VAT MOSS, so I'm limited in what I can use to services that do taxes for me.) If you want to see a preview, you can sign up with your email to get an excerpt on the email form on the original page.
muzani 9y ago
I like the tips and would have bought the book if it was on Amazon. But the checkout page is quite a lot of work. I'd have to dig up my card and possibly deal with the pain of it getting rejected, and not being able to see reviews. So it's too much for an impulse purchase.

nunez 9y ago

Plan something to look forward to. Whether that's a vacation, a long bike ride or a day of nothin' but Netflix, planning something in advance does a few things: 1. It gives you a personal goal to look forward to that you'll know you hit as long as you're patient. 2. It gives you a span of "work hard" time that you know will expire, and 3. It gives you something fun to do in the future! That's how I keep my head sane!

ralmeida 9y ago
Makes total sense. In fact, there’s a book called The Now Habit by Niel Fiore which advogates this structure (“guilt-free play”), which I can recommend.

mattbgates 9y ago

I have been working on 3 projects for nearly 2 years.. they are actually done, but I'm finishing up some testing. Basically, they are creative ways to help you remember information in different ways, started out as 1 project and eventually turned into 3. No idea if they'll be a hit or not, but I never create projects for anyone else... I create them for myself, and then I share with the world.. if I'm using it.. I'm sure someone out there, eventually will use it too, free or paid. When I get bored, I usually get another idea for another project.. and I start working on it. Since the creation of those 3 projects that I won't mention at this time (as they are being saved for a Show HN) ... I've created: https://mypost.io https://mypost.io : allows anyone to create and publish web pages on the Internet in seconds. https://scamshare.com https://scamshare.com : helps expose scammers and scams to the world, specifically those scams being sent via email or text. https://callmeprivate.com https://callmeprivate.com : helps mask your real phone number behind a virtual number to receiving and make calls; great for individuals, entrepreneurs, or businesses. https://textmeprivate.com https://textmeprivate.com: helps mask your real phone number behind a virtual number, designed specifically for SMS-only. Working on these other projects has helped me to understand the original three and even optimize the code to clear up any "uncertainties" that I had when I first started. Now that I've completed several more projects, I can go back, and although I realize I could've coded something better.. I'm actually seeing that you can code things in different ways and still get the same process done. As for what keeps me motivated to work on so many projects? Success or failure.. the creation of a project [ and sending it off into the world ] means success to me. The other contributing factor for motivation: I want to run my own [ SaaS ] business and get away from having to work for someone, except my customers, of course. The continuing motivation would obviously be: the more people that understand and use and even pay to use my projects will give me more incentive to keep working on them and create new ones.

codesternews 9y ago
Thanks for very useful advice and really great projects. One another question I have is what initial motivation for you to create above projects. These services already existed and I setback after some time if I see same kind of service and loose motivation to keep on working on it. Never finishes the thing. Can you please provide advice how to deal with it and what should be my intial motivation and thoughts for recreating something.

togusa2017 9y ago

I have been in this boat for the past one year. What worked for was make small goals and write it down and finish it and stop thinking about the final goal. Just keep ur head down and finish goals and take rest.