Ask HN: How can I pick a side project and stick with it?

[corecoder]

I'm a web developer and DevOps engineer. I know a few languages and frameworks very well, I can find my way around with a good deal of other languages and frameworks, and I'd like to learn a lot more.

My problem is that I cannot seem to be able to pick a project (any project) and stick with it long enough to do any meaningful progress, let alone finishing it. It's been several years since I've managed to work on a side project for more than two days continually.

I sit before the computer thinking: I know! I'll write a roguelike in X! Five minutes later, I'm thinking: fuck roguelikes! I'll write a graphical solitar card game with Y! Five minutes later, I don't care for it anymore, and would rather write an isomorphic strategy game in Z.

The same thing happens with tools I might need, applications I think about, experimental stuff, etc.

Has anyone else experienced this, and, more importantly, found their way out? How?

[KentBeck]

Don't. Most side projects aren't worth investing heavily in, but you can't tell which is which without trying them. I had started hundreds of programs before Erich Gamma and I programmed together. If I had forced myself to "stick with" one of those early projects, we wouldn't have written JUnit.

[ryeguy_24]

I’m just like you.

I stumbled upon a book called Refuse to Choose and it’s about a personality type (that is definitely not ADHD) that happens to want to do a lot of things (sometimes in parallel or in sequence). It was very comforting to know others struggle with this and this book helps you to be ok with it. I wouldn’t say it “cured” me but I think about it differently now and use it more to my advantage. Worth a read at a minimum.

There was one very profound idea in this book that goes like this:

“If you are no longer interested in a project you started, maybe you already got what you came for”.

In essence, maybe it’s not the finishing of the project you came for but maybe the learning or understanding of how it could be done if it were to be done.

This realization is interesting for someone who exhibits this behavior. When I was a kid, I loved to build legos but after following the instructions and building a kit, I wouldn’t touch it again. As I think back now, it likely was because “I got what I came for” (the challenge of putting it together was more interesting to me than the end product).

[arosier]

"maybe you already got what you came for."

As someone who frequently starts projects and doesn't finish them, I've wondered if the part I enjoy about the project is the dreaming about what could be. That little rush you get when a new idea is upon you and it's all you can think about for x days. Doing the initial research and formulating a plan.

This is a dopamine rush for me. The feeling of being laser focused for those few days is invigorating. The start of something new, the potential for life changing work.

It usually stops there. Maybe that's what I came for.

[LeonB]

I see a big disconnect between:

“ I know! I'll write a roguelike in X! Five minutes later, I'm thinking: fuck roguelikes! I'll write a graphical solitar card game with Y! Five minutes later, I don't care for it anymore, and would rather write an isomorphic strategy game in Z.”

And:

“If you are no longer interested in a project you started, maybe you already got what you came for.”

There is no way that you got what you came for in those five minutes.

There’s several orders or magnitude that fit into this disconnect and it just says “ADHD-I” to me.

...and I feel my eyes roll back into my head when I read this:

“...a personality type (that is definitely not ADHD)”

...because the invention of new personality types and the stigmatic treatment of ADHD is just... very shallow.

[bmelton]

> If you are no longer interested in a project you started, maybe you already got what you came for

This line alone got me to go buy the book.

As someone who's constantly churning through ideas, and who feels afflicted by ADHD just enough to worry about it but not quite enough to actually think I have it, I've found myself abandoning a bunch of projects when at a 'mostly done' state. Generally, I tackle the interesting parts of a project, and once I've gotten the proof of concept working (whether it's a visual PoC or technical PoC) and the only parts left to do are the boring user registration / billing parts, that's when I lose interest.

I've watched my prototypes languish, and over the years I've seen other people execute them after I have and go on to great success, and have decided to make peace with the knowledge that I'm probably not the guy that would have devised a strong marketing plan, beat doors down or cold-called for sales, etc., but a part of me laments that I didn't bother finishing them at the time so as to at least act as social proof to point to and say "I did that first," even acknowledging the pointlessness of it.

Thanks so much for the recommendation.

[dinkleberg]

That struggle is real. I've got a ridiculous amount of half-finished MVPs that I simply got bored of. It often makes me feel like an absolute failure, especially when I've told others about something I'm working on. When they ask "Hey, how is that project X you were working on 3 months ago going?" I'll have to think about it because it was probably 3 projects ago.

But I think you're spot on. From each of these projects I've gained something, and once I've hit that point the drive has gone away.

While I often feel like a failure with all of my "failed projects", in my day job people are often blown away by how I seem to know a lot about everything. The truth is it's because I end up trying most things in some fashion with one of these many projects.

[dgb23]

> “If you are no longer interested in a project you started, maybe you already got what you came for”.

I also realized this at some point but as a compromise I now take the time to write some text to document some conclusions.

This helps with two things:

It feels more finished, which is important for my mental hygiene.

And when I do come back to something at a later point I can re-assess quickly what the circumstances and the value was, which can be very practical, especially if it was just some small exploratory thing.

[CodeGlitch]

My "projects" folder on my PC is scattered with numerous projects that I've started and never finished. These range from games, tools and webpages - written in every language that I found an interest in.

I think you're right in that it's the journey that matters to some, not the destination. As I've gotten older, I feel less pressured to finish these side-projects.

When it comes to actual day-job work. The final 20% of a project is always the hardest for me. As I just want to move onto the next great thing. The last 20% is always the worst part for me (testing, bug fixing, documentation). It's what they pay me for though :)

[marianov]

My pshrink told me the same "maybe you just like to learn the new technique, not to finish". Like that I have welded a ton of steel into a carport, then left it unpainted. Given the fact that I always focus on the hard parts and the struggle to finishe the "details" and that throughout my career I've been inclined to do POCs, MVPs, and never finish things. That and the fact that every single day it takes me several times to cross the door because I forget the wallet, keys, phone, etc, make me wonder about ADHD Is there a "cure" for it or is it just a label to get and use as excuse?

edit: I got bored of the pshrink after 5 sessions

[relativeadv]

Awesome thanks for the book recommendation, just picked it up.

For me, this has been the defining struggle of my adult life. I've only just become truly aware of it though but when I think back to stuff like when I was a kid playing MMORPGs I would utterly struggle to make a character to level 10 before re-rolling for something more appealing.

Now it is almost a pathological issue I have where I just can't seem to choose something that interests me because honestly, everything is just as equally interesting. Painting, guitar, cooking, lifting, game development, ios development, etc. Its like paralysis by analysis to the nth degree. It's easy to say "just try some things and stick with what you enjoy" but eventually the going gets (slightly) tough and i just wimp out and quit. Except for lifting...for whatever reason I've been obsessed with that for almost a decade now.

[globular-toast]

> “If you are no longer interested in a project you started, maybe you already got what you came for”.

That's definitely the case with many of my unfinished projects. My "operating system" is a good example. I have an OS written completely from scratch for RPi3 that can run concurrent processes (and pretty much nothing else). I started to look into using the MMU but quickly realised that it's very hard and I'm not really that interested in it right now. All I really wanted to know was how to write an operating system. Now I know, but I'll almost certainly never actually write a proper one.

[6gvONxR4sf7o]

This seems to be answering "how can I stick with a side project?" with "you don't need to." Maybe it's good advice, but OP specifically emphasized asking folks how to finish.

> Has anyone else experienced this, and, more importantly, found their way out? How?

[emphasis mine]

[slothtrop]

In Myers-Briggs they'd call that either the INTP or ENTP type.

Similarly, I'm more interested in research, learning. I'm in the wrong profession.

[vladsanchez]

I always attributed this behavior to undiagnosed ADHD, but "Scanner" is a, unique but fitting, group I never heard of. Thanks for sharing!

Zoom Party would be great! ;)

[naasking]

> “If you are no longer interested in a project you started, maybe you already got what you came for”.

Agree, I've been through this myself plenty of times. I think there's a way to turn this into a tactic though: a completed project has loads of gaps and finishing touches that a learning prototype lacks, and it comes with it's own interesting challenges that are hard to predict.

So if you're interested in learning what a finished product would entail, you can only achieve that understanding by finishing a product. I've found that there are some products where I'm interested in understanding all of the details, and some which I'm not, and that's sometimes helped filter which projects I should stick with.

The worst outcome is when I have to shelve a project because the tooling just isn't mature or usable enough to make the project fun.

[corecoder]

I'll definitely get the book.

> “If you are no longer interested in a project you started, maybe you already got what you came for”.

I don't know. It's one thing to leave a project unfinished, or to loose interest when it's time to fix the UI, but it's another thing to not be able to make progress at all.

[_bxg1]

I'm in the same boat. Another thing I've realized is that while my interest may jump between half a dozen different things, if I just let it run its course, it tends to circle around. I.e. I don't leave an endless trail of projects in my wake, I revisit different ones as that interest rekindles. But before I realized this, I would be really hard on myself about switching, trying to force my interest to sit still, which really just killed my interest in all of them.

Bottom line: don't try and pin down your interest, open up to it and let it run its course. The course may not always make sense but it knows what it's doing.

[trevorrr]

I can recommend this book, too. Most helpful for me was the concept of the scanner personality.

Sometimes it just seems as you are not finishing things, for me, it's more like I'm letting some things rest for quite a long time but pick them up again later. I'm just craving variety to get fresh input for all the other things and I see this as a skill. Today I am glad that I haven't unlearned to play around.

It has its benefits, tons of it, I was only unhappy with it as long as I've let others stigmatize me as lazy or undisciplined for how I am.

[kbash9]

Yes, but I think successful entrepreneurs know when to move on, when to pivot and when to stick with it and PERSIST. I have quote framed at my desk that goes something like this:

"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men[women] with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone will bring success."

[hentaiD00m]

I've got this problem except with learning / studying.

I realized I am a lot into science and engineering late in life. Now I want to do all of the Khan Academy in Chemistry and Physics; learn nano-/bio-tech; learn cybersecurity... and probably should just stick to learning backend dev in order to get a job.

People call this being a polymath, but I am seriously concerned for myself. The best I can do is take it one subject at a time.

On the building side, I simply have no ideas I am interested going for.

[tziki]

Hey, I just wanted to say thank you for this comment. After reading it I started thinking about what I want from my side projects and realized I need to, among other things, to switch the focus from "what will happen when I finish this" to "what will I learn along the way" and to provoke my curiousity. I've been much more focused the past few days, hopefully it sticks. Thanks!

[wastedhours]

> "If you are no longer interested in a project you started, maybe you already got what you came for"

Very much this - I have very few finished side projects, but in hindsight I can track the course from even my first personal project in school to where I am today.

[ddelt]

I’m also just like you. So much so that what you just described speaks volumes to me. I’m going to read the book you just recommended. Thank you!

[ryeguy_24]

Also, I’d love to share notes with you or others because I haven’t met a ton of people that struggle with this. Zoom party?

[aryzach]

I used to be a lot like this too. Eventually I got tired of it because I felt like I never had anything to show (mostly show to myself and feel proud of).

For hobbies/projects where the goal is just to unwind and enjoy myself, sure, I still do this. But that's often still not satisfying to me. I started making the intention to just complete the damn thing, even when it wasn't fun anymore. Motivation is hardly worth anything tbh. I used to only work with motivation, and while it felt good at the time, nothing ever got completed and I probably felt how you do a lot of the time.

Second, learning is hard. If you think you're comfortable with a new language, framework, whatever.. but you lose steam when working on whatever your building with it, you might not know it as good as you think you do. It's a lot easier to keep steam when there aren't roadblocks, but when you continually come across roadblocks, it just doesn't feel like your moving towards your goal with much speed. But this is generally where the learning takes place.

And I've also seen, finishing one project to completion makes it a lot easier to finish the next project to completion. It's a skill you have to learn (to do a personal project even when it's not fun, and there's nobody telling you you have to do it)

tl;dr: for enjoyment and relaxation, don't finish projects if you don't want. For learning / creating, make it the goal to finish and know that it'll probably be not fun sometimes

[droobles]

This speaks to me on an almost spiritual level, I need to get this book!

[Madmallard]

Yeah you're getting dopamine.

Those that are more successful can get past that and make something more profound. There's a lot more than dopamine when you make something you can be truly proud of, that can potentially be a living for you as well.

[zulban]

I've finished loads of hobby projects, despite full time jobs, and I've been told that I'm a bit of an expert on this. I see there's lots of comments already so I'll keep it short.

1) If you can't focus on a project longer than two days, then pick a project you can finish in three days. Honestly evaluate how big such a project can be. I also see this as students learn to code. They learn the basics then think they're going to dive into a 2000 hour project. Instead, you need to ask yourself "what's the biggest project of this type I've ever finished" then add 50% to that. Like an athlete, you need to build up the endurance for your self-motivation to survive longer and longer projects. The payoffs are bigger but your human brain needs to trust that a payoff exists based on past experience.

2) I prefer not to talk about my future dreams for a project. What happens is I get enjoyment out of talking about what I "will" do, but without actually doing it. Then if I ever finish the work, I get less enjoyment because I already talked about it. In this way I'd be stealing enjoyment from my future self! An exception is advice.

[virtualritz]

A friend of mine said to do a successful software product you need three kinds of developers. Skip one and you will likely fail.

1. the kamikaze

2. the soldier

3. the sniper

Kamikazes start the project. They have a broad vision of how the result will look (total victory, ofc) and they do not pay attention to the mountain at the horizon or the road missing a bridge over a canyon a few hundred clicks ahead. They just start running.

Soldiers are those who march on day by day. Following in the kamikazes footsteps they do the grunt of the work. Much more thoroughly than a kamikaze ever could muster patience or care for.

Snipers are needed when the army hits an obstacle. Like a booby trapped rock in the middle of the road. They will shoot the explosives from afar. They are highly specialized individuals who care much more for the problem they solve than what means to what end it presents.

Most developers I know have a little bit of all these three types in them.

I did understood long ago that I am mostly a kamikaze.

Coming to terms with that when I do not finish yet another spare time project ... that's a lifelong goal to overcome.

You are in good company. As others said: focus on the learning more than on the result. This is what makes coping with not finishing stuff much easier for me.

At the same time this change of perspective may just provide the inkling of additional motivation needed to actually do finish one or the other of those projects.

[fudged71]

I had two cofounders, and this is possibly the best description of how we operated... each with a different timeline and focus. Although I can't say that it ended well between us

[LeonenTheDK]

I really like that three kinds of developers take. I've never thought about it in that light before but it seems to ring true in my (albeit limited) experience. And I'm definitely a kamikaze as well.

[Glench]

Since I haven’t seen this in the comments so far, I’ll suggest that you begin to reflect on what’s truly meaningful to you. It sounds like you’re able to have a lot of ideas that aren’t particularly meaningful, which are probably ideas you got from the values of your cultural environment. So try reflecting on the following prompts: what kinds of experiences do I want to help people have, that would be truly satisfying to see? What moves my heart and gives me energy to keep going?

With deeper meaning and purpose it will be natural to want to stick with something.

> Has anyone else experienced this, and, more importantly, found their way out?

I wrote a little bit about that in these two articles:

Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist: http://glench.com/WhyIQuitTechAndBecameATherapist/

Deep Listening at the Recurse Center: http://glench.com/DeepListeningAtTheRecurseCenter/

[nullspin]

I have been contemplating a similar change. The dynamic for me is interesting. When I go deep into tech studies or projects I eventually feel a what-is-the-point energy take over. When I go deep into exploring the mental/emotional/spiritual my engineering creator brain will eventually agitate.

Figuring out how to express both has been a decades long puzzle. A puzzle which has not been very productive for my career. I have recently considered turning all tech into a hobby and getting a Masters in Social Work.

[rmac]

just read your "why I quit" blog. thanks for documenting your journey as it will help other travelers give themselves 'permission' to explore new paths.

[kirso]

Agreed, another one on this topic is here: https://medium.com/@dvassallo/only-intrinsic-motivation-last...

[littlecosmic]

You’ve already done step one: realise the pattern. Step two is don’t do the new project. See it for what it is, not a great new idea, but another step down the road you’ve been walking down for years.

Just because an idea pops into your brain, doesn’t mean you owe it anything.

Something that may help is picking a smaller project, so small you could do it in a day or two. Build up some endurance over time.

Good luck

[aprinsen]

Hey OP, I have been exactly where you are, about three years ago, and now I have a backlog of completed side projects of varying size that I am very happy with.

Here's some quick advice:

* Start smaller. Your projects are probably too ambitious to start. Graphical games are actually quite complex. Start with small projects and work your way to larger ones. My first projects were chrome extensions and silly command line tools. They helped me build some resilience that I used later to complete more complex projects.

* When you do tackle larger projects, do your best to see them as a series of smaller projects. Each project should deliver some value on its own. I recently built a web game about navigating a randomly generated maze and avoiding monsters. Here's how I broke it up: first I built a command line tool to generate mazes. Then I separated the core functionality into a library. Then I deployed an API wrapping that library. Then I built a simple UI that allowed a user to navigate that maze. Finally, I started adding enemies. Each enemy was its own project, each with more complex path finding than the last. At each step in this process, I had learned something new and had a deliverable to show for it.

* Your question suggests that the problems you are trying to solve are not interesting enough. This belies a beginner mindset: that you have to be interested first, and then work happens off the fuel of your interest. The truth is that most interesting projects involve a lot of days where the creator feels disinterested, but shows up any way. The most important thing you can do for yourself is cultivate the resilience required to keep showing up, so you can reap the satisfaction of completing great work later.

[themdonuts]

Get people using it. Period.

Result: with every user interaction you will get a refreshment of motivation. I've done it for 5 years.

Long version: I was all about starting projects and never finishing, until one day I actually put one online and started spreading the word through discussion boards.

So step 1) Launch and spread the word. You get 1 thing out of this immediately: you WILL finish it to the bare minimum, because what if someone actually tries to use your product?

You could argue: yeah, but when I give up on the project it's no where near ready to be launched. I would argue back that if you dropped it, it probably means you got something out of it - could someone also benefit from it? Maybe, at that moment switch your brain to: now let's launch this and spread the word.

Step 2) Put metrics in it You want to see if there's people coming to your website. Crucial for step 3, read on.

Step 3) You will see people coming to your website and interacting with your product. This is the best part, because it gives you such a kick of motivation that will make you want to continue working on it. It just keeps giving.

I've started a project 5 years ago and I put it out there and forgot about it. 2 months after someone used it and I got my first reservation. That was such a source of motivation!! It's magical and it's a cycle. As I continue working on it as my side project and as I start losing interest, I get a new user which then sources me with more motivation to keep going. This cye repeats

I've learned a lot in terms of business, technology stack and devops, but all this applied to the same project I started 5 years ago.

[agentultra]

I’ve been employing a tactic I’ve picked up from artists/authors: don’t talk about your project.

Talking about it tricks your brain into thinking you’ve done the work and you lose motivation.

Sticking to a schedule can help as can ritualizing the process of working on your project: have a certain place you associate with the project or a particular genre of music that gets you excited (it’s important to not listen to that genre/album while doing anything else). These tactics exploit the power of association in our brains to form habits.

[johnstorey]

I have battled this since programming became my profession. Over years I was trained to create in ways that maximize income, and stop when there is no income link. Decades later, this made working for passion very difficult.

Here are a few ideas that seem to consistently help me.

* one, sheer willpower. It's a muscle that needs building, but keep going when you don't have any further interest for the sake of completing the task. Even when it feels like torture. It's about forcing yourself to the finish line. Often the interest comes back later.

* Move the finish line closer. Formally write down what you want to develop with milestones, with a go/no go decision at each milestone. If you decide not to continue at a milestone, that was part of the plan, so you completed the project.

* work on things that develop skills you expect to bring to the workplace and apply there. That's a pretty direct link to income.

* work on things you want or to keep current with younger hires -- I'm learning gitops on k8s at home, and packaging charts to self-host some things I've wanted at home anyways. Even though I manage these days, it's important to understand how things work to a decent degree in order to have meaningful discussions with the broader team. I know managers who get by without that, but I'm not one of them.

For what it's worth, continuing on because that's what you planned to do sometimes leads to a renewal of interest later in the project.

[brudgers]

When you're imagining a rogue-like use a piece of paper and some fat markers and make some of its artwork. That's where it starts. Not with downloading a graphics library. Not with configuring Travis-CI. Not with >git init. Those are pretend work. They are non-progress. They are not creative work. They are not hard. The hard thing is doing something poorly. The hard thing is barely making progress. The hard thing is opening yourself up to someone saying "that's inefficient." That someone is usually you. Good luck.

[onion2k]

Focus on solving a problem. Find something you actually care about and need to make instead of something that you think sounds cool or that you think might make money. Let those things happen organically. If you actually solve a problem people will tell you that it's cool, and they might pay you for the solution.

[papaf]

As someone who has been failing on side projects for over 20 years, I feel qualified to answer this question.

  - Have one private repository for random projects
  - Work in private repositories for random 
    projects that progress.
  - Move to public repositories when the project
    gets somewhere.

These tips above make failure cheap. Success is built on the many failures.

I also have general tips on side projects that make them more fun and less like work:

  - Use a different editor/ide to $job.
  - Use a different programming language.

I also have these general tips based on mistakes I made in the past:

  - Read other peoples solutions on github. Its inspiring.
  - If you get stuck take a break. Its not work and you can slack.

[spodek]

You describe focusing on the solution. The inspiration to make your solution generally feels great, but doesn't endure. On the contrary, you'll get caught up in more and more solutions because you're mostly satisfying fleeting whims.

Focusing on the problem and the people who feel it will generally engage and inspire you longer. When you ask someone about what's missing in their lives or specifically what emotions they feel in the area you want to work in, they tell you, you offer possible solutions, and they say "when will you finish it, I want to buy it?", that inspiration lasts a long time.

Whom do you want to make your project for? What emotions do they feel that you want to address? Are they bored, frustrated, confused, misunderstood, lonely, etc? Each emotion is different and will lead to different solutions. Ask them so you hear in their words what they want. Ask them to clarify.

The inspiration to help others is deeper and creates meaning and purpose beyond just "I'm going to do something cool everyone will love."

I cover how to make this happen in my book, Initiative http://joshuaspodek.com/initiative based on project-based learning entrepreneurship courses I taught at NYU. If anyone is interested in doing the exercises after reading the reviews and watching the videos but cost is a problem, email me and we'll work something out. I suggest the book because of the results people get from doing the exercises.

[mschaef]

The first thing I'd suggest you do is understand why you want to do a side project at all. Unless you have a specific goal you want to achieve and you actually value that goal, you'll have a hard time convincing yourself to do the work you need to do to make it happen.

You also shouldn't fool yourself about the amount of time and effort it takes to achieve anything real. Developers tend to underestimate the work involved in achieving a result. For commercial projects that sort of estimation problem turns into cost overruns and missed deadlines. For side projects (without formal schedules) it turns into demoralization when the result you want doesn't meet the timeline of your dreams. That solitaire game may seem like an easy thing to do, but for every complexity you see there's a dozen you don't, and you'll have do the work to solve them all to produce something of value. So make sure it's something you actually care about.

[edw519]

1. The WHAT should be something very important to someone else.

2. The HOW should be something very important to you.

Many experts tell you that you should build something that you actually need yourself. That may be good advise for start-ups but not as good for side projects. Why? Because it's too damn easy to just give up as soon as you hit an obstacle (and you WILL hit obstacles).

But when someone else is depending on your work (and becomes a trusted collaborator), they provide you with that extra UMMPH you will undoubtedly need when the going gets tough. It's a lot harder to bail out when someone is right next to you and depending on you.

But by deciding on your own HOW you will build it, you maintain an outlet for your passion. Believe me, I know. For me the journey of building something is more fun than the anticlimactic using of the finished product.

Works all the way around. Give it a try.

[skinnyarms]

Maybe you need to examine what your true goal is. Why do you want a side project? Are you doing it because you feel like you are supposed to have side projects, or because you actually want to accomplish a goal? If it's the former, you could try to align the side project with another goal of yours - say learning some new language or framework.

If you are just trying to build a portfolio you can come up with a (small) "SMART" goal, and commit to completing it. After you reach the milestone you can make a conscious decision whether to continue or not - but either way you have _something_ completed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMART_criteria

[pogorniy]

I have similar questions how people stick to projects and get them done. And how can I do the same. I have so many unfinished ideas, abandoned projects that I got tired of this. And after a year I have an answer with a prove.

I've learned that I'm excited about idea of the project, but not routine which gets that idea done. Also I know that usually I'm excited about project for several days and then other ideas get in my head and I loose focus. Another known pitfall is urge to get too much functionality and then again focus is lost.

So I decided to stick to the routine of one project regardless of circumstances. I defined wanted functionality. Intrinsically I agree that time spent on the project is not worse than alternatives.

Also I tried to record videos (in russian) on how I approached the project. That helped a bit with external motivation as I promised people to deliver video on Saturday. Made quite a number (26) before abandoned this idea, as it wasn't popular, thus rewarding for me.

Now in a year I call this experiment done https://github.com/podgorniy/media-manager. I'm happy with result and path I did to get there.

We can discuss details more. My first unfinished project dates 2013. So I've being in this situation for quite a while.

[vishnuvis]

I faced this. Start a website then lose it because I would be losing interest in few weeks.

The thing which I followed is to fix my routine. Joined a Gym, it helped a lot on focusing on things & made me mentally strong.

Take off time, started travelling & took a long break & then get back to work. A step closer to nature made me fresh & met people who are really working hard despite the lack of resources. This made me think about how am wasting my time, despite having all the resources.

Sat one day & written everything on things I wanted to do. Made a weekly task, monthly, quarterly. Then started steps to accomplish it.

At first it wasn't easy but slowly I made a habit & then finally get used to it.

Just follow something for 21 days, it will be a habit.

All you need is 21 days.

[andremendes]

You must pick something that is really meaningful for you in a way that will make you feel good seeing the progress of the project you are working on. What would a Roguelike have to be to take your full attention? How a strategy game you really love has to look like?

What you like beyond games? If you like gardening, make a game about it. Are you a sports fan? Make a sport game. You get the idea.

I'm saying this because it's working for me. Like you, I want to make games on my own. I am also into politics, so I chose a language and a framework[¹] and started from the tutorial with the goal of making a politically-charged infinite-runner[²].

After getting the basics I told my idea to a couple of friends that kindly drew sprites for me to use in the game. It's been a really cool experience. I'm doing it everyday and learning a lot in the way. I strongly believe that the subject choice for the project is what is getting me hooked to it.

¹: https://haxe.org and https://haxeflixel.com/

²: https://github.com/fullynotanalien/bozorun (edit: formatting)