Finishing Side Projects

You shouldn't think of personal projects in terms of the end goal. You should instead think of what you learn by doing them. It's a cliché, but is not the destination that important but what you learn along the way. Try to plan out your project into packets of work that you can complete and get a dopamine fix from every couple of days.

Try reducing the scope of your projects, so that you can ride on your impulses. I find it a lot easier to maintain something I use than a half-completed project, so I try to get there as soon as possible. It worked really well for me.

Well... It reads like you are talking about side projects? The big question is: Are you happy with what you are doing when you are doing it? Do you expect yourself to produce sth. at the end of this cycle? Or are you putting yourself under pressure, because "others succeed, and so I have, too"?Sometimes, it helps to free your mind and your thoughts just by doing something completely unrelated to your daily routine (read: daily job). If you are at the 25-50% stage, personally I don&#

I used to be in this position. Your question really resonates with me.I think I have broken the cycle, but it is hard to be sure of something like this of course. I have certainly been able to make more progress on projects than I have been able to in the past.I think this has helped me:- Make a Someday/Maybe list. Capture your ideas and put them on the list. This can just be a text file. Feel free to add implementation notes. Then, when you have time, you can come back and see if

Learn to finish projects, that's where the satisfaction is. Perhaps go into it without an overambitious design, hit a milestone. Step away. Come back later and augment.

I had this problem too. I’ve been able to get over it by from coming up with a scenario, even if it’s completely fabricated, where what I am doing can be useful. I also make sure that I incorporate something new that I want to learn in the project. Whether it’s a language, library, whatever. Then I give myself a date I can quit. Normally it’s about two months. This makes me really consider whether I want to take something on because if I do I force myself to dedicate two months of time to it. If

(Not Mike, but I can relate) - I suffered from a similar problem some time ago, that I have since overcome. I'm not sure if I can offer any words of advice, but I can give you a recount of my experience that helped me overcome it. Like you, I would often start projects, leaving them unfinished after the interesting part. After noticing this trend, I stopped and did a little introspection. I thought long and hard about what I want to do in an ideal world. Do I want to be a corporate citizen my en

Can you finish and release stuff in your working life?There are lots of great tips and perspectives in this conversation. I think you should ask yourself the question why you actually want to finish these projects. Do you think you should? If so, but do you actually want to, and how hard do you want it?If you don't find a clear answer to these questions, consider to decide to not finish from the start: take all these little projects just as experiments, explorations, little code essay

Because it gets boring.You're looking for a feeling of excitement, to really feel alive.After the initial rush, that feeling fades. So do your chances of finishing the project.Recognize that rush/excitement/feeling alive WILL NOT come from your project.Disassociate that feeling from the project.Then you'll pick projects far more stingily.And then you'll finish one of those projects.

If you struggle so much with finishing projects and are frustrated by it, that’s a signal you’re unable to accurately gauge your level of engagement/excitement/motivation/skill/whatever. There is a mismatch between the complexity/size of the projects you pick and what you are able or willing to do.Seems like a simple solution: do smaller stuff, reduce the scope. Start side projects you can finish in a day, or a week, or whatever you can usually manage. Instead of aimi