I have a lot of ideas and there are many things that interest me, but I end up working on one thing for a few weeks and then move on to the next idea.<p>What advice do you have for ignoring the noise and staying focused?
- The first thing you need to do is prioritise what you want to do. Remove trivial ideas or ideas with the least ROI for your efforts. If you can't remove items, create a second 'backlog' list and keep your main list as small as possible, maybe 2 or three projects you can get done in the time you have (think Agile).<p>This is the hardest I find as there are so many things I want to get done NOW and even when I do concentrate on one project I'm easily distracted by new "shiny objects" while researching the current task :)
When I do get distracted, I write down the idea and I look to the next point:<p>- Do everything for the long term and remember that you have plenty of time to do it, be disciplined, there really is no rush.<p>So, take your time with what you are doing, do everything properly and remember why you are doing it in the first place - you decided it was worthwhile!
You can't rush it just because you have other ideas, there really is plenty of time to do it properly AND to do the next idea on your list.<p>- Set aside chunks of time to work on your project and time to surf the web and check emails etc. Don't mix the 2!<p>This one is hard as you almost always need to search for some documentation on the web at some stage but be diligent knowing you have set aside time to do your leisure activities. If you think of some idea in these spare blocks of time just add the idea to the backlog and prioritise it when you renew your main list. If you're getting itchy feet about your new idea then you can prioritise your backlog but don't touch your current task list!<p>Lastly, if you can't maintain the effort to stick to a project after a week or two, make sure you break down your project into manageable chunks that you can call 'done' when finished. Do these parts as modules perhaps, again, think
Agile programming and call these chunks 'sprints' if you like but make sure you finish and test your 'chunk' before starting the next task or project.
Doing this will allow you to move from project to project and know where you are up to and if you followed the advice above you can be confident the earlier work you did is top notch and ready to build upon :)<p>good luck!