Staying Focused on Projects

For me, “Step 6” on this page is the first step. I get started working on something! All this organizing and planning would be a great way for me to put off actually working on the projects. I’m constantly working on projects. Multiple nights a week. I suppose I should mention that I have no kids and I work 20 hours a week for my job, meaning I have a lot of “extra” hours in the week for my own personal work.<p>Also I’m not saying the authors view is wrong - everyone is different. And certainly my work situation is rare. I am not a planning person (my job as a prototyping engineer meshes well with this). So if all this Kanban stuff is too much for you, consider just working on stuff! :)<p>Anyway whatever the approach I’m glad this author is communicating what works for them about projects. A lot of people I talk to struggle with this.

For me, the biggest problem seems to be that if there&#x27;s a break in between (work&#x2F;travel etc - need not be long - something as short as a couple of weeks is enough) and then I find it hard to pick up the project again where I left off :-(<p>Still haven&#x27;t found a way to come back to projects once there&#x27;s any sort of interruption.

I&#x27;ve found a variety of trîcks working for me lately.<p>Kanban has been one. I&#x27;ve started it for things I&#x27;m learning, although it&#x27;s not strictly. I&#x27;m using GitHub issues to track various different learning projects. Mostly I&#x27;ll have an issue that lists a series of videos in a series or blog post series and I&#x27;ll tick each one off as I do them and take notes in a comment. That has helped with falling off the wagon. I might slow down, but I remember eventually &quot;oh I only got halfway through that series! Let&#x27;s do the next one now&quot; and continue to make progress.<p>Projects where I make things have been a little different. I&#x27;ve found making an ecosystem of interrelated projects helps with bothering to complete things because as one project drags on and the enthusiasm for it dies, the will to keep going is fueled by the passion and excitement for starting the next project. I think I might call this concept a &quot;Project Stack&quot;. The next project just so happens to rely on the current one, so it needs to be finished. Wish I had discovered this hack sooner.<p>The other thing that has worked well is flipping from nights to mornings. And back again. Waking up first thing in the morning and working on my project for 1.5 hrs before work has definitely made me make progress after the enthusiasm wore off and I would have gone in search of shinier things. There&#x27;s just something about there being no excuses. Not tired. No one needs me to do anything as they&#x27;re all still asleep. Don&#x27;t feel the need to entertain myself as it hasn&#x27;t been a long day. Might as well make another step of progress. But then after awhile I start feeling the mornings become less productive and I slow down because really I&#x27;m a night owl at heart. So I switch back! This gives a renewed sense of energy.<p>I&#x27;m a few days out from finishing project 2 in a &quot;project stack&quot; about 5 to 8 projects deep. Can&#x27;t wait to start number 3.

One thing that has helped me: Breaking up steps into smaller ones explicitly. Even if only &quot;trivial&quot; preparation work can be factored out, it will help getting started on bigger tasks and will provide the satisfaction of &quot;checking off&quot; something. And once started, further breakdown may become obvious.

#7 has more to it. It&#x27;s a big deal. Falling off the wagon can be due to various reasons - lack of prioritization, unfamiliar tooling&#x2F;technology, not knowing the value, striving for perfection, lack of iterations, and lack of context. These can more often lead to abandoning the projects altogether.<p>If you have time to read more about this, check out my blog post here <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;iam.mt&#x2F;working-on-side-projects&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;iam.mt&#x2F;working-on-side-projects&#x2F;</a>