Ask Lemmy

Not quite what you’re asking, but I’ve learned that an important thing for personal projects is not to tell anyone about them until they’re basically done.

For me, getting to explain the thing and talk about why I’m doing it is a big part of what keeps me excited. If I tell someone about a project too early, my dumb monkey brain says ‘ok, good chemicals dispensed! That project is now dead to me’, and I lose all motivation to actually finish it.

Knowing I’m doing something cool and no one knows yet actually helps keep me going.

Beyond that? Having a clear plan, with concrete goals that define what ‘finished’ looks like, and clear concrete steps that will get me to that point. Literally a checklist. That way, continuing the work just means working from that list, rather than stressing over what to do next and getting bogged down in tangents and distractions.

Start with big tasks that feed into your project goals (‘add feature x’), and then gradually break them down into smaller individual tasks that can be completed in a single session of work. You don’t have to break the entire project down at once; I start each day by saying ‘what meaningful progress can I achieve today?’ and go from there.

Bold of you to assume I do keep working on it. Very bold, indeed!

Incremental goals. Going at something expecting you to maintain the same level of hype is going to end in unfinished projects or burnout as you force yourself to keep going.

I chunk it, don't think of it a a project just an ongoing work.

So for example we are renovating the half bathroom but it is necessarily a slow project. I need to:

Clear the closet space we are opening up, which required:

2 outdoor storage units (one done one pending)

Relocating the indoor stuff to other spaces (done)

Painting (also done in steps, there are a bunch of splotches painted on one wall from testing colors - chose now but need to buy the gallon of it)

New cabinet in that closet (purchased and sitting in boxes will assemble after painting)

Move cat box into former closet space (done)

I am just doing what I can when I can, not letting go of it.

Also I want to whine a little - most of the work in life isn't something that's ever finished. Getting to be Done is sort of a imaginary idea. It's never going to be done. I feel so sexist about it, too, probably falsely but my impression is historically men get to work on projects and then rest on their laurels, women do the ongoing maintenance afterwards because it's not actually done but something that needs to be maintained. Like "here, I have built you a house! I am done!" But then someone else has to do the endless ongoing work of maintaining it.

So I honestly don't really ever think something is done, and am sort of at ease with that.

be faster than the honeymoon phase?

TL;DR: force yourself and be conscience that your brain is trying to trick you

I think you have to get used to the fact that many things get more boring over time but still need a human hand to guide them to completion, and you need to remember that it feels so much better to have a finished project rather than an unfinished one.

If you think about it, all things in the world are like this to some extent. Cooking a meal can be like that. Learning and practicing a song can be like that, or learning a language; it eventually feels like you're getting diminishing returns on any time spent studying it further.^1^

Going to the gym or on a hike can be like that. Or even playing videogames, or scrolling on a phone - which is why we eventually stop doing those tasks!

I believe that getting used to doing high dopamine tasks without a schedule, i.e we only end when it gets boring, trains us to see other tasks these ways - "it's boring now, let's call the project quits." Every time you see something through to completion you are training yoir brain to do better.

^1^okay actually learning a language is more of a "this is so fun, i'm learning the cokours and how to say hello!" To "this is such a slog... i can't even..." to then being anle to read books in the language and study it the same way you studied your native one in school; "how do we best formulate sentences, write academic reports, write poetry in this language?"

In this way, you see that the completion of one boring project enables you to start an even more fun one!

Struggled with this since ages. Recently I just made a service public. Now I get pressure by being scared of negative feedback. Unhealthy, but it works.

Easy.

When you have no safety net it's pretty easy to keep going no matter how tough or boring it is. I striped the shingles (4 layers), pulled the nails, fixed the 1x4 slats where needed, sheathed, and reroofed about 2500 sq ft with my own two hands. I had one person as ground support.

I broke it up into sections I could complete in about a week when the weather would cooperate.

The entire house is a major project. I call it a slum lord house. There was zero insulation, the windows suck, the electrical system was still mostly knob and tube, the roof was basically shot, the roof was saddling in one area, the plumbing lines switched randomly between steel, pvc, and cpvc, plus the water heater was plumbed backwards. I've still got to replace the windows, insulate the floor joists, and fix a few other things but it's in a lot better condition than when we moved in.

Simply put, how do you eat an elephant alone? One bite at a time. When you take on a big project you have to keep working at it. You may need breaks but you keep going back for more.

Start with the most boring part. Rince and repeat!

Perseverance.

Honestly, that's it. I think it's a learned skill, too. I should put "death march projects" on my resume.

Scope it so that the project should be close to done when the honeymoon phase wears off.

If you’re deciding to restore a classic Corvette in your garage and buy an old wreck before you even know anything about cars, you’re going to fall off that cliff way too early.

Ambition is the thief of joy, or something.

Money. My sole motivation for working is money.

Oh, you mean personal projects? I'm not ashamed to bag something if it’s not working out.

Lots of great advice in this thread so let me offer a complementary approach: when you find yourself feeling reluctant to work on the project, sit with that feeling and ask yourself where the sensation is coming from (and it might not be obvious at first—a therapist would be able to help you untangle the feelings).

In my case I learned I have a fear of failure. Once all the “easy” parts are done, and I don’t know quite how to do the next step, I start feeling uncomfortable. Not continuing is safe, because I don’t have to find out whether I will be successful. Learning new things usually requires trying and failing, and failing is uncomfortable, and our body is doing its best to keep us feeling safe.

I’ve used most of the other suggestions in this thread and they do work to varying degrees. But my TLDR advice is that these strategies are often coping mechanisms for some underlying lizard brain emotion going on. If you can gain some self-awareness about that emotion then you will gain power over it, be able to soothe it, and thus be less reliant on an external strategy.

I'm this way. It took me 3 years to finish my kids treehouse. My only advice is that the first 3rd of any project is the fun part, and the last 3rd is just pure willpower. Gotta force yourself to see it through, but when you finish a project it's such a great feeling. It's worth it.

I just tell myself motivation isn’t necessary, because it isn’t, and do it anyway. I don’t have to like what I’m doing to do it

Along with what others have said about not telling anyone, I tend to do my hobby projects in a sort of cycle. My brain is probably broken, but I struggle to focus on just one for a super long time and that's the way I deal with it. For a week or two, I'll focus on one project before moving on to the next unfinished project. For things that aren't urgent, this works well. For urgent projects.. well, not so much.