Ask HN: How to stay motivated through a long term project | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How to stay motivated through a long term project

8 pointsbhavink7 comments

I want to know what are some methods you guys use to stay motivated and disciplined through a long term (>2-3 months) solo programming project. I know the most obvious method would be to break down project in small tasks and target those but in my case that does not help. After a while the feeling of it going nowhere starts sinking and also the feeling of the enormous amount of work still left starts bringing the morale down. Thanks for your tips in advance

View on HN

I'm also in the "breaking things down doesn't really help" camp, so while I recognise that it works for some people, I do think it's possible that "just break things down even further" isn't necessarily the right approach for everyone. A possible explanation for this is that when tasks are truly bite-sized, the regret of "I could have finished X this morning" just gets more intense. And actually, having some slack time and some time spent standing back and reflecting turns out to be really important to me in itself.

The thing I find most helpful is to make sure that there are always several parts of the system that I'm actually working on. This means I've got a choice of what to work on today (autonomy!) and can somewhat context-switch my way around the awkward bits (which sometimes get less awkward after a few days on the back burner). Don't get carried away with this (spending all your mental cycles deciding what to do next won't help, either), but it's worth a try. It's one of the things that makes me love largish solo projects.

During the end of the project (almost always a slog) I'll set deadlines for myself each week with a set list of features I need to accomplish for that week. Hopefully it's obvious what's left to be done and you can make lists at this point. But when I've accomplished those goals for the week I'll take a break and do something fun.

I don't know how you work but usually the first couple months are a frenzy of work non stop but if I pace out the end a little better it becomes a lot more palatable. Also it's not the end of the world to take a couple days off if you come back with a clear mind ready to work, in fact it's usually more effective.

One more thing that really helps with overcoming the blues at the "almost finish line" is to get it in front of a few people and let them pick it apart. It gets me motivated before showing it to him/her/them to polish up any loose ends, and then after I have a new list of stuff that I feel motivated to resolve. Hope that helps! Goodluck w/ the project!

Thank you, I can relate to this so much. It is the end which seems difficult. Showing the project to a few people before it is "finished" sounds very helpful and now that I think of it, I have done that in the past as well. Will keep that in mind for future work. Thanks again.

Sounds like you may not have chopped up the larger goal into smaller achievable goals.

Like the old saying goes... "How do you eat a whale? One bite at a time."

Make sure you have sub goals nested at least three levels deep from your main end goal. Keep track of that stuff, gamify it for yourself. Keep a schedule, but keep it flexible and be understanding with yourself.

Discipline is a very difficult thing (the personality aspect of conscientiousness, look into it). The very definition of non-trivial and has plagued humans since time immemorial.

Exactly this part of the project gives it it‘s value! The fun part everbody does in the beginning is over.

Knowing this gives me the motivation to push through.

If anything greater than 2-3 months is long term and challenging your motivation and discipline then programming might not be the right path for you.

Achievements and Rewards: I try to setup some sub-goals over 2-3 weeks, which i'll try to achieve. If I'm successfully, I reward myself with something nice.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com