Comment by andrewstuart | Hacker News Reader

Comment by andrewstuart | Hacker News Reader

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1: Yes sleeping enough I think, usually 8 hours. Exercising 1 hour every two days.

2: In some strange way, I think the fact that I feel like this is finally a project with legs, is what is holding me back from finishing it. It feels like I'm building something that is a good idea, that people will want to use. Strange psychology, maybe I'm self sabotaging, avoiding the potential success.

3: I'm just starting to feel like no matter what I do to hack through the last items in the list they keep expanding. I've been doing software development long enough to know this is the old trick that software projects play on you but this time it's getting me down. There's not even alot on the list but it is probably two weeks solid work. I just find it really hard to pick up the next task. Once I have picked up the task I'm fine and I can get into the zone and get it implemented. After that however, I waste so much time just futzing around.

I'm a very, very motivated person normally.

> I'm just starting to feel like no matter what I do to hack through the last items in the list they keep expanding

I feel your pain but in a different area of my life most recently - I moved house and had to clear and pack a couple of rooms before a cleaner was scheduled to visit the next morning. Every time I looked at what was left I thought, an hour or two and this will be done, then after picking and processing a chunk, the remaining workload appeared to be unchanged. As the night wore on I started to feel like the house was cursed by some kind of vengeful clutter spirit, it just went on and on and on... Anyway the shred of motivation I wanted to offer you is that, despite the apparently ever-expanding workload, it did in fact finally finish, and the cleaner was presented with an empty house. I was able to accelerate the process slightly by 'cutting scope' (packing or throwing things I was going to sort) which in your case might be worth considering. Maybe some things can go into version 2?

You've evidently come so far and achieved so much, and you're so close now. Head down, one foot in front of the other, you'll be done before you know it. Good luck!

Good that you are looking after yourself.

Wrt. #2, maybe there's a fear of what a rollout of the project will commit you to. If so, then redefining the project so it's goal is to have a deliverable, rather than rolling it out, will help. You can then, with the luxury of having the implementation finished, take the time you need to reach a decision you are happy with.

Wrt. #3, I recommend taking a break and make a fresh list of what you think are the time-consuming remaining tasks.

It sounds to me that you are close to getting over this bump. Hope this AskHN thread is helping.

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