Ask HN: How to maintain interest in completing a Sideproject? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How to maintain interest in completing a Sideproject?

2 pointsPadrio2 comments

Well, I have a big problem when it comes to completing things. Every time i have an awesome idea i start working on it asap and stay focused on 120% like a beast for some good time.

And always when it comes to finishing the project i loose interest. For a example, I do have a big thing i want to create. I have a complete concept since this idea exists for about three to four years now. We've got a professional logo designed which is the best one I've ever let a contractor create and every aspect of the project is perfectly planned. I already had some type of prototype but always when it comes to "finishing" it, I'll just loose the interest in completing it. Everytime I tell someone about the Idea everyone is just amazed and says it's perfect and that I really need to finish it. Now im a freelancer and don't have much time for side-projects anymore because im struggling to make enough money to survive. I often thought about maybe trying to get some funding but in germany i have no idea how to get that done.

So to get back to my main question: How do you maintain keeping intereset in finishing your side projects?

Find your "currency". By currency I don't mean money, but we all do things for different reasons, and a lot of time money isn't the one that will motivate us most, those reasons are our currency.

Some examples of things that I do to keep me motivated:

- Not letting people down, motivates me more than how much money I can potentially make (money motivates me later). So I tell lots of people what I am doing.

- My ability to do things for people in my community is also a motivator for me, I find a way to tie what I am doing to a goal there too. This isn't always as easy to be fair to find it as my community is rural and not high tech in anyway.

- Kinda like with the first point, I also like to find early customers and make some basic commitments to them which motivates me as well. I'll make commitments super early in the idea stage, that pressure makes me more motivated to push through. And I setup future meetings early on so that I have to show up and talk too someone about it, which means I don't want to be embarrassed so I'll work harder.

A lot of people use the act of telling other people what you are doing and knowing they will keep asking you for updates as motivation. I definitely use this as you can see.

I use a project management tool (gitlab's issue tracker), and spend sometime on planning. And I force myself to solve 3 bugs/features each day.

I also take breaks. After a few weeks working on different things, I come back to the project feeling more productive.

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