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Discipline doesn't work for everyone. I suspect most folks who are reading this article are doing so because they failed at self-discipline (like myself).

Instead, I suggest observing how long your motivation tends to last (~2 weeks for me). Then at the very start of the project ruthlessly cut down the scope to something you think you could actually get done in that time period.

This will probably require you to simplify some of the stuff you were planning to develop

Maybe you'll adopt just one new tool you need to ramp up on instead of five.

But by embracing the ticking motivation deadline you can modify the work you take on to something that you'll actually finish.

I wrote about this recently, and how I applied this technique to a project I was working on.

https://twitter.com/ZainRzv/status/1275276323120746498

Alongside discipline there's also simply losing interest. There are projects I could maintain over a long period because I still believe in them, but most I stop caring about. I've probably picked up and dropped music the most, often for something else.

I think Bukowski's aphorism "don't try" is useful. He means that he was always compelled to write, and that if you have to force yourself consistently, it's probably not for you. That being said, discipline is still forever important. There's a difference between my laziness and general interest in something.

Great that works for you, but your argument sounds akin to asking why someone couldn't score high on the exam when you did. Different people, different motivations. I relate more to the OP than you. Just saying "be disciplined" doesn't help. This isn't the army, it's a voluntary side project I want to do when I can be watching Netflix.

To refame that comment a bit: almost every single resource you find on motivation will mention that motivation is not a matter of passion, it's a matter of discipline.

In every hobby there is always a sense of discipline, it's just usually implicit. For myself: composing orchestral scores started off as a fun little "oh this melody would sound neat". Ever since then, there have been times when I need to sit down and do some "real work" to turn that idea into an enjoyable, fulfilling result. Could I have just wrote things when I want to? Of course. But now, after years of composing, I have the skill to make things that sound great when I really just threw it together.

In software engineering, a beginner or even intermediate programmer is going to lose a lot of their initial motivation to build their idea (game, app, website) -- because in finding the skill to execute on their initial side project idea, they realize they need to develop that skill from scratch, which takes work.

I think there's a good balance between investing skills between "basic knowledge" and "career capital". What that balance is varies from person to person, but I also believe that no matter what, even if it's implied, there is always a certain amount of work that needs to be put in.

Nope. Almost every single resource you find on motivation will mention that motivation is not a matter of passion, it's a matter of habit. Discipline and motivation is pretty much the same in this context, and wears off easily.

Respectfully, discipline and motivation are wholely unrelated. Motivation comes and goes. Discipline is the grown up in the room.

I don’t think it’s fair to believe I’m just saying “Be disciplined” when I explain how to manage your time.

I do watch Netflix too. But it’s time boxed during the day, the same way working on projects is. And in a day, I don’t work more than 6 hours. I’m always done by 6pm and can do anything in the evening. The key is to manage your time during the day and stick to a plan.

As a matter of fact, OP’s rules feel more like the army to me: having a different user or even laptop for a project, going to a different location, blocking websites like reddit… These are harder restrictions. If I really want to quit a project, I always can. I just need to close my code editor and my terminal. But in my mindset I don’t want to. Because the project is not a burden like the army: it’s 2-hour slots where I’m focused, not overwhelmed, and I know there’s an end to it.

The door to leave is always open but I don’t want to take it. It’s different.

People like me and OP can't do what you say, which is just timebox things. I suppose we are not disciplined that way. I know how important exercise is, but I still cannot bring myself to work out every day or even every week. The only solution that works for me at least somewhat sometimes is to throw money at it or put external methods of forcing me to do the thing I actually want to do long-term. As a matter of fact, I go a step ahead of OP and have a separate laptop for personal projects. It's crappy and can't do much other than ssh so it's perfect. I suppose as long as one finds a system it's okay?

Perhaps if I get electroshock therapy and/or go to an ashram and meditate I might get more internal self-control, but I'm 32, and can't be bothered with it. Thats partly because I'm also not convinced it's that important that I become disciplined: sometimes being lazy feels good and maybe it's a part of what makes me who I am. I'm not self-sabotagingly lazy (except in exercise which I need to work on), so as long as I and others find a system why not?

That's interesting. I saw once Timothy Feriss interviewing Neil Gaiman, and it was about focus and whatnot, and Gaiman said: "whenever I'm blocked, I stop, and start doing nothing. I can't watch a movie, read a book, I do nothing. I have only two options: I work or I do nothing - I cannot do anything else. After a little while, things get really boring, and I think 'might as well go back to work' - and that works as a charm.".

I guess that's a very good way of setting your focus straight, to obey your commands, instead of the other way around.

I used to do that technique for studying for the GRE. And it worked like a charm for sure (aside: Barron's GRE word list had the word <n-word>dly as meaning lazy in 2007 still. I was a kid in India but even to me it sounded wrong). Neil's full time work is to write. I'm sure this is what he does 9-5 or whenever he writes profesdionally. I doubt he just sits without doing nothing in the weekend when he could be playing with his kids. Thats the issue. If I was demotivated to do this in my day job that's one thing. Motivating yourself for extra work is where it's hard.

> I understand needing separate contexts for separate projects but this seems like overkill.

Some people have ADD and/or anxiety and need the minimalism so they don't get overwhelmed or trapped in rabbit holes.

Your advice is akin to telling people "don't bother disabling notifications on your phone apps you can just ignore them".

The real answer is find a system that works for your particular brain. Personally I need the approach in TFA or I get analysis paralysis.

> you need to dedicate time to a project. I do this through predefined 2-hour slots each day or week where I have to work on a project.

I'm glad this system works for you; it wouldn't work for me - my professional coding life is regimentalised enough.

When I step away from "work-stuff" to spend some time with a project I want to work on, I can't approach it like a job; instead I need the work to be challenging and engaging and loosely structured. I'll have vague aims and hopes for the project but I'll also be hoping for unexpected turns. I give myself permission to get sidetracked, to let go of the project's purpose (for a while) so I can explore new thoughts and ideas along the way.

It's all very unprofessional, yes. It's also fun - which is the main reason for me tackling any side project.

And when it stops being fun? I stop working on the project: save it, put it somewhere safe, go entertain myself on a different project for a while. I can do this because I know the first project will still be there, waiting for me to become interested in it a few months (or years) later.

It helps that I keep my side-projects very open-ended - none of them will ever be "finished". Horses for courses, I suppose.

First of all thank you for creating bulma. I love using it and I use it for all my projects. And for me it’s much better than bootstrap because it doesn’t come with any js

I never knew you are doing so many things apart from bulma. Please keep bulma active. Thanks for the insights.

Thanks for responding. I love Bulma. It's the simplest and most intuitive CSS library I've ever used.

I would argue that switching the location is by far the most impactful of all those recommendations, based on how brain is clustering data. It comes with a rather big overhead for sure, but that might as well pay off quite quickly.

> What you need is discipline.

Part of discipline is knowing which contexts work for you. For some this is mindset, while for others it’s a virtual or physical environment. To each his own.

The "Separate User Account" idea sounds especially odd to me, since that seems like it could only ever slow you down.

The quickest way to build something is to have built it already. So let's say you're working on your new side project and you want to implement "Forgot Password" functionality. How do you do that? You open up your last project, copy it out, and plonk it down into the new one.

Now imagine you had to do that, but you had isolated yourself completely from the filesystem that held that old code (and all your other old projects, notes, etc. too). Do you have to switch accounts six times back and forth as you remember more bits of the old that you need to grab? Do you write a whole new system from scratch? Clone that whole other project from source control into this new users' filesystem? It seems like a lot of work that you've made yourself.

I agree. If you're doing that as a way to somehow hack your focus so you don't get distracted, you're already lost.

I create new user accounts for different projects too, and I don’t see why you think it’s so hard.

> Do you write a whole new system from scratch?

Do you really think that if you’ve written code before, that a reasonable option is that you "write a whole new system from scratch" just because it’s a separate user account? It seems like you’re just reaching for the most ludicrous straw man you can think of. "Oh no, I wrote this great account management system", but I did it in a different user account, so I guess it’s lost to me forever and I’ll have to start from scratch!"

> Clone that whole other project from source control into this new users' filesystem? It seems like a lot of work that you've made yourself.

`hub clone JimDabell/foo` – one command gets me whatever repo I want immediately. Or `hub browse JimDabell/foo` to open it in a browser if I only want to refer to some other project quickly. How is that "a lot of work that I’ve made myself"?

> If you're doing that as a way to somehow hack your focus so you don't get distracted, you're already lost.

It’s just a form of organisation, not the moral failing you seem to think it is. My documents directory contains only the documents that are relevant to the project I’m working on, the applications in my dock are all the ones specifically for the project I’m working on, command-line history, notification settings, browser plugins and tabs, application configuration, etc.