
Staying Focused on Projects - bbody
https://www.brendonbody.com/2019/11/18/staying-focused/
======
TaylorAlexander
For me, “Step 6” on this page is the first step. I get started working on
something! All this organizing and planning would be a great way for me to put
off actually working on the projects. I’m constantly working on projects.
Multiple nights a week. I suppose I should mention that I have no kids and I
work 20 hours a week for my job, meaning I have a lot of “extra” hours in the
week for my own personal work.

Also I’m not saying the authors view is wrong - everyone is different. And
certainly my work situation is rare. I am not a planning person (my job as a
prototyping engineer meshes well with this). So if all this Kanban stuff is
too much for you, consider just working on stuff! :)

Anyway whatever the approach I’m glad this author is communicating what works
for them about projects. A lot of people I talk to struggle with this.

~~~
noman-land
Prototyping engineer sounds like my ideal work situation. How did you end up
doing a gig like this?

~~~
TaylorAlexander
Well it definitely started with me working on many projects since I was a kid.
I soaked up a lot of knowledge across different related disciplines and my own
portfolio of projects proved that. I also intentionally look for jobs that are
away from the center of my previous experience, so I have a varied resume.
Then I got an email from a recruiter for a contract position for mechatronics
prototype engineer at google X. I brought two backpacks full of projects and
for the position. Six months in to that role the manager running our research
team left and they moved me to a test engineer. It was never the same and
after a total of two years when my contract ended I found a new place to go. I
knew what I wanted to I purposefully asked hiring managers if the role would
allow me to prototype across different disciplines. Anyone that said “we have
electrical engineers for PCB design and mechanical engineers for 3D printing,
we just need you to do X” I would try to avoid. In the end the job I found was
very special but I got here by working towards it on my daily life for a long
time.

------
rraghur
For me, the biggest problem seems to be that if there's a break in between
(work/travel etc - need not be long - something as short as a couple of weeks
is enough) and then I find it hard to pick up the project again where I left
off :-(

Still haven't found a way to come back to projects once there's any sort of
interruption.

~~~
VladimirGolovin
My solution is to keep journals / diaries per project. In my experience,
journals can handle even the most extreme interruptions (long travels abroad,
urgent switches to different projects, long stretches of manager's schedule,
health emergencies, etc).

I keep my journals in Workflowy, organized as follows: root folders for
projects, subfolders for years, sub-subfolders for months, and the records at
the bottom level.

It's not necessary to write daily. Write only if you have a message to your
"future you" that could help him / her pick up the project after an
interruption. Describe open problems, dilemmas you're facing, dead-ends you've
encountered, decisions you've made, and next actions.

It's not necessary to write proper prose. Writing in caveman language is
perfectly fine, as long as the future you can understand that.

------
james_s_tayler
I've found a variety of trîcks working for me lately.

Kanban has been one. I've started it for things I'm learning, although it's
not strictly. I'm using GitHub issues to track various different learning
projects. Mostly I'll have an issue that lists a series of videos in a series
or blog post series and I'll tick each one off as I do them and take notes in
a comment. That has helped with falling off the wagon. I might slow down, but
I remember eventually "oh I only got halfway through that series! Let's do the
next one now" and continue to make progress.

Projects where I make things have been a little different. I've found making
an ecosystem of interrelated projects helps with bothering to complete things
because as one project drags on and the enthusiasm for it dies, the will to
keep going is fueled by the passion and excitement for starting the next
project. I think I might call this concept a "Project Stack". The next project
just so happens to rely on the current one, so it needs to be finished. Wish I
had discovered this hack sooner.

The other thing that has worked well is flipping from nights to mornings. And
back again. Waking up first thing in the morning and working on my project for
1.5 hrs before work has definitely made me make progress after the enthusiasm
wore off and I would have gone in search of shinier things. There's just
something about there being no excuses. Not tired. No one needs me to do
anything as they're all still asleep. Don't feel the need to entertain myself
as it hasn't been a long day. Might as well make another step of progress. But
then after awhile I start feeling the mornings become less productive and I
slow down because really I'm a night owl at heart. So I switch back! This
gives a renewed sense of energy.

I'm a few days out from finishing project 2 in a "project stack" about 5 to 8
projects deep. Can't wait to start number 3.

~~~
bbody
I never thought about switching back from the morning project work, will have
to give it a try!

------
dukoid
One thing that has helped me: Breaking up steps into smaller ones explicitly.
Even if only "trivial" preparation work can be factored out, it will help
getting started on bigger tasks and will provide the satisfaction of "checking
off" something. And once started, further breakdown may become obvious.

------
thallavajhula
#7 has more to it. It's a big deal. Falling off the wagon can be due to
various reasons - lack of prioritization, unfamiliar tooling/technology, not
knowing the value, striving for perfection, lack of iterations, and lack of
context. These can more often lead to abandoning the projects altogether.

If you have time to read more about this, check out my blog post here
[https://iam.mt/working-on-side-projects/](https://iam.mt/working-on-side-
projects/)

~~~
bbody
OP Here, I agree, there can be a lot of reasons for #7, however I think if you
beat yourself up too much from straying from your designated "In Progress"
ideas then it becomes work not a passion project. Some discipline is required
but a day to try something for another idea in the scheme of things isn't that
big of a deal.

