
Ask HN: How you keep yourself motivated for year long projects? - codesternews
I have started few projects recently but not able finish any of them. Lost interest in all.<p>How you keep yourself motivated for long side projects?
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atom-morgan
I'm currently in the process of writing a book covering automated testing
within Angular (2/4).

The most practical advice for maintaining motivation is to look at things on a
day or a week basis. I've described the process to others as running a mental
marathon so I simply can't think about mile 26 right now. I have to think
about the next eighth of a mile. Trello has been very helpful with this. I
break up my work into small tasks and stack them into a completed list each
week. Seeing that stack week after week has been very beneficial for my
mindset by giving me the feeling of accomplishment. Without this, progress
would be a lot more abstract.

The other motivating factor which I imposed on myself was to quit my full-time
job. I saved up all year so I could work on this giving myself as long of a
personal runway as possible but there is an end. That motivates me.

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itamarst
1\. Try to get as much motivations lined up as possible, and motivations that
point in the same direction. E.g. "I care about this topic" _and_ "I can make
some money." ([https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/08/03/stay-
focused/](https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/08/03/stay-focused/))

2\. Avoid contradictory goals. "I want to make money selling a product" and "I
want to learn a new tech stack" don't work well together.

3\. If you're trying to make a product, start with evidence there's real
demand for it.

4\. If you're trying to learn, pick either a really short hard deadline, or
something you will actually find useful.
([https://codewithoutrules.com/2016/09/09/side-
projects/](https://codewithoutrules.com/2016/09/09/side-projects/))

Real example: I wrote a book
([https://codewithoutrules.com/saneworkweek/](https://codewithoutrules.com/saneworkweek/)).

1\. I wanted to sell a product, but also really care about the topic.

2\. I very carefully avoided spending time coding or learning new technology,
focusing purely on writing (e.g.
[https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/07/10/stop-writing-
softwar...](https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/07/10/stop-writing-software/))

3\. I had multiple posts reach front page of Hacker News for this topic, clear
evidence that people cared.

~~~
ckdarby
You would have better checkout conversion if you switched to Stripe.

That checkout prompt is too much on mobile.

Also, I wanted to see a preview of what is in the book ;_;, could not find and
abandoned cart.

~~~
itamarst
Thanks for the info! I'll see what I can do about the popup.

(Unfortunately on its own Stripe is problematic, due to things like EU VAT
MOSS, so I'm limited in what I can use to services that do taxes for me.)

If you want to see a preview, you can sign up with your email to get an
excerpt on the email form on the original page.

------
didgeoridoo
Get a partner or two to work on them with — even if they’re just acting as a
sounding board once every couple weeks. It’s much easier to feel accountable
to another person than it is to be consistently accountable to yourself.

------
dhruvkar
Incremental feedback.

How this works depends on the project. Instead of one multi-year project, it
needs to be broken down into digestible chunks, at the end of each you have to
have a _mechanism_ that tells you a simple 'yes, keep going' or 'no, you need
to adjust'.

I'd argue that this mechanism is almost always your end users. That feedback
regenerates your interest periodically and will push you to keep working on
the project.

Without feedback, it's harder to justify your time and effort when interest
starts to fade.

------
mattbgates
I have been working on 3 projects for nearly 2 years.. they are actually done,
but I'm finishing up some testing.

Basically, they are creative ways to help you remember information in
different ways, started out as 1 project and eventually turned into 3. No idea
if they'll be a hit or not, but I never create projects for anyone else... I
create them for myself, and then I share with the world.. if I'm using it..
I'm sure someone out there, eventually will use it too, free or paid.

When I get bored, I usually get another idea for another project.. and I start
working on it.

Since the creation of those 3 projects that I won't mention at this time (as
they are being saved for a Show HN) ... I've created:

[https://mypost.io](https://mypost.io) : allows anyone to create and publish
web pages on the Internet in seconds.

[https://scamshare.com](https://scamshare.com) : helps expose scammers and
scams to the world, specifically those scams being sent via email or text.

[https://callmeprivate.com](https://callmeprivate.com) : helps mask your real
phone number behind a virtual number to receiving and make calls; great for
individuals, entrepreneurs, or businesses.

[https://textmeprivate.com](https://textmeprivate.com): helps mask your real
phone number behind a virtual number, designed specifically for SMS-only.

Working on these other projects has helped me to understand the original three
and even optimize the code to clear up any "uncertainties" that I had when I
first started. Now that I've completed several more projects, I can go back,
and although I realize I could've coded something better.. I'm actually seeing
that you can code things in different ways and still get the same process
done.

As for what keeps me motivated to work on so many projects? Success or
failure.. the creation of a project [ and sending it off into the world ]
means success to me. The other contributing factor for motivation: I want to
run my own [ SaaS ] business and get away from having to work for someone,
except my customers, of course. The continuing motivation would obviously be:
the more people that understand and use and even pay to use my projects will
give me more incentive to keep working on them and create new ones.

~~~
codesternews
Thanks for very useful advice and really great projects.

One another question I have is what initial motivation for you to create above
projects. These services already existed and I setback after some time if I
see same kind of service and loose motivation to keep on working on it. Never
finishes the thing.

Can you please provide advice how to deal with it and what should be my intial
motivation and thoughts for recreating something.

~~~
mattbgates
The advice I have for you on initial motivation and recreating something, even
if it already exists is this:

Facebook exists. Google exists. YouTube exists. Gmail exists. And the list
goes on and on about everything that exists.

\- Thousands of developers have recreated Facebook and failed. The only ones
who could defeat Facebook were a Russian social network and a Chinese social
network, and only in those countries.

\- Google was a great example of seeing what happens when you try to "defeat"
a giant. It failed with Google Plus.

\- Facebook was attempting to actually become "the next Google search" at one
point and while it wasn't publicized crazily, it wasn't anything that could be
measured as successful.

Facebook remains the #1 social network. Leave it alone. Google remains the #1
search engine. Leave it alone.

Stop trying to be the competition and start being the compliment. I know that
sounds crazy, but when you try to be the competition, you either defeat or you
get defeated. Almost always, you get defeated. When you try to be the
compliment: you aren't trying to replace something, you are simply trying to
be the alternative to something. While it sounds like competition, you are
simply the backup if things go wrong with the main source, and people are
turning to look for something else to use instead.

Take a look at Duck Duck Go. Not the most dominant search engine, but it is
the alternative to Google. Why? Because they guarantee your privacy. Most
major companies are dealing with hackers all of the time. Uber. Equifax. Just
the latest examples. These massive companies have lost and exposed information
that should have otherwise been private. Yet people keep using them and they
don't care.

However, there are some people out there who truly do care about their
privacy, and want to remain private and have some guarantee. This is the power
that we, as "small developers" have over the big companies. Do what you can to
secure and protect user information and it may just give you a huge edge, at
least to people who are looking for more guaranteed privacy.

\--------------------------------------------

If you want to do a little extra reading, this is really how I keep
brainstorming and getting new ideas for projects so I stay motivated and keep
going:

The three projects I am working on, which have taken me the longest, and bless
her for her patience... my girlfriend at the time, now my wife, would always
ask me to remind her to do something. I would forget.. and she'd also forget,
and later on, we'd kick ourselves. That was the initial motivation to even
start a project like the ones I have been working on. So I created these
projects to help her remind herself to do things so I wouldn't have to
remember for her.

As for the others... they were a bit more personal. I've included notes to
show you how they are all actually connected and how one idea led to another.

MyPost (2-3 months project) [free to use] ... I wanted to go to a place where
I could write HTML and CSS without having to register for an account or enter
in my email. There are tons of these types of programs out there now.. but
just a few years ago, there was only one alternative I had found which was
pen.io. But it was still not allowing me to do everything I wanted to do so I
built my own. Gave it away for free.. and many people all over the world use
it.

* Notes: It had been done already. The concept itself is not anything new or unique. But this project taught me: your projects don't always have to be unique and different. Sure, don't copyright it and steal it exactly as is. But if you can take an idea and make it even better and add your own twist on it, than why not? It taught me that I could do things my own way, do things that I would feel comfortable doing. I do create projects with people in mind, but first and foremost: I create it the way I would want to use it with user-friendliness in mind.

ScamShare (a weekend project) [free to use] ... although email platforms are
now very good at picking up keywords, I would search google to see if these
emails were even being mentioned anywhere, because I had read something about
people being scammed out of their life savings.. and I wonder: how are people
still falling for this? Where can I go to see if this email is really a scam?
I'd search keywords and nothing was coming up. So this was created to help
people identify keywords and types of emails as scam.

* Notes: If I can expose scammers and attract a whole community of people willing to help do the same thing, than maybe we can combat this epidemic. Billions of emails are sent every year. Why? Because its apparently still working. If 100,000 emails leads to 1 person being scammed and their savings being wiped out, that is probably a success to a scammer. * The same editor idea came from MyPost, which led to the idea of ScamShare -- a place where anyone could submit information about scammers without actually signing up for anything. Just post it and be done with it. No long registration process.. share the info you have!

Call Me Private (2-3 months project): Every day with the spam and scam calls..
how do I stop it? I realize the best way to stop it was to stop giving out my
own phone number to everyone, except family. What could take its place? What
number could I give to people I still want to do business with? How could I
still make and receive calls? This led me to create a _Virtual Numbers as a
Service_.

* Notes: The ScamShare project actually led me to come up with this idea along with the fact that my phone was ringing every morning nonstop. Since I've been using Call Me Private for my personal and business line, whereas I used to receive upwards of 7-8 calls every morning, I now only receive 1-2 scam calls a day.

Text Me Private (2-3 months project working on it at the same time as its
sister above): To keep the service cheap and simple, I only incorporated calls
into Call Me Private, while Text Me Private numbers strictly handle inbound
and outbound text messages.

* Notes: The idea for this actually came from my brother WHILE I WAS WORKING on Call Me Private. He is always buying throw away phones. He's paranoid about the government spying on him.. I know, sounds crazy, but that's just how he is. Crazy family.. still love them. So I asked him, "How do you use your throwaway phones?" He said that he used them more for texting, which kind of put me to the challenge of: how do I create a virtual phone number for texting?

Be motivated for yourself, not for others, and that helps you to keep going.
Tell one or two people who seem interested in using it or will beta test for
you so they can hold you accountable for actually getting it done.

~~~
codesternews
Thanks a lot.

------
nunez
__Plan something to look forward to. __

Whether that 's a vacation, a long bike ride or a day of nothin' but Netflix,
planning something in advance does a few things:

1\. It gives you a personal goal to look forward to that you'll know you hit
as long as you're patient.

2\. It gives you a span of "work hard" time that you know will expire, and

3\. It gives you something fun to do in the future!

That's how I keep my head sane!

~~~
ralmeida
Makes total sense. In fact, there’s a book called The Now Habit by Niel Fiore
which advogates this structure (“guilt-free play”), which I can recommend.

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togusa2017
I have been in this boat for the past one year. What worked for was make small
goals and write it down and finish it and stop thinking about the final goal.
Just keep ur head down and finish goals and take rest.

