

Ask HN: How do you finish what you start? - Who828

After reading HN for months, I have a huge backlog of books, courses and articles to read. 
Everyday I discover a new interesting book/course on the web/HN and I am tempted to take it but that means I gave less attention to the courses/books I am already taking.<p>I think in the last few months, I have taken lot of courses (Udacity, edX, coursera etc) but seldom I have gone past the 2nd or 3rd week lectures/assignments. Its same with books as well, I can't follow the book till the end.<p>I am sure I can't be the only person facing these issues, can you folks advice me on what to do? How do I tackle these issues?<p>Also, have you ever faced such problems? If so I would like to hear about your issues and how you overcame them.<p>Thanks
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avmich
One of the tricks is to have what you're doing - or what you're going to do -
really small. This way you don't have enough time to become bored. For this
approach to work, you need to be able to split meaningful projects into still
somewhat meaningful, fun enough but small subprojects.

Another thing is that for many projects you're starting it understanding that
you won't finish it - in one piece of time. You're going to start, progress,
reflect on it, do some more - then put it on the shelf for a while. And this
is ok. This allows you to actually boldly start projects which you know you
won't finish - again, in one chunk. For example, I also took several courses
on Coursera etc. and dropped then after a couple of weeks. But they are still
high in my priorities - as soon as I can/want/return to the same subject of
interest, I come back to the courses, reading the material, watching videos
and even doing homework. This at least allows me, when taking that course
second time (if I need to - usually I don't, the primary reason is knowledge,
not the certificate) to feel right at home.

I'd say, don't throw away that list of ideas you developed while working on
something - but check it, choose perhaps something out of it for the new list,
may be you're still interested in some projects mentioned there.

And... you still have to be persistent at times. Don't worry - it's a source
of great feeling when you actually finish something non-trivial - and only you
know how hard it was, and you really learned things from that - and you know
you're better because of that.

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GabrielF00
I'm not very good at finishing projects, but I've gotten much better at
finishing books. Here's what I do: I keep a spreadsheet with all of the books
I've read. I record the number of pages per book and I calculate for the year
how many pages I read a day on average. I only allow myself to add a book to
the list if I finish it. This has definitely given me an incentive to finish
books.

~~~
Who828
Well, I used a similar approach when I was reading SICP. I decided that I
would try to do two problems a day and I got really far (end of 3rd chapter)
but at that time I felt I wasn't understanding things entirely. I also noticed
that I had developed a tendency to search for a solution of the problem before
even attempting to solve it (this was in case of hard problems). So, I stopped
reading SICP because it such an amazing book and I didn't want to ruin the
experience of it by ploughing through.

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SatvikBeri
Structured procrastination tends to work very well for me. Whenever I have
several things I want to do, I choose one as the Most Important Thing that
absolutely must be done. This ensures that I'll finish everything else, while
leaving the Most Important Thing incomplete.

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swanson
1\. While you have an active project, write down each potential project/course
on a piece of paper.

2\. When you finish a project, you can pick a new one. Pick the one you most
want to do from the list. Throw away the list and get a new piece of paper.

3\. Go to 1.

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hdragomir
Because information is so much easily accessible in our days, many people are
facing your problem. The only way to finish something is to stick with it.
That means saying No to other things that might distract you in the meantime.

Good luck and have fun!

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jcla1
Have the same problem as you. I tend to just force myself to stay away from
new opportunities and first finish what I am doing. Sadly this doesn't work so
well for side-projects.

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orangethirty
I simply dont give myself a hard time about unfinished
projects/books/anything. Sometimes I just cant do it. Move on.

