
Ask HN: How do you manage your personal projects? - cconstantin
I&#x27;m a full-time software dev and also working on some ideas in my private time. Lately I find it difficult to manage different personal projects I&#x27;m working on. I have way too many ideas of things that should exist in the world and it seems I&#x27;ll never be able to complete any of them in the available time. How do you prioritize your ideas, what should be a good process to finalize various personal projects?
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bckygldstn
I have a trello board with a card for each idea. I have 4 lists:

\- Braindump: New ideas go here as I think of them.

\- Graveyard: Archive of bad ideas.

\- Research: Potentially good ideas that need fleshing out.

\- Ready: Ideas where I've thought through and documented market fit,
timeline, tech stack, marketing, or whatever the project needs. And crucially:
first thing to do when I start the project, which makes it easier to get
going.

When I have free time I look down my Ready list and pick something
interesting, and I've done the prep already to get stuck in straight away.

~~~
steve_taylor
I find Trello extremely useful to organise my own projects. I have a board
similar to the one you describe, cataloging my ideas and their various stages,
and also a board per project that I start building, which is typically
organised as a traditional left-to-right agile board.

~~~
ljk
how many columns do you usually have on Trello? Whenever I try to use Trello I
end up having too many columns

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ponyous
Was just discussing this yesterday with a colleague. I create new note for
every idea I have. I explain it to any detail I feel at that moment.

I also add idea in a spread sheet, and then I rate them with the following
criteria:

\- Time needed

\- Enjoyment

\- Potential income

\- Career impact

This makes it easy to see which one you are supposed to be working on. My
current side project is the highest rated idea on the list.

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mabynogy
When I have an idea I append it to my "idea.md" text file.

I only start something when I know some people that could be interested in
(mostly to have feedbacks).

I do many projects at the same time (3 now). Sometimes the projects can
converge.

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hankewi
When I have an idea I make a quick JayPad (its a tool I think is a perfect
solution for this “problem”) about it. I write down everything I need to get
out of my head and structure it along the lines: Problem, Solution (+tech
specifics), Business Model, Competition. After that I invite someone which I
think shares the problem and which might be interested in working on the
solution together and we just bounce ideas.

If the idea lasts this test we specify next steps and just start working on a
prototype right away. Honestly: I am juggling way to many projects - but I
just love it and I cannot help it. By getting someone on board right off the
bat I have managed to force myself into getting things done quicker. This
process at least secures that I get stuff done and I have successes from time
to time :-)

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T-zex
Get married, get kids. Have no time left. No projects, no cry.

~~~
w_t_payne
I'm married with two kids. I did my personal project for two years while I was
commuting on the train in the mornings. (too tired in the evenings generally).

~~~
xem
you're not supposed to marry two kids.

~~~
ionised
Not with that attitude.

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_ao789
Very interesting question actually. I personally have this problem as well and
find that focusing on revenue streams first somewhat resolves the problem. At
least for me.. It sounds like you need to get a partner and throw everything
into a pot and pick the most lucrative items first.

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12s12m
Sort your ideas based on the basis of most potential or most value. Pick the
first. Stick with it for at least 3 months.

~~~
w_t_payne
My personal project has been running for about 2.5 years now. Still nowhere
near finished. :-)

~~~
12s12m
Awesome :) Have you started monetizing it yet? For me that is something that
should be done in the first 3 months. That gives you an idea of how valuable
it is to others. If it is giving a steady stream of revenue then awesome.

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tmaly
I also work full-time in software development. I had this problem of deciding
on what idea to work on. If you have one idea that solves a problem you have,
scratching your own itch is good. If not, I would look for an idea that solves
a problem you know people have. If you are still not sure, signup for
something like OppsDaily.com newsletter, it sends out a daily email to
subscribers of a problem someone is willing to pay to be solved.

For me, I chose to scratch my own itch. I work on a food side project called
[https://bestfoodnearme.com](https://bestfoodnearme.com) but my time is
extremely limited to a few hours a week. I keep a sketch pad to write down my
ideas for the site. If I have ideas related to other projects, I write them
down in a more general pad apart from the sketchpad that is focused only on
the food site.

I put constraints on which features and ideas I need to work on. If there is a
bug in the basic functionality of a project, I tend to work on that first. For
new features, I will only consider them if I get feedback from at least 3
different unrelated people that mention the same feature to me.

I always plan out the night before which tasks I will work on the next day.
That way I can hit the ground running.

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dorian-graph
I have a file `projects/idea.md` which is a template. I make a new directory
with a copy of this file and then fill it out. I've used this and completed a
couple of small side-projects and I'm tracking a ton of others. I add things I
come across, archive things if someone beats me to it, etc. idea.md content:

# Initial thought

Date:

Location:

Inspiration:

Solution:

Why is it worth the effort?

Why is it not worth the effort?

What already exists?

Difficulty:

# Log

17-05-15:

\- ?

17-06-30:

\- ?

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tedmiston
Just start one, then only work on one personal project at a time until it's
done.

~~~
thinkMOAR
yes the above, and don't read HN too often on a day, you'll get more ideas
again...

~~~
tedmiston
A good point to build on what you said is "don't overthink each small
decision" — build the very minimum possible you need (or slightly less) for
now. No need to research and have the best component and most efficient for
every step. All that matters at this stage is getting it running end to end.

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andrewchambers
Don't do more than one at the same time - its how you get no results for any.

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yourstruly33
Help: I haven't had an idea for a project in a long time. It might be because
of the shitty job I have but I really can't find one even to bear my daily
work. Advice on how to get them back?

~~~
12s12m
One tip that would probably help you find new and interesting ideas: Try to
read ask HN threads, shown HN threads (the new ones). Just the other day some
guy posted about how he could get notified of remote tasks. I think that is a
good problem to solve. You'll find many like these once you start reading
comments.

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karrotwaltz
Are you doing this for money, or for learning maybe? I think defining your
goal is really important in order to work toward it.

I'm doing projects for learning, so I only care about adding new useless
features that are technically interesting to me, without a time limit.

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SJetKaran
Only thing that I can say right now is that I use org-mode. The way I manage
my personal projects is constantly changing for the past one year. I'm trying
out different tools, workflows, etc. Haven't come to an ideal setup yet.

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grumph
I use zim (but planning to switch to org-mode which seems a lot more
powerful), but any good note taking software should do it.

I put most of the things in my homepage with a tree of check-boxes (tasks)
divided in 3 sections:

\- To-plan : idea dumping, less than 5 words or just an URL for example

\- To-do : tasks to do

\- Urgent : tasks with a close deadline, should contain not many tasks, or be
empty if possible.

When I start a project (moving a task from "to plan" to "to do"), I add a page
with multiple mostly static info on it, like a small summary, final goals,
commands I need to be up as fast as I can, important URLs.

When I add tasks to a project, I try to make them _as small as possible_
(maximum a few hours for a task), most of the tasks are broken into multiple
sub-tasks, that sometimes lead to a new project. Like with git, commits
(tasks) should be atomic and when done it must still compiles (no "work in
progress" state when I'm done with a task). It's also easy then to find common
sub-tasks or sub-projects.

The first tasks on a project are almost always research, compare the solutions
to pick the best, prepare and document the working environment, and are often
longer than the rest.

New tasks/projects go on top on my tree, so when I have to pick one, I read my
list from bottom to up. I sometimes rearrange sub-trees to prioritize them.

When I want to do things, I pick tasks I will work on with these criteria :

\- What I'm motivated to do right now (most important actually)

\- How useful it will be (for other projects, to ease my life, ...)

\- How fast it will be, regarding the free time I might have in the near
future.

That way, my (too many) projects all go forward at the same time, I optimize
the time I spend on them (with "how to get up to work" instructions), and I
always have something to do that I like. Some of my projects get done from
time to time. But most do not and it's OK, because I always come up with new
ideas so there is always things to add, and the project is never really over.

I don't personally need it, but one way to be stimulated with this flow is to
keep your done tasks checked, in an archive page to not pollute your main page
for example, and with dates if you are organized, so you can look back at what
you achieved from time to time.

PS: I think it's close to GTD, but I didn't take time to read about it to be
sure.

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Numberwang
GTD

