After my last post (How I became a senior javascript developer with personal projects), I received a good question that got me thinking:
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This awesome and very current image passed my LinkedIn stream. It applies to the very topic of finishing :
One rule I've learned: either do a project to learn, or do it to ship. Never combine both reasons.
Olá Alfonso tudo bem?
Loved what you said at the end. I think that's the true spirit of Open Source.
I do have a question though, since you mentioned to list out the requirements for a project, how to not get overwhelmed when you see that there's too much to do on the project?
It happens to me more than I'd like to admit ha.
This happened to me a lot before. To day, I use to write down everything that I need, and then I divide the project in releases. At the beginning, I tackle a lot of things for the "future" release, and for the "first release" I take onlywhat is very necessary. The first release is far from good but at least it's a working system. Then I iterate over and over with the exact same process. You grow step by step, and If you want to take a break after a release, do it and you will come back with a lot of new ideas, energy...
By doing this I have a lot of benefits, and one very important (of course keep the motivation and so one), but I boosted my creativity!
Awesome feedback bro <3
If you need to create a lot of things to start any project, you can automate the scaffolding process using Yeoman, Slush, or plopjs!
These tools can help you <3
Thanks a lot for the advice 😁
It's also worth noting that you shouldn't judge yourself if you don't feel like working on side projects. This is the same thing they teach you when you start exercising too, or trying to do anything out of "discipline" that you don't necessarily care about (at least initially).
Perfect!
Being a good practice does not mean being mandatory!
Nice work! I don't often leave comments on others' posts, but the "share" section of this article flows really well with a list of resources I compiled in one of my own articles. I think it's useful for anyone interested in this post, so I'll copy and paste that section here so people don't have to click away:
There are a lot of platforms to post your project to for free. The ones that have worked best for my JavaScript-based repo (in order) are r/javascript and r/webdev on Reddit, Cooperpress- which runs the the biggest coding email newsletters (contact here), Dev.to, Hada News, Echo JS, Hacker News, Product Hunt, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Lobsters is an invitation-only community that I don't have an in with yet, but you can post there as well if you do. If your repo is JavaScript-based like mine, you can also post to JavaScripting once you reach 80 stars. Even interacting with other users' repos on GitHub through contributions/stars/follows can lead to visits to your own repo. Don't overdo it with GitHub interactions though; you'll get flagged or banned or spam.
Nice tips!
Thanks for sharing your content awesome here <3
Same to you :)
I really appreciate the way you share your opinions and put yourself outside of comfort zone, it's a non-return path to grow as a person and professional.
Thanks for this amazing second post! Keep growing.
Thanks bro! <3
If I could add one thing, especially if you're working on it during your nights/weekends/free time, always always always end your working session with writing out the first Todo item to get yourself started next time. I personally manage this with a Trello board but even a simple sticky note could work.
One of the biggest killers of my personal projects has been simple loss of momentum and not remembering how to jump back in.
Awesome tips <3
This awesome! I've been feeling the same in terms of side projects (I have 1) and also I want to push myself to write an article in english about serverless and some other cool stuff I've seen in re:invent for the last 4 years but the point is to include a project where people can put hands on.
Muchas gracias Alfonso (asumiendo hablas español y no portugues)
Gracias <3
Writing in English is very awesome!
Send me the article when you publish :)
Afonso, congratulations for your post and greetings from São Paulo. For me it's hard to follow the next steps of my "great ideas" due to an always present procrastination over my shoulders. I'll try to do some of your sugestions to get the things done.
Procrastination is difficult for all of us...
Try to start "slowly"... and try to get better little by little <3
Afonso, teu Ingles ta otimo! Couldn't even tell it was just your second English article.
Thank you for writing this! I'm someone who struggles to get my own projects up and running, but this was incredibly motivating.
Out of curiosity, what makes you a "Former full-time CSS evangelist"?
Thanks <3
what makes you a "Former full-time CSS evangelist"?
Basically I focused 100% of my time with CSS content creation (to help the Brazilan community). Writing articles, record videos, etc...
Nice article! What I find really helps my motivation is a Trello board, with only a few things in a Sprint Backlog loss list - 3, tops. Have only 1 item in the In Progress list at a time and give yourself discussion notes as you go.
Finally moved it to a Complete list. So satisfying when you always have a short to-do list and a long completed list!
Wow... Awesome tips <3
There are a lot of important things here,
We don't need to worry about attacks from other developers, serious developers don't do it and we need to respect just serious developers
It is a most important thing about open source projects and because it we got to where we are now.
Motivation can be a problem, is hard to keep it high, but sometimes we don't need motivation, we just need discipline.
Thanks for your text.
Thanks for your feedback!
Your tip about discipline is awesome!
Thanks a lot for share <3
Great post, it's such an important topic!
I'm convinced that the key is to be able to work without motivation. It doesn't mean that you don't need motivation in general, it means that there will be days when you simply don't feel motivated.
Consistency is the key.
You have to show up.
Every. Single. Day.
You have to create the right environment for it. Some would call it a transformative environment.
You have to organize your days, your environment in a way so that you don't need the motivation to work on your side project. You simply fall into the right place to do so.
How to achieve this?
One way is creating a daily routine. I know exactly that Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning at 8:30 I write for 25 minutes for my blog. No matter what. If I don't feel like it? Who cares? I just start writing and then keep writing. I have been posting for more than two years every single week. I apply this technique to many things.
Another way to do so is to have an accountability partner. Every night I decide on 3 important things I'll do the next day and send it to my accountability partner. Then the next evening before sending the new 3 things, I also report on how I performed. It is motivating, not to fail to do what I committed to. I also share weekly and monthly goals.
In the beginning, I tended to share goals that were not stretching, things that I would have done anyway. Like on Tuesday evening, I wrote that well, I'm gonna work on my next post. Of course, because Wednesday is coming and on Wednesday morning, I write! So, I started to write more specific goals, like finishing this and that part of the post or to make the necessary registrations for my side project. To figure out an integration between my mailing list provider and AWS, etc.
These things helped me so much to become a finisher. End of July, I decided to go live with Daily C++ Interview by the end of next month and I did. Well, I published the article about it on 2nd September, but that's only because that's my habit. To post on every Wednesday.
After all, we are people of habit.
I must say, your English is excellent
heheh... Thanks!
I'm still studying <3
Great works dude! I really like your ideas :)
After reading your post, im planing to grab my side projects which suspended because of my working plan 😂
Awesome!
Let's go (and share)!
Hi Afonso, That's amazing
Loving to see how you motivate yourself, and I do myself practice many of the elements discussed here!
Thaaankkkss <3
Thanks for the tips, they're really useful!
I'm facing problems to start my side projects but I'm going to consider these points in the next time :)
Wow...
Awesome <3
Great Post saving for later to try some of that tips you suggested! Thanks for sharing
Thaanks <3
This is awesome..good read
Thanks <3
Nice tips, I'm following similar approaches for my personal projects, but how do you manage to find time for it? it's hard while working full time.
Thanks! I try to do a little after or before my "full-time work"..
And a few on the weekends..
Spend 30m ou 1h a day is awesome for start and improve your projects <3
Very decent post and really good advice! By the way, your projects look fantastic and they’re amazing inspiration on what you can do with simple ideas! Keep up the good work.
Thanks <3