Top 5 DEV Comments from the Past Week

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@indoor_keith has some really valuable thoughts on finishing projects

Keith Charles • Oct 31 '20

I think most of us has this problem to some extent. When it's our own projects, we have no accountability and no one but ourselves to tell us to stay on track. I have a sort of checklist that I go by in order to stay on track with my projects.

Be the User

Whatever the project is, make sure it's for something you'd actually use and benefit from. If the project is just another note taking app or quiz app, chances are you aren't going to care if you end up scrapping it halfway through. I could start a graveyard with all the unfinished quiz apps I've never finished 😬. Pick something that you can't wait to finish and start using yourself.

Break Down the Tasks

Create a trello account. Use Github Projects. Heck, get some sticky notes and a whiteboard if you want to get old school with it. Using some form of project management, even if you're the only person going to work on it, has multiple benefits:

breaking down your tasks make accomplishing a single task much easier and is good for morale
having a history of accomplishments is great to look back on while your in the middle of it all. Shows you're progressing, another morale booster
prevents feature creep. figure out the features you want right now and document them. these are the tasks that need to get done, anything you come up with afterwards is a 2.x feature and is none of your concern at this point.

Talk About What It Does, Not What It WILL Do

A lot of the time we like to talk about all the stuff we're going to add to our app idea to our friends, and while it's good to think about all the cool bells and whistles we plan on donning on our brain child, we end up digging our own motivational grave. By talking about what we WILL do, we're setting expectations on ourselves and creating witnesses at the same time. When we end up not being able to add that feature, it can be demoralizing because now you have to either explain the app won't have that feature to your friends or just completely separate yourself from the friendship altogether! (but most likely the former 😉)

Talk about what you've already got working on your app instead! You just finished a really cool feature of the app that you're proud of? Go out there and gloat about it! This keeps your interest on the app at the front of your mind without pigeonholing you to uncertainties. This also adds buzz about your project and your friends may even become invested and hold you accountable to your work (that's a good thing)

Get Public About It

Don't just talk to your friends, let us in the community know what you're getting done, too! We're all trying to work through all of our collective procrastinations. If we see our peers getting through it, it can help us push through, as well. This motivation can be cyclical and come right back to you.

Understand that there is no such thing as FINSHED

In this day an age, we don't finish anything. Tech is always evolving and mutating. Your goal is to get to production not to the colloquial finish line. Get the MVP done first. Rave about your accomplishment. Then get your 1.x done. Rave about your accomplishment. Go on a mini vacation. Then think about what 2.x will look like. Wash Rinse, and repeat.

Well this ended up being more of a whole dang post rather than a response. I may turn this into a post myself, but I still wanted to make sure I got these points over to you. The last point I say is the most important one of them all. We need to redefine what "finished" means to us to be more relative to our industry. I hope any of this helps! I understand this stuff is way easier said than done, but I'm an aaaawful procrastinator, and if I can finish projects, I KNOW anyone can.

This is a win worth celebrating, @jmau111. A11yship has to start somewhere — and this is a great spot to do just that!

jmau111⚡⚡⚡ • Oct 30 '20

I've started to run a11y tests before any build/deploy, I do care about a11y, but I still got a lot to learn in that area.

It's not bullet proof, but it's a start.

Welcome to DEV, @kichi! Sounds like you're making great progress in your coding journey.

Kichi Deavy • Nov 4 '20 • Edited

[deleted]

Great job with Hacktoberfest, @dawntraoz! So glad you found the celebration motivating and useful.

Alba Silvente Fuentes • Nov 2 '20

Hacktoberfest was an amazing way to start contributing in new issues and discover new tech stack 😍 Now we need to follow our journey in open source!! Thanks a lot for the organization and motivation 💜

I'm curious about what is the next event 🦸😏

Thanks for the tip on where to find illustrations, @joeczubiak 👀