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Discussion on: How you can stay motivated to work on personal projects

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Maxime Moreau

how to not get overwhelmed when you see that there's too much to do on the project?

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!

  • I have an idea, I write it with a label "thinking". But I won't develop it right now. I might develop it in 2 weeks because the label "thinking" stays for a while.
  • I don't really think of this idea because I work for the release ect.
  • Then I might think of this idea and have inspiration to tackle technical issues, have another idea to boost this idea.... Or just maybe I have another better idea to replace it (then I go with the same process, label "thinking...).