4 Tricks to Actually Finish Your Programming Projects
Intro
I assume most programmers yourself and myself included struggle to finish projects, whether it be from too large of a scale, procrastination, not enough time, or just another reason entirely. Today this guide will walk you through 4 tricks to actually finish your programming projects so you can feel like you’ve done something. Most of these tricks can be applied to more than just programming but still work in the programming world. These tricks are also not proven to work for everyone you just have to find the right mix and style of these to make it work for you. So without further ado let’s jump right in.
Trick #1 - Tell Others
It’s been proven that telling others that you will do something, whether it be exercising, or making something like a painting, improves the probability that you will do it. You will feel like you need to please the people you told and that you have to meet the expectations. This also holds you accountable so if you don’t complete it there will be more of a consequence than just not finishing it.
The more people you tell the better, family and friends are great people to tell, it doesn’t matter if they are into programming either. You can also tell people online, like on forums, or other places.
Trick #2 - Enjoy It
If you are making a project you should enjoy it, otherwise your mind tries to find excuses to not work on it as you strive for dopamine (Dopamine is a neuro-transmitter that makes you feel like you can do things and feel excited), so if you work on something you like you will have more dopamine and want to do it more.
So pick the type of project you enjoy making, web development, games, etc. but also pick programming languages you enjoy working with.
Trick #3 - Timing
Sometimes you can feel stressed with a deadline you put on yourself.
- Maybe you are working on a commercial website to give to somebody on Fiverr and you have one day to work on it, but there is a lot to do in that one day.
A little stress can be good to prevent procrastination and get things done, but too much can make you shut down and try to get away from doing it - relating back to Trick #2 - Enjoy It.
Give yourself a reasonable time to complete your project, if you are making a small game treat it like a game jam and give yourself a week or two. However giving yourself too much time can also cause problems, it can make you procrastinate thinking you will always have time to do it later and you just end up forgetting about it and moving on.
So, you need to strike a balance between the two, making sure you don’t procrastinate but also don’t shut down from stress.
Trick #4 - Milestones
Make milestones to break down tasks into smaller bits to make it seem less daunting. This can reduce stress and give you that good ol’ dopamine when you finish tasks. This can easily be done with many different softwares, or even a MarkDown file in your programming application, like README.md. You can set it up like this ->
# Project Name
- [ ] Large Task Name
- [ ] Small Task Name
- [ ] Small Task Name
- [ ] Large Task Name
- [ ] Small Task Name
Note: You can fill out the check boxes by putting an x in them -> [x]
This builds it up as you complete the project. Have fun with it, it doesn’t need to be boring as you will keep coming back to it.
Make sure the smaller tasks aren’t too difficult, they are supposed to be simple and quick to do, like a hero section on a portfolio. A good option to make nice looking milestones/to-do’s with more customization to your needs is -> https://monday.com/.
Hopefully these tricks can get you setup for a successful time programming or anything in general and actually getting things done, remember to find a balance of not making it too stressful but not procrastinating. If you find some tricks work better when paired with others, go for it, not everyone is the same.
If you have any tricks make sure to post them as I can add them to this guide for future help.
Hope you have a nice day 👋!
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