Programmers, for different reasons, always work on side projects. some of us want to learn something new and provide a proof of concept that he/she knows a technology or a tool, others work on ideas that help people and maybe get some money, but It’s known for a fact that few of us finish their side projects, and for a while I had these problems too, a lot of ideas in my head that made me juggle between different projects. finally, I created this five steps recipe that made me finish and release my first side project
1. Delete Other unfinished side projects:
Yeah, you read it well, delete all the other unfinished side projects, the problem starts with when you say I’ll finish the other project and get back to this one, but you never go back and you usually end up with two unfinished side projects and the cycle keeps going. Finally, I found this solution, that’s a little bit extreme. By starting a new side project, you have to delete the previous one if it’s unfinished, that’s meaning you can’t go back to it, and pretty much after the work you’ve done on it, deleting it won’t be an easy step. In the end, you’ll decide to finish the project in hand rather than deleting it and start a new one.
2. Don’t start immediately
When a new idea pops up in your head, you just run to your computer and start building it, after a while, you lose your interest in the idea, and eventually, you’re not excited anymore to get that idea built. The solution here is to give the idea a little time before start building it, after that, if you still interested in that Idea, then start building it. There are better chances here that you’ll finish building it.
3. Talk about your side project
Sometimes you start building a side project because you want to learn a new technology/tool, or because you had an idea and said this is the idea that will make you your own boss. but after a while you find the hard truth, the idea isn’t worth it or the tool that you’ll learning doesn’t have a bright feature. By talking to the people about your idea before/while building it you’ll figure such truths earlier, and you’ll save time. At the opposite side, if you figured out that your idea worth building or that the technology you’re learning has a bright feature, then you’ll be far more motivated to finish what you’re building.
4. Don’t go big, always go home
So now, you don’t have any other side projects, you still excited about your project and you still want to build with motivation. please define the feature that your project will have before start building it because we all know how it’s when want to build just a small thing and then keep adding to it and eventually It’s never done.
Defining the features you want your project to have and sticking with them is a great tip to get you to finish your project. of course, you can add other feature later, but not when you’re building the project. always go home.
5. Set a deadline and take it seriously
when you’re working on some client project, you take it very seriously with a deadline and a working hours routine, but when you move to work on your side projects you just go messy, no deadline, no working hours routine. Setting a strict deadline with you trying to keep it is a way to guarantee the project will be finished.
Final Words
following these 5 tips have made me finish and release MyResolutions project and I can guarantee that It will help you get your side project finished 💪 or Deleted 😂.