mogery

same. I have made so many prototypes of things

i'm not sure. what i do know is i often stop working on a project if it feels like i'm not making any progress or the next step feels overwhelming/difficult/tedious

some people say it helps to find some part of it you know you can work on and make forwards progress with to try and get in the flow of it again. i think this has worked for me in the past? yeah it has i think

i'm pretty bad at this too and there's no magic solution, though if i had to pick one thing i'd say maintaining a to-do list for every project is essential for me. lack of structure is my main cause of not getting things done, so putting in extra work and thought into something as simple as a list can be pretty powerful.

in case it helps, here's how i think about it:

• use it to let yourself chew through the project one item at a time. now it's lots of little different projects with better variety.

• don't dwell on the size of the project or how much's left to do, that's the list's job.

• cross off the items as soon as you finish them. this can make work surprisingly more rewarding.

• i like to move finished items to a separate section instead of deleting them, and near the end of a project they magically gain a gravitational pull which helps me towards the finish line. having some perspective on how far you've come is pretty good.

• if you see a bug or a feature idea while working, add it to the list and go back to what you were doing before to avoid breaking flow.

• have a section of fun tasks for when you're having trouble starting. even something useless that doesn't make forward progress is great if it gets you back into it

• if an evil item is stuck on the list for a long time, delete it and rewrite it. split out and simplify the first step to be as stupidly simple as possible (something like "create the file"), and actually convince yourself it's an independent task with no strings attached.

• a task like "figure out what tasks this bigger task is made of" is valid and worth writing down.

• have a section for "nice-to-haves" you can easily ignore to scope down and still feel good about it.

• have a separate list of all the projects you're working on and try and keep it maintained (especially with the next point)

• have separate sections for tasks that are a priority, and tasks that you're actually focusing on (for better or worse).

• take some time and think if there are any other kinds of mental workloads you could delegate to a list to clear your head a bit.

and here are some general opinions i have about work:

• don't beat yourself up if things don't go your way or you avoid working for a while. it's not a conscious or logical thing, but i've found that if i get frustrated at not doing a task, those emotions end up reattaching onto to the work and make it even harder to get back into! thankfully positivity and being excited work the same way, so try and force a good attitude and celebrate each little success and it'll start becoming true.

• side-projects or less-useful-tasks can be fine in the right context! finishing stuff is great but i like to build stuff just for the fun of building it, and having fun is fun! obviously don't give up on everything and keep trying your best when you want to get something done, but don't feel guilty every time it doesn't happen. honestly i think it's pretty normal to have far more prototypes than finished works.

• try to be objective and honest with yourself instead of optimistic. it's too easy to set unrealistic expectations without a good understanding of where you're actually standing at the moment, even if those expectations seem frustratingly simple. it can feel like a step backwards sometimes when things are bad, but accepting without guilt or despair what's actually within your immediate reach is a great step to start getting back on track.

• a lot of us have adhd or something lol. it's a powerful change of perspective to realise that getting randomly stuck doesn't have to be a personal failing and instead we just gotta find approaches that align with our illogical and sometimes uncompromising brains. definitely something i think everyone should look into.

hope this helps! i partially wrote this to motivate myself so hope it helps me too!

Team up with someone who is good at staying focused and moving things forward.