What kind of mental attitude do you have to finish a project

Question

I normally work on projects alone.

When I start a project, I make very good progress quickly. But when I realise that I have got some success, the projects starts becoming bigger in my mind. The pictures of success, of things after release start cluttering my mind and then I find it very difficult to work anymore. I find myself procastinating. Finishing the project becomes a really tough job. Many times things stop just before the finishing line.

Do you face this problem? What is your strategy for finishing what you have started?

Answer 1

Check The Cult of Done Manifesto. It really works for me.

Answer 2

Deadlines and Satisfaction in Completing a Project are usually my motivation.

Generally annoying in-house-customers and nosy management are actually deterrents.

Answer 3

Happens all the time.

I have to mentally encourage myself to finish what I'm working on every morning. Sometimes I'll switch from project to project to keep things fresh. I'll also visit sites like this to help reinvigorate my desire for my craft.

Answer 4

I have this problem all the time.

I usually solve this by breaking down the problem into independent smaller ones. If I just tell myself "I'm going to finish the program," I'll never finish it. If I concentrate on just one area at a time, and design the program so that each part is useful on its own and independent from the others, I am much more productive.

Answer 5

The determination to see things through to their completion and not get side-tracked.

Answer 6

One thing that really helps is to focus on finishing what's on your plate before starting new features. Make sure all the bugs are fixed and the things you're concentrating on are fully implemented before moving on, or you tend to end up with a big project with a million hard tasks left to do.

Answer 7

Make yourself accountable in some way.

Tell your friends or if you're really brave announce it on some website related to your project.

Answer 8

Many times I have had this issue. Generally the way this gets resolved is the question of whether or not the person paying for my skills wants to keep giving me money to fix what may be cosmetic bugs and/or discover problems rather than letting me start on something else that is more worthy of my time and attention.

It can also help to have a different idea of why something is called done:

• Hard deadline - As in there is this trial starting on date x and you have to be done before that.
• No high priority bugs remain - Some places may not want to devote resources to bugs with a priority of level 3-5.
• Customer is happy with current result - This is rather rare but sometimes it happens. The ability to leave well enough alone can be useful here.
• Other projects are now higher priority - Kind of like the second choice but the idea here is that if noone is working on a project, isn't it done?

It also helps to avoid thinking like a perfectionist and wanting ideal software rather than real world software.

Answer 9

You need to set a deadline and then meet the deadline, regardless of whether all the 'required' features are implemented or not. If you are continually checking in code that is usable, then this shouldn't be a problem.

Answer 10

Eliminate all TODO's before you move on to other tasks. Looking at a zillion TODO's is not motivating. Knowing that your project is healty helps a lot on motivation to finishing it.

Answer 11

It happens to me too. Working with more people, at least 1 helps. Also I keep myself motivated trying to do things in new ways or improving something on the program. But this is totally true, the last mille is the hardest one.