Why you won’t finish your side project
Intro
Table of Contents
When we have an idea, we are often very pumped and excited. We want to quickly see that idea come into real life and see how people react to it. The very exciting thing about starting something new is seeing the outcome of that vision. For instance, creating a product that can help engineers debug production issues easily is very exciting because I can imagine how easy the life of a software engineer will be if this product exists. Further, I am also excited about how the engineers will react when they are using the product.
Most of our side-projects do not finish. Because it is a project that you do on the ‘side,’ you may not have the time to work on the product in a short time. We get caught up on other ideas, look back on the old ones, and think that the old ones just don’t turn out to be that great.
In this post, I'd like to talk about why most of us fail to complete our side projects. Some of the reasons are behavioral, some cultural.
Outside of our day-to-day jobs, some of us work on side projects on the side. This is common because working on side projects is a good way for students/employees to accelerate growth of their existing skills or expand into other areas of interest.
However, it's also very common to abandon such projects, and never them through to completion. The reason why most of us fail to complete side projects is down to several factors.
Since personal side projects are optional, we usually don't take it as seriously as our day-to-day jobs. Due to the non-urgent nature of the task, we are also less likely to set up the proper measures in place for the project to succeed.
While I don’t believe it’s absolutely essential for everyone to be working on side projects all the time, working on a personal project will help to enhance your skills in numerous ways. It also provides a great opportunity to explore fields you have a personal interest in. Not to mention, it’s also fun to develop a project from the ground up on an idea you came up with!
Let’s address some typical reasons why we fail to complete side projects. If you’ve tried a side project before, you’re probably guilty of at least one, if not all of these reasons. Have these points in mind the next time you’re starting your next side project and avoid falling for them.
1. You take up large projects 😭
It’s a good thing to dream and have a big goal in your career. But sometimes we need to carefully consider the size of the project we are planning to start.
If the project will span several months to finish, we need to reconsider is it smart to even start this project? If you don’t finish your project usually you will not get too much benefit from it.
There's also the option of creating an MVP (minimum viable product), rather than create the entire project in one go. In this context, MVP means a smaller project (or product) that captures the essential features of your real project. MVP helps you get quicker results and feedback, and make sure you are headed in the right direction.
2. You don't have a deadline ⌛
If you have ever had an important task that didn’t have a deadline, chances are, you put it off… and then put it off some more. Until it became urgent or had a definite due date, you weren’t motivated to complete it.
If you want to get something done, it needs to have a due date.
If you have ever had an important task without a deadline, you know that you keep putting it off.
Todos without a due date will slide.
Work expands to fill the time allotted.
And tasks without a deadline remain undone.
When there is no finish line, you aren’t motivated to complete a task. Moving deadlines can be just as dangerous as no deadline. When a task receives an extension, you’ll likely put it off again.
Before actually starting to work on the project, plan and decide a deadline for your project. And if you weren't able to complete the work on your side project within the deadline, then think about where you went wrong, or whether this project is actually worth pursuing or not.
3. You sweat too much 😰
If you are a perfectionist, you will being pedantic about your project. This will lead to "over-engineering".
Over-engineering refers to scaling an idea beyond its original scope to the point where it becomes a lot more complex and difficult to complete. A shortcoming that many developers will struggle to avoid! Your side project idea may start off with a simple concept, straightforward design, nothing overly complex. Then over time as you plan it out more, the project evolves in complexity.
You just can’t stop yourself from coming up with new features and functionality that will make the project even more awesome than you originally planned! While it’s very common to get carried away with our ideas, it’s important to keep things under control or your project will end up incomplete.
As previously mentioned, you can stick to creating an MVP first. However, defining an MVP is more difficult for a personal side project. After all, it’s your project and no one is pushing you to complete it (most of the time). However, having a list of features that defines your minimum requirements and treating new ideas as extras on a separate list is a good way to prevent over-engineering.
4. You no longer feel that excitement 🔥
If anyone decides to work on a project in their spare time it’s probably something that at least interests them. Perhaps your reason is to grow a portfolio of projects to showcase to potential employers. Or you might want to use a project to develop an application that you know will be useful for others.
What you don’t want your motivation to be is something that appears forced on you.
If you don’t have a good enough reason to be working on the side project, you’ll likely lose motivation and give up on it early. Ask yourself the following questions to determine if you have a good enough reason to be spending time on a side project:
☞ Are you working on this project because it’s something you’re genuinely interested in?
☞ Will you be working with a technology that excites you?
☞ Are you keen to see the end results?
☞ Will you be learning skills that will benefit you in the future?
If your reasons are genuine, you’re more likely to stay motivated throughout the project and won’t give up easily!
5. Abandoning the project for another one ✋
We can all get distracted with shiny new project ideas and as a result abandon our current efforts. While some may have the intention of coming back to the project, it will likely lead to it becoming stale and remaining that way.
I believe the best way to combat the tendency to abandon projects for another is to simply be aware that doing so will likely cause all your projects, present and future, to fail. With this information, it’s now down to your willpower to not abandon your current projects.
Another way to combat this is to have a dedicated place to list your ideas for future projects as you come up with them. This will give you a way to begin planning out your future projects without actually executing the ideas yet.
It’s more of a mental exercise, to allow you to clear your mind from ideas for projects by writing them down or even beginning to plan it out. Although you might be tempted to start on the new idea right away, you can just document them for now and use your notes later to kick start the new project when you’ve completed your current one.
So the advice is, don’t start a new project till you’ve completed a current project. Otherwise, you will have a series of incomplete and failed projects.
6. You don't track progress and celebrate milestones 🎉
Thanks to the human negativity bias, we are hardwired to prioritize negative emotions, experiences and events. It explains why we tend to fixate on our mistakes and flaws, regardless of how minuscule they may be, and why we are notoriously slow to applaud our efforts and celebrate our progress.
Forever focusing on “what’s next?” and obsessing about the finish line is another trait many of us are guilty of. How are we supposed to enjoy the journey, let alone appreciate it if we’re always fast forwarding to the end? It’s like choosing to watch the last ten minutes of a movie with no prior knowledge of how it all started. How can we genuinely appreciate the story?
What we need to realize is that celebrating our victories along the way is an integral part of success. Without these conscious observations of growth and progress, achievement and success have no meaning.
We also don’t want you to miss out on the happy feels, confidence boost and motivational fuel combo that humans notably receive with every order of self-appreciation and acknowledgment of progress.
