Fighting the urge to switch projects during coding?

Question

I am 22 years old, and I have been in computers since 13 years old and have been programming for the past 3 years. I participate in the CSE program at my local university. I was thinking non-stop about startup ideas and open source projects, but I find it very difficult to stick with this program. I start to code, then when I code, I stop and think about something new, which, I think, can be a great idea. This is normal for programmers. If not, how can I deal with this?

Answer 1

I often have this. You start working on a project that is enthusiastic, passionate, full of great ideas, and then slowly, as you progress, you begin to yearn for something else, want to make a new project, etc.

In my opinion, this is normal. And I think there are good explanations:

• Most of them are connected with the classical rule “80% -20%” ( “Pareto Principle”), which, in my opinion, is applicable here as well. You develop this wonderful architecture, start coding, everything seems to fit perfectly, you are proud, you feel that you have achieved great success, and then ... boring material comes. You made fun stuff, now you need to correct the mistakes, make minor changes, there are few architectural tasks left, and worst of all: you could do 80% of the project, and the remaining 20% ​​(boring) will still take 80% of your total time. It is depressing. Please give me something new!
• Another reason I can think of is because your little software program is always a lot cooler than it sounds. You think you came up with this wonderful architecture, an incredibly cool user interface - you name it, and it all turns out to be just another software.

I do not think that you are alone on this. And although writing a To To list might help a bit (like some others), he doesn't always get rid of that feeling :-)

Answer 2

Write a to-do list for your current project.
When completing the current project, think / plan the next.

I'm halfway through the development of ChgDoc and want to finish and get started with Twipler . So I wrote a "todo" list for ChgDoc, and when this is completed, I will start my next project, which is still in the planning stage. Maybe by the time I start the next project, I will go out of love for this idea and move on to something else.

Answer 3

I would say yes (well for me anyway). Sometimes things get boring - you just have to go through the dirt. If the project is really boring, then be sure to leave it - but think about why you chose it in the first place? He satisfied some use cases for you as a consumer. If this were so, and you had reached your goal, otherwise do not ask yourself a question, why not. Another important thing to keep in mind is that if you are at university, completing projects will be a plus in a future recruitment exercise.

Answer 4

Yes, apathy has always been my biggest problem in my programming career. Something that I learned, although from several projects that really led somewhere, is that the feeling of satisfaction that I get from creating something solid, especially if I had to work my way through difficult times, .

I try to remember this when everything becomes rude, that the time and energy that I spend on the boring parts of the project will really improve the feeling of satisfaction that I get in the end. In addition, I believe that the more time and energy I spend performing worldly tasks, the more efficiently I become on them, and thus they take less time to complete, and they become less bored with work. If you have free time between projects, try to think about how you can optimize the process of working on boring parts (using various tools, technologies, and technologies).

Answer 5

It’s not so rare, but if you do not learn how to complete projects, you will never succeed. And an incomplete SW is useless and, finally, a waste of resources - no one can use it. In my career there have always been several projects working in parallel at different stages. But we need to assign priorities and ressources in such a way that everything is done and completed by the deadline (or long deadlines :-)). Otherwise, you must finally close your work, service or even the entire company.

Answer 6

I always thought that this motivation was my brain telling me that it was boring. I'm starting to get distracted easily, and my brain is talking about a new project.

One of the methods that I use is to send me an email containing a dump of ideas. Once it is emailed, it can be sent to the todo folder for further study. This helps reduce stress.