DonationCoder.com Software > The Getting Organized Experiment of 2007

Here is my problem

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vaidab:
I use the following trick for my personal projects:

I set a personal project for each day of week:
Monday - learning italian
Tuesday - programming ajax
Wednesday - programming ajax
Thursday - reading book x
Friday - writing poem/book

Then I try to book each day about an hour for my personal projects (by putting them on my calendar) and then just do it. If there are days I'm skipping my projects due to a lot of work it's ok, they are there for the next week. I find this trick useful for projects that have continuity and no deadline.

app103:
The problem is I have done that, even set alarms to go off that say "work on this project now" and at first I just pushed it to ring again later, and then dismissing it till next time it's scheduled to ring, and then eventually just removed the alarms totally from most of them.

If I just don't feel like it I just can't bring myself to do it.

I can't even schedule a tiny part of a project to get it done.

My ebook site is a perfect example...tried to make myself add 5 posts a day...worked for first day...didn't do anything more for weeks.

Tried changing that to one post a day...it has taken at least a month to get 3 posts done.

In 3 months I have managed to make 18 posts. At this rate it will take me about 5.5 years to catch up with the content that belongs on the site...and then there is the new content too.

When I think about it I want to cry, but I just can't seem to make myself want to do it.

The rest of my personal projects are in the same sad state or worse, in terms of desire to work on them.

And things have been like this for over a year.

I seemed to have lost touch with my purpose. And that doesn't leave me with a very good feeling inside.

nudone:
i think you have some difficult questions to ask yourself - with answers that are probably just as difficult.

i'm speaking as an expert because i have exactly the same kind of thoughts that you describe (as you well know already).

i have a list of projects that i 'think' i want to do. the fact that i won't live to be 1003 means i won't be able to do the majority of these projects. also, i haven't the energy to do most of these projects. and a harder truth is that i probably just shouldn't be even thinking about such projects for one reason or another.

i think you need to meditate on 'why' you think these projects are worth doing. are they worth doing? are they worth the time and energy. i may say i want to do several projects - i may promise people that i'll do them - but they won't happen. so why go through this process time and time again - thinking of a project, getting excited about it, and then just becoming annoyed by not actually finishing it (or even starting it), AND then after that, beating myself up every time i remember that i've let yet another project fall into the pit of despair.

i'll not stop thinking of new projects and nor will you. the exciting part is thinking of something new, planning it out in your head, seeing the completed article in your mind, feeling the admiration you'll receive from you imaginary audience. that's all done in an instance and it feels really nice. drudging through the actual process of working on the project may seem like an enjoyable experience whilst you still haven't released the project on the world - you can still imagine what a brilliant response you'll get at the end of it so it all seems worth it.

then you finish the first stage of whatever it is and gain some feedback - it's almost certainly going to be positive feedback - and you think how fantastic everything is and it was all worth it. then the next day comes and you realise that the world hasn't changed one single bit. that little thrill you received has now waned. so you think to yourself, this isn't how it was meant to be, this project hasn't lived up to my expectations afterall - i know what i must do - i must start a completely different project that will actually fulfill my expectations this time around. and so the circle is made and you carry on down the loop of forever seeking a new hit to crave you addiction.


okay, that has obviously stated what happens in my head and it may well be nothing like what you are experiencing. but it looks the same to me.

solution: are you expecting the wrong thing from these projects. are they something you'd do in total isolation without any recognition from anyone else - if not, then does your audience really satisfy you. are you doing it for the benefit of others or for yourself - that will obviously determine a great deal in whether these projects are worth doing or not.

my projects? are they so special that the world will one day mourn that they were never completed - not one bit. so, i'd say, don't do anything unless the process is satisfying in itself or you think that the eventual result with change your life in a positive way.

vaidab:
Here's an article with some tricks to make yourself do things: http://pigpog.com/node/1462

mouser:
My experience is that deadlines are very very important when you actually want to finish a project, so i do think you need to figure out a way to add deadlines to your projects in a way you can live with.

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