Procrastination... and one thing at a time.

[Gambit37]

I have really big problems with starting over-ambitious personal projects and not finishing them. I have at least three main projects (Tomb Raider Xtra, Dungeon Master Codex and Maze of Zagor) in progress which would all still take several more years of spare time to complete. And there are lots of smaller little projects here and there that are also incomplete. And I want to start learning new stuff too.

I love doing creative things like these projects on my computer. It's "me time" where I can lose myself in the creative process. In fact, I've learned that the creative process itself is actually my main enjoyment; it almost doesn't seem to matter if I don't actually finish. Also, a big part of the enjoyment is learning how to do new things, which I love -- but it does seem a bit pointless if I learn something then don't actually release anything that's the result of that learning.

But.... I'm still annoyed with myself for continually starting new projects and not finishing them. Why do I do this? I've read lots of theories about procrastination and perfectionism (the two main enemies of completed projects) and I understand the issues, but I'm no closer to solving these problems. I continue to work on things and never complete them. Part of the problem is the "re-creating" and "improving" of work I've already done -- for example, I must have done 20 different designs for DM Codex over the years.... but have not yet released a working website.... crazy, crazy stuff!!!

Perhaps I should simply work on one project at a time, instead of trying to do too many things? But I get bored very easily, and switching projects helps stop the boredom of working on one thing for too long.

I wonder if anyone else can relate to this and has any tips on how to actually get things done?

[beowuuf]

Pretty much every creative person does this I think. If you start doing anything creative professionally, it sounds like you get forced into learning to release stuff that is good enough, or have a deadline to perfectionism to force some realism to your goals.

New ideas are shiny and wonderful and lead to a million other half formed ideas. Every blank slate could produce a perfect work.

Finishing something requires grinding away and producing hundreds of less shiny but compatible/formed ideas. Every work has mistakes, shortcomings and compromises to nag at you.

I have a hard drive filled with half finished things, and worse barely started things that still mostly reside in my brain slowly decaying.

It's just the nature of the beast! The two things to do are to either commit to one thing, don't share the fact of doing it until you can release something but then share the first releasable thing and stick with that. Or work on small things and commit measured amounts of time to them..

[greatstone]

protip: don't try to achieve perfection before publishing something.
Perfection is a totally valid target but can be reached with multiple milestones.
Trial 1 = milestone 1: when done, publish it => 5% of people happy with it.
Trial 2 = milestone 2: when done, publish it => 20% of people happy with it.
Trial 3 = milestone 3: when done, publish it => 50% of people happy with it.
Trial 4 = milestone 4: when done, publish it => 80% of people happy with it.
Trial 5 = milestone 1: when done, publish it => 90% of people happy with it.
Trial 6 = milestone 1: when done, publish it => 95% of people happy with it.
Trial 7 = milestone 1: when done, publish it => 97% of people happy with it.
Trial 8 = milestone 1: when done, publish it => 98% of people happy with it.
Trial 9 = milestone 1: when done, publish it => 98,5% of people happy with it.
etc..

Basically, if you only reach milestone 4, 80% of people will enjoy it, which is a great achievement and very rewarding.
And it doesn't matter at all if you stick with milestone 4 for years because of other projects.
For this project it will take perhaps 10 more trials (so, double work versus reaching M4) to just have a few % of people happy.

80% of the work = 20% of the time
20 remaining % work = 80 % of the time
=> forget the remaining 20%... OR stick with only 1 project at a time, not 10.

protip2: read steve
http://www.stevepavlina.com/articles/ov ... nation.htm => part 8
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2010/0 ... astination
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/0 ... stination/

In personal development question, Steve is my main source of inspiration.

Note that I am also trying such technique for the sck tool, as it is also a project without end (but in my case, after 30 trials, only 1% of people are happy with it).

[Ameena]

Ahh I have the problem too - I like to create stuff but so often I'll start something and then end up not finishing it. It usually happens when I start on something and get into it, then for whatever reason end up busy and stuff and don't manage to ge tback to it for a few days, or a week, or a month,or however long, by which time it's sort of "faded away" in that I'm no longer as enthusiastic about it as when I started, and then I just end up not getting back to it at all. Not that I've attempted to create much for a while, though there's a bunch of partially-complete stories I've got sitting around on my comp which I started years ago and didn't get too far with.
It's different if I'm making something for someone else, though. For example, a few people on here have had me write backstories for their dungeons, and I've done one or two things for Zyx (like the hints for Conflux). I get those kinds of things done, because they're for other people, and I don't want to say I'll do something for someone and then keep them waiting indefinitely because that's not exactly fair/polite/nice, etc. I wouldn't mind writing something again at some point but I'm too busy playing games and stuff to do anything myself, plus I don't really have any major ideas atm except a few that have been floating around for...ooh...well, ages. I suppose the nearest I've come to writing anything lately has been in Wuffy's DnD/DM crossover RPG thingy .

[Zyx]

Same here. Teaming with complementary people, when possible, helped me a lot, not only because they were more skilled and motivated for the tasks, but also because sharing and promising were sources of motivation. Feedback is also great to channel your creativity. Reasonable deadlines help getting focused and knowing when to go to the next step.

[Bit]

Yeah, without kentaro I would have been lost with the DM2-works.
But even with him we face a lot of more or less unexpected problems, at least one is really serious and could kill the project.
Fortunately Sphenx followed another path from a certain point on, which looks pretty promising - so that we surely will have something in return, even if we maybe cannot spend a true 1:1 like CSBwin is. Paths will find together to finally extract goodies and formulas.
The other project that should provide truecolor and higher resolution for CSBwin is sleeping - but look what Rasmus presented in the meantime. No need to force that anymore, that stays as training material for sourceprocessing things. Having not done at all, I neither had tools nor experience to do the DM2-things - so - however - that wasn't lost time.

[Rasmus]

I try not to think at it so much.. I have noticed that the more presure I put on my self finishing something, the longer it will take accually finishing it.
I agree with you Gambit about having several project running at the same time stops the boredome. But it is also important not too leave certain projects for to long, the longer time it was since I worked with a project, the harder it is for me to get back to it.
The learning part is what motivates me the most, sometimes it feels like I am wasting my time, but then I come to think about all the stuff I have learned or gotten better at, and my motivation flies right up again.
But I do think the most important thing is to take one thing at a time as the headline says here.
In CSBWin I first just wanted to make it 3D and keep the dm graphics, and I did that..
Then I wanted to replace the graphics, and I did that..
Then I wanted to replace the interface, working on it..
And as soon as am done with that, I am going to create some sort of chat program in CSBWin..
These are some of the goals that I have set, and most of these goals have alot of smaller goals inside them etc.
I don't have any precise idea of how this all is going to end, I am just trying to enjoy the road until then

I don't belive deadlines or pressure are the answer when it comes to personal projects. I think it is all about taking one day at a time and one thing at a time, just do it because it is fun, and don't make it a struggle..

[Jan]

I have basically the same problem as the other people here. I always start things, learn new stuff, but once I start to master it, I just lose interest and become bored and abandon it progressively. Of course, the only thing that can make me finish it is that it's either my job or that I'm doing it for other people, as Ameena pointed out.

[Ameena]

Yeah, deadlines, that's the other thing - if I'm given something to do and, say, the person says they want it in two weeks' time, I probably won't actually start it until a day or two before the deadline - if I have loads of time in which to do something, I don't normally bother doing it because "I've still got loads of time left". When I'm getting toward the last minute I go "Ooh, I'd better get on with that thing 'cause it's gotta be done by tomorrow", and then get on with it and get it done in one go, or whatever. I can't just drag something out over weeks, I have to get it done ASAP with as few breaks between sessions as possible. Otherwise I think I reach some sort of burnout stage and end up not being arsed any more.

[MasterWuuf]

ZYX mentioned something that may help; team up with others.

This may be part of your personality makeup, which is natural for many who are also passionate about learning and doing.

I am forced to complete certain projects, yet the personal ones can surely get lost in the mix.

I started writing things down, oh, about a hundred years ago (give or take 70 years, or so).
I put things in two categories; one was MUST DO, the other SHOULD/WOULD LIKE TO DO.

When I finally

Spoiler

much easier said than done

realized I had to get the must do list done, I did.
A 'work in progress' can be a completed project, as would be the case of Conflux.

That's one of the reasons we have different versions of the same games/etc.; works in progress that have gone to market.

[linflas]

I would finish Forest of Doom in 1 month, if I was paid for it

[Jan]

Pretend it's an educational or research activity and apply for an EU subsidy*.

* (fill in a 200-pages application form, then maybe obtain 10.000 EUR and then write 50-pages monthly reports on your progress. Believe me - you wouldn't finish your Forest of Doom in 10 years)

[Sphenx]

I wonder if anyone else can relate to this and has any tips on how to actually get things done?

Focus on only one projet and give you a strong deadline to achieve a major step/improvement in that project. It will be then satisfying to see things moving on, and will let you take on other projects.

[oh_brother]

I used to be very slow to release anything under my own steam. This was some type of perfectionism, when I got something to a certain state I would always think of the next obvious thing to add "if I do this then the project will be sooo much better, it would be lazy to release it as it is."

Only when I finally accepted that there is no end to that process (literally) was I able to snap out of it. Now I can release something that is not 100%. If I need/want to I work on it further after it is out there.

[Gambit37]

Thanks everyone for the advice and insights, I really appreciate it

I clearly need to learn how to properly set myself achievable goals (small milestones) and work towards those. I can do that when I'm doing work for clients, but somehow seem to fail in this basic approach when it's my own projects!

For me personally, I don't think I can work on one project at a time, due to the monolithic nature of the projects and I also get bored easily. So I need to find a way of maintaining input on all projects on an ad-hoc basis, yet still working towards fixed, achievable milestones.

I start a new full-time contract tomorrow, so I will no longer have the flexible days that I had working for myself from home. It looks like from now on, I am going to need to be much better at planning my personal project time...

[oh_brother]

Good luck in your new job!

I think the aims you have set yourself (small milestones, better time management) are probably very good. But if you really have done 20 different designs for DM Codex then I think it would be beneficial to look at perfectionism too.

You could aim to release an "ok" version of the site and if needs be keep on refining it once it is up an running. Just my two cents!

[cowsmanaut]

Obviously I suffer from this. However I have finished projects before. Team efforts keep me involved and I work faster and more often when I can see it working. For much of the artwork I've done here, it's been appreciated, but it hasn't lead to any dungeons and wasn't produced to go into any specific dungeon. This meant that it was essentially cast off, left for those who may eventually find a use for it. As a result, I didn't finish them. The one I did quickly finish was the wall set that was to be used in a friends dungeon.. why? because he kept requesting to see what was done and working on including it into his dungeon. For me.. frequent feedback and teamwork motivates me. This is not true of everyone though.

Setting small goals is a good idea, but if you know you're prone to switching projects.. put that into your goal. Set 3hrs 1 day a week for a month on one project, then the same amount of time for the next one. because it's a planned switch you'll see it's ok to switch around as it's part of the design. You'll also see it advances quickly for all 3 projects too.

[ian_scho]

I love greatstone's post.

Go on Gambit, share with Beo or someone your DMCodex site? Talk him through it on Skype! Who knows, maybe in six months you'll feel confident enough to increase your audience to the total number of DM enthusiasts in the world.

[Zyx]

I have another problem leading to procrastination. When I find a solution to a particular problem, I then realize that it was just a subset of a bigger category of problem. So I start generalizing my solution in my head. The next day, I realize it was just part of a bigger set of problem, and so on.
I end up thinking about an ultimate hierarchical engine or algorithm that should be useful for many scopes and domains. But where to start from when you know that it could mean a big loss of time if the big picture isn't ready in your head?

[Joramun]

You could look at the relations between the different "levels" of problems you solve,
like observing the slope of the pyramid instead of the relation between one layer and the next.
Most inventions come not from solving a set of specific problems,
but from guessing or "solving" the relation between these problems.
For example, you could find a law that builds a hierarchy of fractal problems and their solutions.
Then you would find that, either way, you have lost time - or not.
Because solving a few problems is necessary to guess the link between them.
And because losing time, is the only way to spend it fruitfully.

Even so I've more or less come to a peace with my procrastination problem,
I still don't manage to do everything I want to do, and I regularly postpone projects,
but I try to find small satisfaction in every small steps I take,
not to indulge in passivity, but also not to castigate myself for my failings.

Also, one thing I do a lot, is setting a few projects on the side when I feel blocked,
and explore other paths. I still can resume them whenever I want.
That's the beauty of life. You have to choose what you do at a given moment,
But unless you act like a mule with a carot on the left and an apple on the right,
you can do many things: just pick one first.

This was my Lao Tzu instant.