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by Pfhreak 2499 days ago
This is my solution too, and it works great, but I find I have a hard time scaling it.

Often, when a project reaches a certainly early/mid scale where I'm tackling some of the bigger problems, I'll push myself to work on it a little longer and finish it. If I might normally finish at 10pm, I'll push myself and go till 11:00 or midnight and finish the system.

Then, because it's so late, I tend to just close everything out. And because I've just completed a milestone, I'm faced with not only getting back into flow, but beginning the process of designing/implementing a whole new big thing.

It's at this point I really start to stumble, and I've lost a lot of projects to, "Whew, just finished that awesome system, I'm sure I'll pick this back up soon!" and I am at a total loss of how to power past these moments.

If anyone has any ideas, I'm all ears.
2 comments
zrobotics 2498 days ago
Keep a list of small features/tweaks to the side and use them as jumping off points. Takes a little bit of forethought, but I keep a txt file in the repo with a list of things like class implementation tweaks or ui changes that I know are 15-30 minute tasks. I reserve these for when I'm having trouble ramping up.

Or failing that, 15 minutes of cranking out garbage code that I know I'll revert helps get back into flow state too, but it's demoralizing deleting work.

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tachyonbeam 2498 days ago
It might feel demoralizing but writing and testing out throwaway code is part of figuring things out. Writing that code helped you get to a point where you have better insight.
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eeeert 2499 days ago
It's as if a primitive man saved enough berries at night to be able to eat some before foraging for more in the morning.

You there's no concept of "scale" to something like this. Save a snack, a small task, for your brain to munch on in the morning, and you'll get in the routine much better than on an empty stomach.

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banku_brougham 2498 days ago
I wouldn’t say primitive, he might be very sophisticated. After all he’s the one that saved some berries and we are the ones fumbling around in the morning not knowing what to do.
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