[joeig]

Regarding

> Decide upfront what you're going to work on.

and

> Behind the fear of releasing is often the fear of exposing your work, and yourself, to criticism.

When I plan to release my project's source code, it has helped me to release parts of the project up front as single-purpose libraries. This helps me think in smaller chunks of work, and makes me feel like I'm finishing more often. It also shortens the feedback cycle.