8 ms·

Finish one thing today

246 points by jacobwyke 12y ago

bhhaskin 12y ago
I love the concept of finish one thing today.
kieranajp 12y ago
tl;dr :p (to clarify because internet + downvotes: this is a joke about not finishing the article about finishing things - I did actually read it!)
ctb_mg 12y ago
This really sums up the idea of what I've been trying to express to myself the past few months on my stagnated side-project. I know if I work iteratively, the small pieces start to add up quickly. However for me the trick is to get that initial push to start the work, even if the effort itself is small and manageable. It's hard for me to get motivated.
- josefresco 12y ago
  I posted to my blog this weekend. It was a small victory, but one that made me feel better all weekend, and will make me more motivated to jump back in again. Most with creative side-projects suffer the same trouble as you and I: trouble starting. I try to remind myself of how good I'll feel after, and also limit my time to 45 minutes on the computer - thereby avoiding sinking an entire weekend into something that resembles "work".
alanfalcon 12y ago
Genuine question: Is this a good excercise to help built the Grit characteristic? http://rrhs.schoolwires.net/cms/lib7/WI01001304/Centricity/Domain/187/Grit%20JPSP.pdf http://rrhs.schoolwires.net/cms/lib7/WI01001304/Centricity/D...
kozhevnikov 12y ago
Reminds me of a popular /r/bestof "No Zero Days" comment on reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/getdisciplined/comments/1q96b5/i_just_dont_care_about_myself/cdah4af https://www.reddit.com/r/getdisciplined/comments/1q96b5/i_ju...
ozh 12y ago
I see there's still a market for stating the obvious... I was expecting something more disruptive or innovative or helpful, to be honest.
CmonDev 12y ago
They need a more unique hashtag though.
- davidw 12y ago
  Amongst other things, "fott" is the stem of a vulgar verb in Italian.
  - jacobwyke 12y ago
    Ooops. My fault for not speaking Italian :S
motoboi 12y ago
I think this is a great motivational site for procrastinators (not only those involved in software development). Doing One Thing Today can be the beginning of a new habit, the habit of not procrastinating.
jsherer 12y ago
Similar comments from a University of Texas, Austin commencement speech by Adm. McRaven [1]: "Every morning in basic SEAL training, my instructors, who at the time were all Vietnam veterans, would show up in my barracks room and the first thing they would inspect was your bed. If you did it right, the corners would be square, the covers pulled tight, the pillow centered just under the headboard and the extra blanket folded neatly at the foot of the rack—rack—that’s Navy talk for bed. It was a simple task—mundane at best. But every morning we were required to make our bed to perfection. It seemed a little ridiculous at the time, particularly in light of the fact that were aspiring to be real warriors, tough battle hardened SEALs—but the wisdom of this simple act has been proven to me many times over. If you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another. By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter. If you can’t do the little things right, you will never do the big things right. And, if by chance you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made—that you made—and a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better. If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed." [1]: http://www.utexas.edu/news/2014/05/16/admiral-mcraven-commencement-speech/ http://www.utexas.edu/news/2014/05/16/admiral-mcraven-commen...
- valevk 12y ago
  I didn't believe this when I read it (a few months ago). I sounds too simple. I didn't believe it myself, buw when I tried to get a finishable set of tasks per day, which really would get finished, I experienced that "I got the drive". It's the simple things.
- coding4all 12y ago
  I'll give it a shot. Thanks for posting.
- shas3 12y ago
  I think the flip side of this approach is that one may get bogged down in doing tasks which give you short term satisfaction but don't do much in helping you progress on real projects. I faced this problem often as a graduate student. On certain days, I would get immense satisfaction in discovering new Latex tricks and packages, tweaking research codes to the point of diminishing returns, organizing bibliography, etc. while making no real progress on my dissertation. I think while taking the approach of 'finish something today', one should consciously avoid falling into the trap of avoiding consequential tasks.
baldfat 12y ago
My significant other really struggles with feeling over whelmed. If she feels overwhelmed she doesn't do anything. If we end up doing one thing together to finish it she just eats up the rest. She isn't lazy and she isn't unmotivated. This idea really could work for some people. This should actually help a lot of people.
- tohdv1987 12y ago
  I feel the same way your SO does all the time. There's a mountain of work to be done in front of me and it's demoralizing to even contemplate the amount of effort it will take to get to the top. Something stupidly simple that has helped me a lot is to make a list of the individual to-do's. I like to have a master list for the project I'm working on, and a daily one I make in the morning, with each point small enough that I can accomplish one in a matter of minutes or hours. The act of crossing a single item off - and then over time looking at the list and seeing a whole bunch of items crossed off - is amazingly effective for me. I am able to focus on the next 10 feet rather than fainting at the thought of a 10 mile uphill climb. I can hardly believe something so simple has gotten such results on such a critical and daily issue. But it has. Maybe this could help your SO? I don't think it's a stretch to say making lists has changed my life.
afontaine 12y ago
Awesome little site. I've been researching habit forming lately since I want to start doing this myself, but not with just small projects. This is the best resource I found on habit forming: http://jamesclear.quora.com/How-to-Build-a-New-Habit-This-is-Your-Strategy-Guide http://jamesclear.quora.com/How-to-Build-a-New-Habit-This-is...
aidos 12y ago
I lived with my girlfriend's parents many years ago and at the time her father was building a Morris Minor 1000 and a Triumph Bonneville bike (in his spare time). The final results were showroom condition vehicles; absolute works of art. I was fortunate enough to be there for most of the duration of the projects. I learnt _a lot_ about how vehicles work from those days. It was fascinating working on machines like that from first principals. Every single thing was stripped down and rebuilt from several dead vehicles. Even every last washer was cleaned up and reused. One of my main take aways was actually his approach to working on the projects. Every day he would complete at least one thing on each project. Sometimes it was as small making a phone call, or as large as fitting the engine into the chassis. It might have taken a couple of years but he got there in the end.
- dceddia 12y ago
  That sounds like an amazing feat from a productivity/finishing projects standpoint, but I'd be really interested to hear about the organization process for a thing like that. I'm sure one can't rely on memory alone to remember which tiny washer goes with each widget. For a smaller project, I'd sort the screws into cups or something. But for an entire bike? Huh.
  - bronson 12y ago
    It's not like every washer needs to be removed simultaneously. Just rebuild each component one by one. That said, it's still amazing work. When some friends built a Lemons car (nowhere near as exacting), I was surprised to find that probably 75% of our time and communication was inventory management and organization. You think you're going to be welding and spinning nuts? No, you're going to be heading back to the store for more acetone and Sterilite boxes while your friend spends hours sorting parts looking for the !#$*@ headlight switch.
  - aidos 12y ago
    I think he just knew his way around so well that it wasn't an issue. He had a compartmentalised box in his workshop where he put all the bits. The other thing is that the various washers and bolts are of standard sizes. After 35 years of working full time fixing motor vehicles I guess you have a pretty clear picture of how everything comes apart and goes back together again. After he'd reconstructed the engine we were about to hoist it in the car and I asked how he was sure it was to work. He said that because he'd put every last part in himself (after reconditioning them) he could guarantee it to be correct. To humour me he fired it up while it was still on the ground, started without any problem.
vishalzone2002 12y ago
This is one of the principle that can be applied to multiple facets of life like body building or learning a new instrument.
scarygliders 12y ago
Welp, I finished one thing today.. My first paid-for application commissioned by a client. I even drummed up a small manual for them, before sending out the "It's ready." email with the manual attached and a link to the installer download. Not bad for a Monday morning! It wasn't a big application, and did one specific thing. But it'll improve their (business) life dramatically. Bonus: I get to send them a juicy invoice. Bonus II: I just discovered I /love/ developing for paying clients B)
- sockgrant 12y ago
  Congrats! That's awesome :)
- toomuchtodo 12y ago
  Congratulations!
Swizec 12y ago
A few weeks ago my girlfriend almost chewed my head off because my insistence on finishing something that day almost made us late to a dinner. We didn't end up being late. But she didn't understand why I cared more about finishing at least something in an otherwise crappy day than I did about inconveniencing two people. (her and her friend) Life's funny that way.
sockgrant 12y ago
Similar to this, at Google they do "snippets". Every week they write a short e-mail blurb about what they accomplished last week and what they plan to complete this week. I gave this method a try and it's been great. It helps me stay on task, have goals, and feel good about what I've accomplished. It helps me minimize the "swamped" feeling because I'm actively prioritizing and then knocking those things off the list. I'm currently trying to do a weekly snippet e-mail to myself, and additionally every morning I make a mini, unofficial snippets of what I'd like to accomplish for the day (generally taking items from the weekly snippets).
- chuckcode 12y ago
  Seems like there is something important socially about being able to tell others what you plan to do and then after the fact share what you accomplished. As a software engineer it can be difficult when the work is so technical that I can't really share it with anybody easily. Trying to friends and family about how the new code using AVX instructions runs a lot faster in a critical section of the code ends up being underwhelming. Sites like "finish one thing today" calls out again that constant struggle between curiosity and focus. My natural curiosity has been a huge benefit in my life but it certainly gets in the way sometimes when I need it to turn off so I can just focus on the problem at hand.
Kiro 12y ago
I've been using Don't Break The Chain on and off for maybe a year and it has really helped me battle my procrastination. I now have a clean home and have finished a lot of side-projects. The challenge is to pick it up again after you (inevitably) break the chain now and then.
criveros 12y ago
Today I will clean up my room. Does that count?
exodust 12y ago
Am I in therapy? We're evolving, not finishing. Obsessing over finishing something every day can't be useful or necessary. Could be distracting. The haiku-styled self-help thingy here is lacking depth.. it's generic motivational cliche central. It's corny stuff. Sounds like a form of OCD. The same people couldn't bare to leave the dirty dishes til the next morning. Relax. You don't need to finish something today for the sake of "finishing". You can subscribe to the journey or the destination, choose one, but don't push what you choose onto others and call it "Hacker News". "Ship one thing today". Ah... nope. And I don't ship. Never understood the obsession with "shipping". It suggests a commercial operation, a red-button launch, manufacturing and selling washing machines.
mrbig4545 12y ago
I finished at least 3 things today. 4 if you count making the bed... why is this site trying to make me lazy? and if I don't want to finish something, then I won't. I'm not a machine, I want to have some days off, usually not enough. but when I can, I enjoy spending a whole day on the sofa doing nothing. you should try it, it's nice
pknerd 12y ago
Eat that Frog talks about similar concept.
muhammadusman 12y ago
After reading this, it helped me write a blog post I had just been thinking about. Nothing big, it was just a blog post but I feel so much better about getting it off my chest!
simoneau 12y ago
"Write Code Every Day", John Resig: http://ejohn.org/blog/write-code-every-day/ http://ejohn.org/blog/write-code-every-day/ He set himself similar rules.
- ar_turnbull 12y ago
  Also see Stephen King's memoir "On Writing" : http://www.amazon.ca/On-Writing-Anniversary-Edition-Memoir/dp/1439156816 http://www.amazon.ca/On-Writing-Anniversary-Edition-Memoir/d...
qrohlf 12y ago
> SHIP ONE THING TODAY. > RELEASE IT TO THE WORLD. > If you don’t have an idea, imitate something else. > You will think it’s not important enough. > You will think nobody will care. > You will overestimate its importance. > You will sometimes fail. Counterpoint: Instead of focusing on quantity ("hack it together and ship it", "ship it today", "finish it and release it to the world", etc.), let's take a step back and think about quality. I have personally been bitten from having to maintain side projects that I shipped prematurely just to "finish them". I'm not saying you shouldn't finish things, however I do think there's value in raising standards for what you consider "finished", and that finishing something every day is a goal that is likely to be at odds with those standards. Two articles that I recommend reading: 1. Generation Javascript by Manuel Bernhardt (http://manuel.bernhardt.io/2014/12/30/generation-javascript/ http://manuel.bernhardt.io/2014/12/30/generation-javascript/) 2. A Generation Lost in the Bazaar by Poul-Henning Kamp (https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=2349257 https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=2349257)
- geoelectric 12y ago
  I think there's something to be said for getting the habit of getting things done without getting hung up on their quality, and then moving towards quality once you have some level of cadence established. IME, people hit a point where they start introducing quality or breaking down bigger tasks because their goal requires it. You don't need to encourage that so much as just getting them doing something in the first place. Compare to the classic advice to set an egg-timer for 5 minutes if you're having problems getting started with something. 9 times out of 10 you'll continue and finish it after the timer goes off, but makes it much less intimidating to start if you know you can legitimately bail after 5 minutes.
  - sfilipov 12y ago
    Also, I am sure most people are aware of it but still worth mentioning - The Pomodoro Technique: http://pomodorotechnique.com/ http://pomodorotechnique.com/
sheepmullet 12y ago
Counterpoint: I spend 8+ hours a day at work focused on shipping. I need to spend time learning, experimenting, and "playing".
lurkylurk 12y ago
This reminds me of Ze Frank's An Invocation for Beginnings [1] which is all about starting something and the fear and anxiety that comes along with that. Definitely worth a watch. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYlCVwxoL_g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYlCVwxoL_g

246 points by jacobwyke 12y ago

I love the concept of finish one thing today.

tl;dr :p (to clarify because internet + downvotes: this is a joke about not finishing the article about finishing things - I did actually read it!)

ctb_mg 12y ago

This really sums up the idea of what I've been trying to express to myself the past few months on my stagnated side-project. I know if I work iteratively, the small pieces start to add up quickly. However for me the trick is to get that initial push to start the work, even if the effort itself is small and manageable. It's hard for me to get motivated.

josefresco 12y ago
I posted to my blog this weekend. It was a small victory, but one that made me feel better all weekend, and will make me more motivated to jump back in again. Most with creative side-projects suffer the same trouble as you and I: trouble starting. I try to remind myself of how good I'll feel after, and also limit my time to 45 minutes on the computer - thereby avoiding sinking an entire weekend into something that resembles "work".

alanfalcon 12y ago

Genuine question: Is this a good excercise to help built the Grit characteristic? http://rrhs.schoolwires.net/cms/lib7/WI01001304/Centricity/Domain/187/Grit%20JPSP.pdf http://rrhs.schoolwires.net/cms/lib7/WI01001304/Centricity/D...

kozhevnikov 12y ago

Reminds me of a popular /r/bestof "No Zero Days" comment on reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/getdisciplined/comments/1q96b5/i_just_dont_care_about_myself/cdah4af https://www.reddit.com/r/getdisciplined/comments/1q96b5/i_ju...

ozh 12y ago

I see there's still a market for stating the obvious... I was expecting something more disruptive or innovative or helpful, to be honest.

CmonDev 12y ago

They need a more unique hashtag though.

davidw 12y ago
Amongst other things, "fott" is the stem of a vulgar verb in Italian.
- jacobwyke 12y ago
  Ooops. My fault for not speaking Italian :S

motoboi 12y ago

I think this is a great motivational site for procrastinators (not only those involved in software development). Doing One Thing Today can be the beginning of a new habit, the habit of not procrastinating.

jsherer 12y ago

Similar comments from a University of Texas, Austin commencement speech by Adm. McRaven [1]: "Every morning in basic SEAL training, my instructors, who at the time were all Vietnam veterans, would show up in my barracks room and the first thing they would inspect was your bed. If you did it right, the corners would be square, the covers pulled tight, the pillow centered just under the headboard and the extra blanket folded neatly at the foot of the rack—rack—that’s Navy talk for bed. It was a simple task—mundane at best. But every morning we were required to make our bed to perfection. It seemed a little ridiculous at the time, particularly in light of the fact that were aspiring to be real warriors, tough battle hardened SEALs—but the wisdom of this simple act has been proven to me many times over. If you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another. By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter. If you can’t do the little things right, you will never do the big things right. And, if by chance you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made—that you made—and a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better. If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed." [1]: http://www.utexas.edu/news/2014/05/16/admiral-mcraven-commencement-speech/ http://www.utexas.edu/news/2014/05/16/admiral-mcraven-commen...

valevk 12y ago
I didn't believe this when I read it (a few months ago). I sounds too simple. I didn't believe it myself, buw when I tried to get a finishable set of tasks per day, which really would get finished, I experienced that "I got the drive". It's the simple things.
coding4all 12y ago
I'll give it a shot. Thanks for posting.
shas3 12y ago
I think the flip side of this approach is that one may get bogged down in doing tasks which give you short term satisfaction but don't do much in helping you progress on real projects. I faced this problem often as a graduate student. On certain days, I would get immense satisfaction in discovering new Latex tricks and packages, tweaking research codes to the point of diminishing returns, organizing bibliography, etc. while making no real progress on my dissertation. I think while taking the approach of 'finish something today', one should consciously avoid falling into the trap of avoiding consequential tasks.

baldfat 12y ago

My significant other really struggles with feeling over whelmed. If she feels overwhelmed she doesn't do anything. If we end up doing one thing together to finish it she just eats up the rest. She isn't lazy and she isn't unmotivated. This idea really could work for some people. This should actually help a lot of people.

tohdv1987 12y ago
I feel the same way your SO does all the time. There's a mountain of work to be done in front of me and it's demoralizing to even contemplate the amount of effort it will take to get to the top. Something stupidly simple that has helped me a lot is to make a list of the individual to-do's. I like to have a master list for the project I'm working on, and a daily one I make in the morning, with each point small enough that I can accomplish one in a matter of minutes or hours. The act of crossing a single item off - and then over time looking at the list and seeing a whole bunch of items crossed off - is amazingly effective for me. I am able to focus on the next 10 feet rather than fainting at the thought of a 10 mile uphill climb. I can hardly believe something so simple has gotten such results on such a critical and daily issue. But it has. Maybe this could help your SO? I don't think it's a stretch to say making lists has changed my life.

afontaine 12y ago

Awesome little site. I've been researching habit forming lately since I want to start doing this myself, but not with just small projects. This is the best resource I found on habit forming: http://jamesclear.quora.com/How-to-Build-a-New-Habit-This-is-Your-Strategy-Guide http://jamesclear.quora.com/How-to-Build-a-New-Habit-This-is...

aidos 12y ago

I lived with my girlfriend's parents many years ago and at the time her father was building a Morris Minor 1000 and a Triumph Bonneville bike (in his spare time). The final results were showroom condition vehicles; absolute works of art. I was fortunate enough to be there for most of the duration of the projects. I learnt _a lot_ about how vehicles work from those days. It was fascinating working on machines like that from first principals. Every single thing was stripped down and rebuilt from several dead vehicles. Even every last washer was cleaned up and reused. One of my main take aways was actually his approach to working on the projects. Every day he would complete at least one thing on each project. Sometimes it was as small making a phone call, or as large as fitting the engine into the chassis. It might have taken a couple of years but he got there in the end.

dceddia 12y ago
That sounds like an amazing feat from a productivity/finishing projects standpoint, but I'd be really interested to hear about the organization process for a thing like that. I'm sure one can't rely on memory alone to remember which tiny washer goes with each widget. For a smaller project, I'd sort the screws into cups or something. But for an entire bike? Huh.
- bronson 12y ago
  It's not like every washer needs to be removed simultaneously. Just rebuild each component one by one. That said, it's still amazing work. When some friends built a Lemons car (nowhere near as exacting), I was surprised to find that probably 75% of our time and communication was inventory management and organization. You think you're going to be welding and spinning nuts? No, you're going to be heading back to the store for more acetone and Sterilite boxes while your friend spends hours sorting parts looking for the !#$*@ headlight switch.
- aidos 12y ago
  I think he just knew his way around so well that it wasn't an issue. He had a compartmentalised box in his workshop where he put all the bits. The other thing is that the various washers and bolts are of standard sizes. After 35 years of working full time fixing motor vehicles I guess you have a pretty clear picture of how everything comes apart and goes back together again. After he'd reconstructed the engine we were about to hoist it in the car and I asked how he was sure it was to work. He said that because he'd put every last part in himself (after reconditioning them) he could guarantee it to be correct. To humour me he fired it up while it was still on the ground, started without any problem.

vishalzone2002 12y ago

This is one of the principle that can be applied to multiple facets of life like body building or learning a new instrument.

scarygliders 12y ago

Welp, I finished one thing today.. My first paid-for application commissioned by a client. I even drummed up a small manual for them, before sending out the "It's ready." email with the manual attached and a link to the installer download. Not bad for a Monday morning! It wasn't a big application, and did one specific thing. But it'll improve their (business) life dramatically. Bonus: I get to send them a juicy invoice. Bonus II: I just discovered I /love/ developing for paying clients B)

sockgrant 12y ago
Congrats! That's awesome :)
toomuchtodo 12y ago
Congratulations!

Swizec 12y ago

A few weeks ago my girlfriend almost chewed my head off because my insistence on finishing something that day almost made us late to a dinner. We didn't end up being late. But she didn't understand why I cared more about finishing at least something in an otherwise crappy day than I did about inconveniencing two people. (her and her friend) Life's funny that way.

sockgrant 12y ago

Similar to this, at Google they do "snippets". Every week they write a short e-mail blurb about what they accomplished last week and what they plan to complete this week. I gave this method a try and it's been great. It helps me stay on task, have goals, and feel good about what I've accomplished. It helps me minimize the "swamped" feeling because I'm actively prioritizing and then knocking those things off the list. I'm currently trying to do a weekly snippet e-mail to myself, and additionally every morning I make a mini, unofficial snippets of what I'd like to accomplish for the day (generally taking items from the weekly snippets).

chuckcode 12y ago
Seems like there is something important socially about being able to tell others what you plan to do and then after the fact share what you accomplished. As a software engineer it can be difficult when the work is so technical that I can't really share it with anybody easily. Trying to friends and family about how the new code using AVX instructions runs a lot faster in a critical section of the code ends up being underwhelming. Sites like "finish one thing today" calls out again that constant struggle between curiosity and focus. My natural curiosity has been a huge benefit in my life but it certainly gets in the way sometimes when I need it to turn off so I can just focus on the problem at hand.

Kiro 12y ago

I've been using Don't Break The Chain on and off for maybe a year and it has really helped me battle my procrastination. I now have a clean home and have finished a lot of side-projects. The challenge is to pick it up again after you (inevitably) break the chain now and then.

criveros 12y ago

Today I will clean up my room. Does that count?

exodust 12y ago

Am I in therapy? We're evolving, not finishing. Obsessing over finishing something every day can't be useful or necessary. Could be distracting. The haiku-styled self-help thingy here is lacking depth.. it's generic motivational cliche central. It's corny stuff. Sounds like a form of OCD. The same people couldn't bare to leave the dirty dishes til the next morning. Relax. You don't need to finish something today for the sake of "finishing". You can subscribe to the journey or the destination, choose one, but don't push what you choose onto others and call it "Hacker News". "Ship one thing today". Ah... nope. And I don't ship. Never understood the obsession with "shipping". It suggests a commercial operation, a red-button launch, manufacturing and selling washing machines.

mrbig4545 12y ago

I finished at least 3 things today. 4 if you count making the bed... why is this site trying to make me lazy? and if I don't want to finish something, then I won't. I'm not a machine, I want to have some days off, usually not enough. but when I can, I enjoy spending a whole day on the sofa doing nothing. you should try it, it's nice

pknerd 12y ago

Eat that Frog talks about similar concept.

muhammadusman 12y ago

After reading this, it helped me write a blog post I had just been thinking about. Nothing big, it was just a blog post but I feel so much better about getting it off my chest!

simoneau 12y ago

"Write Code Every Day", John Resig: http://ejohn.org/blog/write-code-every-day/ http://ejohn.org/blog/write-code-every-day/ He set himself similar rules.

ar_turnbull 12y ago
Also see Stephen King's memoir "On Writing" : http://www.amazon.ca/On-Writing-Anniversary-Edition-Memoir/dp/1439156816 http://www.amazon.ca/On-Writing-Anniversary-Edition-Memoir/d...

qrohlf 12y ago

> SHIP ONE THING TODAY. > RELEASE IT TO THE WORLD. > If you don’t have an idea, imitate something else. > You will think it’s not important enough. > You will think nobody will care. > You will overestimate its importance. > You will sometimes fail. Counterpoint: Instead of focusing on quantity ("hack it together and ship it", "ship it today", "finish it and release it to the world", etc.), let's take a step back and think about quality. I have personally been bitten from having to maintain side projects that I shipped prematurely just to "finish them". I'm not saying you shouldn't finish things, however I do think there's value in raising standards for what you consider "finished", and that finishing something every day is a goal that is likely to be at odds with those standards. Two articles that I recommend reading: 1. Generation Javascript by Manuel Bernhardt (http://manuel.bernhardt.io/2014/12/30/generation-javascript/ http://manuel.bernhardt.io/2014/12/30/generation-javascript/) 2. A Generation Lost in the Bazaar by Poul-Henning Kamp (https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=2349257 https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=2349257)

geoelectric 12y ago
I think there's something to be said for getting the habit of getting things done without getting hung up on their quality, and then moving towards quality once you have some level of cadence established. IME, people hit a point where they start introducing quality or breaking down bigger tasks because their goal requires it. You don't need to encourage that so much as just getting them doing something in the first place. Compare to the classic advice to set an egg-timer for 5 minutes if you're having problems getting started with something. 9 times out of 10 you'll continue and finish it after the timer goes off, but makes it much less intimidating to start if you know you can legitimately bail after 5 minutes.
- sfilipov 12y ago
  Also, I am sure most people are aware of it but still worth mentioning - The Pomodoro Technique: http://pomodorotechnique.com/ http://pomodorotechnique.com/

sheepmullet 12y ago

Counterpoint: I spend 8+ hours a day at work focused on shipping. I need to spend time learning, experimenting, and "playing".

lurkylurk 12y ago

This reminds me of Ze Frank's An Invocation for Beginnings [1] which is all about starting something and the fear and anxiety that comes along with that. Definitely worth a watch. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYlCVwxoL_g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYlCVwxoL_g