This is an ongoing series on how to "finish your projects." Each post dives into a single lesson I've learned that has helped me do better at staying on track and reaching the colloquial finish-line of a project. These lessons are not fool-proof as my first post in the series will tell you, but they can help with morale and reduce the frequency of dropped projects.
Stop trying to make apps that will ~change the world~! While the sentiment is heartwarming and commendable, if you're finding it hard to finish your projects, chances are you're putting too much pressure and responsibility on yourself. Not everyone can be Batman.1 Just like with those lil yellow party cups on airplanes, you need to put yours on before you can worry about everyone else. You need to get better at completing projects before you can take on the world, my fellow disrupters.
One great way to make sure you follow through with your projects is to pick up projects that you would actually use. Think about ways you can you make your life easier, more convenient, or at least more entertaining. @NikkitaFTW, developer at @codesandbox, made a website that is just a compilation of memes that people made out of photos of her. She did this because she was tired of trying to find them on her own and wanted a one-stop-shop to grab one whenever she wanted to use for whatever. You can find the work of art here. This wasn't an industry shaking, bleeding edge, ground breaking project. It was literally just something she thought would be hilarious, so she did it! Working on something that's for you will provide you way more motivation to finish than making another note taker or quiz app. At the very least, you'll be doing everyone a service by not adding another quiz app into the webiverse.2
So get selfish and make that browser extension that deletes all the "blogginess" out of recipes you find online and gets straight to the ingredients. Or make that text generator that takes whatever you write and converts it to how Tommy Wiseau would say it. Chances are, a lot of people may love what you thought only you would find amusing.
1 And why would you even want to be Batman? The guy is sad, all the time. 😬
2 That's a joke. Quiz apps are great and if you're just getting started with web development or learning a new framework, making a quiz app is a great way to get familiar with a lot of the essentials. Hell, at the time of writing this, I'm in the middle of making a quiz app in Vue.js 🤣
Oldest comments (1)
I'd use the Tommy Wiseau text generator all the time :)