There’s two basic strategies I can think of for personal project development:
- Heavy disciplined, all free time goeth the way of the hobby
- If it isn’t fun, stop and do something that is fun.
Which is better? Which is more rewarding? Which is more fulfilling? Well, I guess I have to try each and see. That’s what I should do I think. Knowing this will be it’s own reward, right? So, the question now is, how long should I do each for?
Let’s look at some different durations. Some are obviously wrong, like an hour, or a year. So.. somewhere between those? Yeah I think we can keep going. One day? No. One week? Still a little too short. Nine months? Seems like too long. Six months? Still seems too long but it is in the feasible range. So, between one week and six months? What’s in the middle? Three months. After three months, would another month matter? I really don’t think so. If I am not able to come to a conclusion after three months then I probably won’t be able to at all. One month can go by fairly quickly in terms of actual time spent on a hobby project. So, three months seems like a fair amount of time to know what’s good and bad about the above two methods.
I feel like taking the disciplined approach will yield a better end result, but I really won’t enjoy myself, and the reverse will be fun, but I won’t have anything to show after the three months. I’ll probably end up with about 20 unfinished projects.
I’ll do the fun part first, because the way my life is right now I think I need it. The rules are as such: I only work when I want, and I only work on things that are interesting. The goal is to let my interest in a project serve as the motivation to work. When I don’t feel like working I’ll do something else, or nothing at all. However, I will always document what I do. I’ll keep that discipline. Three months from today ends on November 29, 2018. I’ll write posts every 30 days as well just to track my progress and do a basic check in about my overall happiness/stress level (that’s in addition to posts when I actually work.) I already have something I want to work on so I’ll probably write a post about that as well. Maybe tomorrow.. heh.