ADHD, finishing projects and being independent

How do I trick my brain into completing a project? I’m making an app that shows which voice actor plays a character in the movie and what other movies they act in. It’s useful for me personally so the internal motivation is here but sometimes I feel like I’m making something that’s been done numerous times over and I lost the momentum because I’m on vacation with my family now.

I ran into some problems with the project too and getting help takes a ton of time so it’s disrupting the rythm too. I wish I didn’t have to rely on other people so much but the documentations don’t answer all of my questions. I really have to put at least 2-3 projects like this for a portfolio;_; halp

ericjmorey,
@ericjmorey@programming.dev avatar

This post created a great discussion. Thanks for getting it started.

HParker,

My trick is to rotate subprojects so I am always procrastinating something.

You still have to eventually finish the last subproject, but even that might be procrastinating on something for your next project.

nibblebit,
@nibblebit@programming.dev avatar
  1. You need as many environmental reminders that you are doing work as possible:
  • dedicated work place where you don’t game or browse or do chores and taxes on.
  • dedicated work time where you are allowed to do work.
  • dedicated non-work time where you won’t work and don’t get to feel bad about not working on the project and avoiding negative emotions associated with the work.
  • I have a dedicated work shirt only worn while at work
  • figure out your attention sinks: music/podcasts/YouTube w/e and apply them strategically to signal that you are or are not working
  1. Plan. Identify as many tasks as possible ahead of time and figure out what is motivational an demotivational. Motivation takes a nosedive once the low hanging fruit runs out.
  • make sure to front-load the boring stuff and keep motivated by anticipating the fun stuff later. Please, Start out with the tests. TDD is a hack for ADD
  • Ration your creative sessions. Once you feel you are plateauing force yourself create some novelty in the project.
  1. Want and grit. At some point you’ll have to grit it out. You have to make it clear to your brain that you want it. Make it personal. Want it not the way you want to have a cookie after dinner, want it the way you want to breathe. Don’t even want the project, but want to prove to your brain that you are a rare capable human, able to start and finish a creative endeavour independently.
  2. Make work time scarce and urgent. Having a child has done wonders for my creative output. I used to splurge 6 hour sessions kinda working on something…now I get maybe 40 minutes a day. An hour if I’m creative about it. But heck, does that hour get applied like nobody’s business.

Hope this helps, best of luck!

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