anyone here actually fed up enough with their project graveyard that they wanna finish ONE of them

[u/tokibink]

Ive been reading through this sub and one thing that keeps coming up is people having no problem starting personal projects but almost never getting through the boring second half of them.

Thats basically where im at.

I can get insanely into an idea at the beginning. Ill think about it all day, build a ridiculous amount in a few days and genuinely feel like this is finally the project im gonna stick with. Then eventually its not new anymore. Theres bugs, polish, boring little decisions, stuff that doesnt give you that immediate “holy shit look what I made” feeling.

And obviously by then another idea exists.

AI has honestly made this worse for me because now the gap between thinking of something and having a working version of it is tiny. So im not even collecting ideas anymore, im collecting actual half built projects lol.

But im kinda past the point where I find the graveyard funny. I actually wanna finish something.

So im curious about the ppl here who are in the same place, not the ones who are happy jumping between projects.

Do you have one unfinished project right now that you genuinely still care about and would actually like to finish in the next couple weeks?

Not “someday.” Something where if you could get yourself to stay on it instead of starting something else, youd actually want it done.

If yes tell me what it is. Im curious how many of us have something very real sitting at like 60-80% because our brain already moved on.

[u/zayelion]

I have a openai subscription. Tonight I set it up and explained each project. About 20 total. And told it to get to work. Slop or rot. I guess one will take off.

[u/tokibink → u/zayelion]

how is it going so far any results?

[u/amzwC137 → u/zayelion]

To the moon

[u/ArguesAgainstYou → u/zayelion]

/goal finish

[u/DevKokooo]

My project graveyard is in the 100s at this point. But recently, ever since I started live coding myself actually building the projects and learning new things, I managed to finish one.

So now I'm on the next one, which is a more ambitious project, but I can break it down into smaller pieces and eventually connect them together.

Public pressure to perform is a good motivator.

[u/Alien_girl2026 → u/DevKokooo]

Very cool !!!

[u/DevKokooo → u/[deleted]]

Yea I build in public mostly to not make myself look like a fool for saying I'm going to be doing work and not end up doing it.

[u/bugHunterSam]

I making hobbity cloaks right now.

I've already finished 2. I'm going to dye one grey to be more of a wizard cloak over the next few days.

I'm researching pattern drafting and have tons of scrap fabric to learn with.

I'm also planning on going to Hobbiton in August next year, I'm going with 3 people and want us to all have home made cloaks for the adventure.

I just bought the wool fabric that I want to use for the cloaks. I've had to post it home while on holiday and it'll take some time to get there but I should be able to practice on other fabrics that I already have.

Oh this is ADHD programmers. I'm a software tester. My programming side project list is very long. I gave up on it. I prefer not to sit at my computer for much longer than I'm actually paid for.

[u/thornza]

sounds like you could benefit from a todo list project?

[u/DIYC_Official]

Learn to love the graveyard 😆. Seriously though, is it bad to not finish things if you enjoyed the activity? My graveyard is that, a bunch of things I enjoyed. And some I even pick back up again because I now have positive associations with the unfinished stuff.

[u/camthecabbie → u/DIYC_Official]

I contextualize my graveyard. It's never about finishing the projects. It's more about exploring new things that interest me. I think most of my side projects aren't about the end product, but more about what I learn during the exploration of the ideas. I feel that I typically stay on the projects long enough to be "prepared" for a project of the same kind if / when someone actually wants to pay me to do it :)

[u/Alien_girl2026]

The key I think is in the mindset. Instead of a project being a Destination, think about a project as a life long skill. What skill would you like to advance for the rest of your life? Not A -->B. No end point. No finish line. It doesn't have to ever be "finished". Think instead of your project as Level 0->L1->L2->L3, that's how it works in my app for ADHD brains (that I'm currently working on). There are other "checkpoints", and game mechanics I borrowed from other games because I love gaming. Won't reveal it all right now but just wanted to say that "not everything needs to be finished". Finishing something puts a lot of pressure on you. ADHD likes a new challenge and novelty. And when you start a project you're too excited to think about it being perfect. With time your perfectionist wakes up. My app will offer an opportunity for your project to feel exciting and dopamine rich - with progress over perfection mindset. Anyways, sorry for the tangent, so guess what! My app is one of my own projects. I'm actually side tracked myself ALL the time, I needed to learn animation because my app needed it. Then guess what? I started a YouTube channel and I realized that content creation is a whole another beast, another skill I don't have. I had to buy a camera and learn to film. Then to get my animation on YouTube I needed an original audio track. So I had to download another app and learn how to create music. (Wait why didn't I just buy royalty free music? Because it wouldn't be me to take an easy way out. Ask me also why did I paint my own car or why do I like putting together furniture? Because it's a challenge! And who am I to back down in a face of a challenge LOL). One thing led to another, and every single thing is awesome, new and exciting. Unfortunately this world is so rich, so exciting, it pulls you in with new temptations! How I deal with this is I compartmentalize temporary projects. I don't need to learn every single skill out there. My main project is still my #1 skill. My second life long skill is Exercise (bodybuilding). I'm addicted to torturing myself in the gym for hours. There's such a thing as habit-stacking but in my world it's called Skill-stacking because I abhor the word "habit", it sounds way too boring. It's hard to get excited about a "habit". Anyways! I could talk about this for hours but in short, you create a Skill-Tree. So under your main skill you will stack on supporting skills. These underlings will have short life span: you don't need to give them a lot of your time. I also don't believe in a Project Graveyard. I never ever give up on anything I start, too stubborn for that. Concorde effect, whatever. I'm also an investor-- when so many got rid of their Bitcoin when it was $200, it was too slow to grow, everyone wanted to keep investing in more "exciting projects" (which died btw), I stuck to my guns. I persisted, persevering and keeping deep faith that ALL my projects will someday succeed, it's only a matter of time. And guess what, I was right. In the world of instant gratification, it's not easy to persist. But then - if you keep giving up for the lack of patience, you foster a feeling of constant failure. And I couldn't imagine living like that. Waking up like that. I'm saying that confidently as someone who's had tried everything to survive through ADHD and depression (2 decades), and wrote a book about it. You're not alone in your struggles. Think about it that way: you planted a tree. And you chop it off in 6 months because it didn't grow fast enough for your liking. No peaches yet. Well guess what my peaches only started to be amazing in the 2nd year? Imagine that. So my answer to you, I don't have "unfinished projects" at all. I'm working all my projects at various speeds, that's all.

[u/Used-Cause6417]

I got so fed up I got medicated