There’s Always Something Better

Lately, I haven't been able to give any of my projects the focus they deserve.

I want to build things, and I constantly have new ideas, but whenever I start working on a project, my mind drifts somewhere else. Suddenly I get another project idea and start thinking about that instead. Then I see something someone else made on the internet and start thinking, "Why am I even doing this?"

As a result, I have a lot of ideas, but very few projects that I'm actually making progress on.

I think the most frustrating part is that it's not that I don't want to work. Quite the opposite. I constantly want to make things. I just keep sabotaging myself when it comes to deciding what I should actually focus on.

I'll start a project, and a few days later another idea seems more interesting. While working on the current project, I'll discover a new technology and think, "Would this have been better?" I'll design something, see another app, and suddenly what I made starts looking bad to me.

And then I lose interest in the project.

Eventually I move on to something else, and the same thing happens again.

Other people's work

This gets especially bad when I see what other people are making.

When I see a genuinely great project on GitHub or somewhere else, I'm supposed to be inspired by it. Sometimes I am. But sometimes I immediately start comparing it to whatever I'm working on.

Their project is finished, while mine is barely getting started. They might have spent months working on it, while I've spent a few days on mine. And yet I still find myself wondering why my project isn't as good as theirs.

Of course it isn't.

I know that logically, but it still kills some of the excitement.

At some point, instead of thinking "I could make something like this too," I start thinking "Someone already made this better than I ever could." And that's a pretty convenient excuse to abandon my own project.

There really isn't an end to this. I can always find a better project on the internet. A better-designed app, a better-written library, a more creative game, or an idea I wish I'd thought of myself.

I can't change that.

I think this is the actual problem

For a while, I thought this was a motivation problem. I'm not so sure anymore.

Because I never really have a problem with ideas. If anything, the problem might be the opposite.

I have too many choices.

I choose a project, but I keep thinking about the projects I didn't choose. I choose a technology, but then I wonder if another one would have been better. I work on one idea, but another idea seems more exciting.

I'm constantly making choices, but I don't stick with any of them for long enough.

I sometimes notice how ridiculous this gets even when I'm trying to choose a Linux distribution. I'll pick one, then I'll see something I like about another one and start reconsidering everything. There isn't really a problem that needs solving; there's just the thought that there might be a better option. :D

And I think I do the same thing with my projects.

I'm constantly looking for the better option.

But there's a problem with that: there's no end to looking for a better option.

So what am I going to do?

I don't think the solution is to remove every distraction from my life. I can't stop having new ideas, and I can't stop other people from making great things.

What I can change is how I react to those things.

From now on, when I start a project, I'm going to try not to immediately replace it with another idea. If I get a new idea, I'll write it down instead of abandoning what I'm working on. If I discover a new technology, I won't switch unless I actually need to.

Most importantly, I'm going to try not to constantly compare my projects to other people's work. Someone making something better than mine doesn't make my project meaningless. The point of building something isn't always to create the best version of it in the world.

I think I need one simple rule for myself:

If I choose something, I'm not going to keep looking for a better option for a while.

When I start a project, I'm going to spend a certain amount of time just working on it. New ideas can be written down, but they don't become new projects. I don't need to research a new framework every time I see one. I don't need to redesign something every time I see a beautiful app.

First, I need to get what I already have somewhere.

Because right now, I don't need more ideas. I already have enough.

What I need is to choose one of them and stay with it long enough to actually finish it.