Avoiding side projects

This is a very vague list of the ways I've avoided side projects over the years.

Think for days about the name for the side project I want to do
Dream about it and it becoming popular rather than actually doing it.
Thinking of side tools for the project that I could create to help me when it becomes a wild success.
Telling myself I do side projects and how I'm a producer not just a consumer, then proceed with 'Ill start it tomorrow', before long we're 3 years down the road and nothing has been done.
Get started with a written out plan, but never start.
Actually start, setup the project but then never return.
Build momentum over a month of doing something at least 2 or 3 times a week before just falling flat and not touching it again.
Looking at domain names and if they're available for the project. (I have a great site for this thats super fast, instantdomainsearch.com, you can curse me later.)
Ultimately, actually creating it, putting it out there but then not being bothered to do anything else. Mainly the marketing and 'selling' of it.
Looking at server costs and how I would slowly scale it and the technology I could use to implement it. For example Cloudflare Workers are something I've wanted to crowbar into many projects. Obviously never have.

My current 'solution'

While my side projects still go very slowly, a good way Ive found to get me on my laptop and working through some of my curiosities is what I call whats.

I simply create a dated directory, say 'oct14', within it I create a file called what.txt.

That what.txt file starts with 'Here I want to...' and I list what Im attempting to do. Then I list the steps of how Im going to get there. Then I just work throuh those steps. Heres an example:

Here I want to test flask and golang with the multiple requests stuff I was doing the other day. I firstly want to try lxd with a single cpu and the scripts from the other day. #flask #sqlite #golang #lxd Steps: - Setup a simple lxd container and copy over all the requirements. Run and post the results, compared to the other day. - Recreate the write fastapi stuff into flask and post test results - Recreate the write fastapi stuff in a simple golang script and post test results

This is one I had back in June, obviously it references some of the other things I was doing and doesn't even make much sense to me now reading it back. However I don't think that's the point here. I just want to get started and writing out my intentions and a bit of a plan seems to be helpful. Ill most likely never read these back, but it helps me continue with what I'm doing.

I would then sometimes finish with a conclusion of what I managed to do and find and in some cases what I plan to do next. This also means I can just pick up where I was.

I think a big part of the procrastination is just getting started and a big blocker to that is how and what to get started on. Also, where to pick up next time. Keeping what.txt files like this has helped in my side projects and in my learning. For example I've learned just how fast SQLite can be on a server and now have a better understanding of Python logging.

12 Sep 2022, 4:01 p.m.

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