5 Reasons you Never Finish The Projects You Have Started – Finish or Call an End to Them.

I had a problem in beginning of my career as a software developer to start too many projects and finish none.

I think that this problem is very common among software developers.

Side-Project

It is very important to cross the finish line.

If you put your time and efforts into some project and time is money you lose a lot of money every time you don’t finish the project.

Now I am trying to finish all projects I start.

That’s why it’s very important to carefully choose your projects.

Here are the 5 main reasons why you don’t finish your projects.

1) You start too big projects

It’s a good thing to dream and have a big goal in your career.

But sometimes we need to carefully consider the size of the project we are planning to start.

If the project will span several years to finish, we need to reconsider is it smart to even start this project?

If you don’t finish your project usually you will not get too much benefit from it.

2) You are trying to make it perfect

Perfectionist

It is good to have a nice product with lots of features in version 1 but it is also important to finish the project.

You need to carefully consider what features will go into v1 of the Project.

I personally recommend to include some core functionalities and some that separates you from the competition.

3) You don’t track progress and celebrate milestones

It is important to break the project into smaller milestones.

Every time you reach some milestone, it’s a good time to celebrate.

 
Progress is motivating and will help you to keep working toward your goals.

Here you can also use popular productivity technique called “Don’t break the Chain” where you put an X on the calendar every day you complete your goals.

You can read more about this in my blog post How I combine 3 productivity techniques together.

4) You have too many projects

Business woman with arrows and questions sign above isolated on white

It’s very hard to multitask successfully.

If you have a lot of great ideas and want to work on several of them you can fall into the trap not finishing your projects.

Today, even investors don’t take more than 2 projects at the time.

Try to work on one or two projects max and focus to finish them on time.

5) You don’t have a deadline

Setting a deadline for the project can be very motivating, especially if you are working on the project for someone else and you told them about the deadline.

Try to set a realistic deadline and take it seriously.

Knowing that people are waiting for the project will help keep you with your project.

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2 Comments on 5 Reasons you Never Finish The Projects You Have Started – Finish or Call an End to Them.

  1. Mahesh Nagar
    December 1, 2014 at 7:15 am (9 years ago)

    this post is an eye opener for me , i started some project , joined in between but finishes none .
    the main hindrance feeling insecure so have to try learn new and new things and making switch from one company to another .

    Reply
    • Radenko Zec
      December 1, 2014 at 7:27 am (9 years ago)

      Hi Mahesh.
      Thanks for comment.
      That is very common thing among us – developers.
      I have planned several blog posts related to “feeling insecure,burned-out etc. as software developer” so keep your eyes open.

      Reply

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