To start a new one:
- define a specific, observable definition of done for the entire project, this can be a set of criteria
- cut in half again and again until you arrive at the mvp of your mvp, and put all other ideas on a version 2 list
- create a total estimate for the hours of v1, then multiply by 1.5x
- write these things in a static scoping document that you can refer back to when you’re tempted to add more
- ship something on day 1, doesn’t matter how you do it or how bad it is, just make it public so it feels real
- start putting in focus blocks (see below)
To work on it:
- create specific, protected time blocks (60-120 mins), scheduled 1-3 times a week
- try to block in times when you will have energy, like morning sessions, weekends or lunch breaks
- for a 90 minute block, use a structure like 5 mins reviewing where you left off, 75 mins focused work, 10 mins documenting the stopping point and next steps
- stop with the time, even if mid-flow
- if you really don’t have time in the week, just do 10 mins of cleaning up or minimal work, it will keep you engaged
In general:
- ruthlessly enforce monotasking, so one side project at a time, put everything else in someday/maybe
- perhaps think about side projects in terms of versions. Yes, you have to monotask, but maybe you only want to complete v1 and v2 of art before you move to v1 of music, then back to v3 of art, etc.
To add to weekly review:
- review the current active side project in its current state, and pick one of three options
- continue, if you’re still excited about the project’s outcome and want to keep building
- pivot, if the scope needs to change and the original goal is no longer correct
- kill, if the project has served its purpose or something else needs to take priority
- you shouldn’t really answer continue for more than 3 consecutive weeks without completing that version in the meantime, if this happens you might need to re-evaluate
How this should feel:
- the side project should feel like a creative outlet, and you should look forward to it
- you should be making pretty good progress per week
- if not, you may need a break, or a reconsideration. Remember you should do what you enjoy.
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What do I need to do now?
- pick one side project that you’re going to work on for now. Move everything else to someday/maybe, if you have plans then add subtasks.
- for the one you chose, go through the starting steps so you know what v1 is
- add the side project steps to weekly review
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Picking a side project
Art is a solid choice. Further development on beacons kinda requires it, since I want to set the art direction myself. Though, that’s not entirely true. Whatever a full release of Beacons wants to be, it should be minimal.
I want to do art more than I want to do beacons. But beacons is debatably more important. I don’t care too much about website since everything else will feed into it to an extent. Certifications are definitely important, if not #1 they should probably be #2 priority. Fashion is another one I really want to do. Competing for top spot, but so are a few others. JSM needs to be done, not as crucial but I really do wanna get that out into the world and iterate on it further. Dreams do need to get done, but that’s mostly for the benefit of others, not myself. I’m excited for when I progress at that, but it’s not a priority compared to these other things. And sorting, that’s one of those things that is probably worth doing eventually, but by no means is it a priority. Music is another, it’s not even in my list. I do wanna do it, it’s a core pillar even, but not as crucial for now.
JSM, Music, Dreams and Sorting can wait until later, in that order.
But I don’t know which of Art, Beacons, Certs and Fashion to work on first.
Let me think about the time/effort needed for each’s v1 compared to the value.
Art final goal is gonna be something along the lines of having designs for each beacons character and environment, probably in the final form of character posters where they each exist in a location and show their moves and effects. We can split that down to making one poster, which can be split down to creating a design for one character, maybe that’s v1. We pick a character, and we spend a session or two on each thing that makes them up - face shape, hair, eyes, mouth, arms, chest, etc. We use that to create a sketch, then we practice shading for a little bit, then colour, and finally put it all together into a design. I can see this taking 3 or 4 weeks if we put a few long sessions in per week.
Beacons final goal is to upload a fully playable demo of the game to a site like itch.io. We can split that down to making a fun multiplayer or 1-on-1 battle scene, which can be split down to making a full moveset and physics. This is already mostly done, but I think it needs some tweaks, it’s not actually that fun yet. So that might only take a week or two to get v1 done, as most of the work is already there, I had just followed it up with a bunch of unneeded extra work rather than perfecting the core mechanics.
The final goal of certifications is hard to define, since I’ll likely be doing more and renewing existing ones for years to come, but at this stage we could say the final goal is having all the ones I want to have for the end of the apprenticeship. So definitely entry-level Azure and GCP, and maybe AWS security specialty, though I’m not sure I need that yet. CCSP is in theory the gold standard for cloud security. I also kinda want to deploy a proper web app in AWS using all of the strats in the starred GPT chat, maybe that could be included here if I change the project name to just Cloud. Regardless, for v1, aka completing the Azure cert, probably 3 or 4 weeks including the exam.
The final goal of fashion is having a wardrobe I’m happy with, but that’s quite vague. It will be having a certain pool of clothes (that I can decide in more detail soon) that work together and form coherent outfits that I like. That can be split into owning one new outfit, which can be split into fully planning out the pieces for this outfit, including sizes and where to buy them, which is probably the v1. That doesn’t sound very long, maybe just a couple sessions, it could be done in one week.
I’m currently thinking Art, Cloud, Beacons, Fashion as the order.