I'm constantly working on "fun code". What enjoyment and education I don't get from the day job, I get from my hobby code. The only problem is that I work on so many projects that I almost never finish any of them.

Stop. Collaborate. Listen.

When I've had others help out (art / design, UX, project management, QA, dev, ...), my motivation to finish projects has increased exponentially. But, it's hard to get others interested in your vision enough to devote their time to it. Especially enough time to get the project over the finish line.

I have some projects that I've been toying with in my head and on paper for 2 decades or more. I have some projects that I've written, rewritten, and rewritten again. And, of course, I get tons of friends and family asking me about bringing their app visions to life. Luckily, most of the latter wind up being existing apps that I can point them to in the app store.

I Have Completed Some Projects, Though!

Don't get me wrong. I have finished some personal projects. Most notably: my 2007 book on game programming, my 2014 humor book, and my suite of Game Dev Utils, launched in 2016. But, it's really hard to reach the end of the race for most, where I have 5+ unfinished projects for every one that's been wrapped up.

I believe that my biggest hindrance to finishing projects is that I'm almost always working in a vacuum. No feedback. No encouragement. No constructive criticism. No shared vision. When there's no one counting on you to wrap things up, things like reading, netflix, and naps have an increased appeal.

What About You?

How do you stay motivated? How do you manage multiple projects? What kind of things do you like to work on outside of the nine-to-five?

-- Joe