Remote Matcher Journal #13

This is something new I’m trying: a journal recapping the work I’m doing on Remote Matcher which is my current side project. My goal with this is to do some public accountability so I’ll > keep moving forward on this project.

(Real talk: I’m passionate about the idea behind the project, but I seem to have some kind of mental block about getting work done on it. These blog posts are meant to apply pressure to me to report my progress publicly and move the project forward)

BLUF

(Bottom Line Up Front)
This is the end. The objective was not achieved.

Postmortem

Basically over the last 4 months(!) my ability to get things done on this project have slipped, slided, and eventually fell off a cliff. Looking at my project tracker I see that every week since the end of October I have gotten less and less done.

Let’s do a 5 whys on this.

• Why did I get less and less done every week?
  • I planned things out, but just couldn’t find the motivation to get them done on time
• Why was there no motivation?
  • Sometimes it is just hard to get things done after work. I can’t let the day job go ignored, and the hours are sometimes long. Going from one long programming work session into another few hours of work (at the same desk but on a different computer) is really hard to do. I really underestimated that.
• Why was this underestimated? How come this was not seen sooner?
  • In the beginning there were a lot of tasks that were easier/fun that I was able to knock out day after day. Once I moved into more challenging tasks, it became harder to keep the momentum going as tasks kept slipping from one day to the next.
  • Additionally, some of the tasks in the beginning seemed important to the final goals, but after they were achieved there wasn’t any feedback that they made a difference.
  • At the start of the project, the work load from the day job was also lighter-than-normal. As a result, doing “extra” work later in the day didn’t seem too bad. As work picked up though, my energy levels were sapped quickly.
• Why were the tasks not more focused and why weren’t they more granular?
  • Short answer: I suck at doing that type of planning.
  • Longer answer: It is a challenge for me to work backwards from some of these objectives and arrive at large tasks that should be done. (I have noticed I have this issue in other areas of my life.) Once I arrive at a large task, I have a limit to how much time and effort I’ll put into breaking it down into smaller tasks.
    • This is an iterative process that for some reason I always under estimate.
• What should be done to prevent the planning issues in the future?
  • Dedicated time (probably several times) to breaking the goals down and figuring out:
    • What “success” for an objective looks like
    • What tasks are needed to achieve that objective
    • How long will each task take?
    • Repeat until the tasks are less than 1 hour of work

The site is still up and running, and is more or less on autopilot.

I want to make this into something more than it is and help people find the joy of working remotely.

Next steps

Take a break. Read some more, play around.

After the holidays, regroup and see what is around.

Questions? Comments? Email me and ask away