<story><title>Managing my motivation as a solo dev</title><url>https://mbuffett.com/posts/maintaining-motivation/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ezekg</author><text>&amp;gt; Leave tasks unfinished&lt;p&gt;I also do this. I learned that if I leave a failing test for myself in the morning, I&amp;#x27;ll think about it on and off and jump right in next session without wasting time on HN or YT for an hour or 2 in the mornings. Sometimes this ends up causing me to work a little bit late, trying to make sure I actually have a failing test written for the problem (sometimes I have an issue without an accompanying test yet), but it&amp;#x27;s worth the extra effort&amp;#x2F;time. A failing test gives me something 100% actionable to jump into in the morning, as opposed to leaving e.g. a feature half written which can have an ambiguous starting point in terms of jumping back into it. I can&amp;#x27;t recommend this enough.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>djcannabiz</author><text>Ive heard a similar idea, from Hemingway. 
&amp;quot;Learned never to empty the well of my writing, but always to stop when there was still something there in the deep part of the well, and let it refill at night from the springs that fed it. I always worked until I had something done, and I always stopped when I knew what was going to happen next. That way I could be sure of going on the next day.&amp;quot; — Ernest Hemmingway&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;I really agree, and I also thinks it can be helpful to do something similar when taking breaks (have lunch&amp;#x2F;take a walk while leaving a failing test).</text></comment>
<story><title>Managing my motivation as a solo dev</title><url>https://mbuffett.com/posts/maintaining-motivation/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ezekg</author><text>&amp;gt; Leave tasks unfinished&lt;p&gt;I also do this. I learned that if I leave a failing test for myself in the morning, I&amp;#x27;ll think about it on and off and jump right in next session without wasting time on HN or YT for an hour or 2 in the mornings. Sometimes this ends up causing me to work a little bit late, trying to make sure I actually have a failing test written for the problem (sometimes I have an issue without an accompanying test yet), but it&amp;#x27;s worth the extra effort&amp;#x2F;time. A failing test gives me something 100% actionable to jump into in the morning, as opposed to leaving e.g. a feature half written which can have an ambiguous starting point in terms of jumping back into it. I can&amp;#x27;t recommend this enough.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>tnolet</author><text>I was super in the other camp. Could not sleep if something wasn’t finished. Especially for coding. For marketing I found a (good) blog post can take a couple of days.</text></comment>