Devtober 2022

Context:

• My project list is long and overwhelming. I wanted to select the smallest one for Devtober, to experience again the feeling of finishing a thing.

What worked well:

• Finishing a thing feels fantastic! It’s momentum and motivation for the next project.
• Batching curation of music assets in advance reduced context-switching.
• Even for a mini tool, narrative helped me structure and sequence the elements: you are a writer loafing in the park, surrounded by the dusk chorus, then it starts to rain, and thunder, so you retreat indoors, get a fire going, put on a Satie record, and typity-type-type.

What didn’t work well:

• Actual functionality is quick to code, but fluffing around at the style stage takes time. The last 20% ballooned to take 80% of the time.
• I don’t really factor in upload time. The perfectionist in me spends too long on making an appealing cover image.
• Time creep. I need to box my time better.

Next time:

• No need to rank projects, but I will make a new box “single session”, so I know which ones I can knock off quickly.
• Save one day a week for working on small projects. Finishing things helps me finish more things.
• Add annual recurring reminder of Devtober to my Calendar.