Forever projects
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I have the constant urge to "do stuff". My to-do and idea lists are endless collections of things I'd love to do one day. But there's a problem — my side hustle schedule is pretty busy already.
I want to keep this blog active. I run a weekly web development newsletter. I maintain some open-source projects. I collect online tools.
These projects alone eat a good chunk of my free time, and while I love doing them, they add up. There are only so many hours in the day.
For years, I ran the @randomMDN Twitter bot. Then Elmo broke the Twitter APIs. I was puzzled. "This is one of my projects; it can't just be over, can it?" buzzed in my head. I've had a hard time letting go, I guess.
Fast forward. I hadn't had time to fix or deal with the problem, and it was over. Just like that, one of my projects dropped off the list.
Lovely people ported Random MDN to the Fediverse if you want random web dev facts in your feed.
I realized I treat most projects as "forever projects".
Of course, I work on this project every week. Of course, I'll answer these GitHub issues over the weekend. Of course, I keep this online resource up-to-date. And, of course, this isn't a sustainable.
As Jamie Wilkinson puts it, he doesn't want to do forever projects anymore. Everything has a shelf life. Kicking things off is great, but letting things go is as important.
Treat beginnings like endings: celebrate them, document them.
It's simple: to have time for new projects and passions, one has to let go.
By ending well, you give yourself the freedom to begin again.
Great advice.
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Frontend nerd with over ten years of experience, freelance dev, "Today I Learned" blogger, conference speaker, and Open Source maintainer.