When you’re working on side-projects, you don’t really have deadlines. You may fake them, but you don’t have clients expecting them by a certain date, and your reputation won’t be damaged if you miss it. What makes me finish my personal projects is the fun I get by doing them. As long as I’m learning new things, I spend my free time on them. But if for some reason, it gets boring, I usually abandon it even if I like the idea. That’s what happened with movio, i wasn’t learning anything new and gave up.
Back in my computer engineering degree, I was used to work on the projects until the last couple of hours when I would start the report (and that was what would give us most of the grade, but the project had to work). Now I have two weeks to write a 4 page report that will give me half of the grade of this course. This is the kind of task that might fit designers, but really messes with my engineering preparation.
I am used to complain about not having time enough for my projects, but now I have too much time and that is a problem. If we are given two weeks, means they are expecting a really good essay. On the other hand, four pages is something you write quickly (if you think of what to fit in four pages, not writing everything and then resuming it).
And even if I am one of those people who get started right away, it’s hard to start on this one, since I know I have really plenty of time to do it later, and I can do more interesting stuff like writing this post.