The Only System That Gets Me to Ship Side Projects
I've abandoned more side projects than I can count. This is the anti-process that finally works for me.
Here's the truth about side projects: they die in the gap between "almost done" and "good enough to share."
After abandoning a dozen projects, I found one rule that changed everything.
The rule
Ship on day one of feeling the urge to polish.
Polishing feels productive but it's actually avoidance. The moment you think "I'll ship it when the X is a bit better" — that's the moment to stop and ship it as-is.
The system
Week 1: proof only
Make the smallest possible thing that proves the core idea works. No landing page, no README, no logo. Just the thing.
Week 2: one user
Show it to one person. Not to collect feedback — to make it real. The act of sharing changes your relationship to the project.
Week 3: public
Post it somewhere. Anywhere. A tweet, a forum post, a Discord message. The goal is to create a timestamp that says "this exists."
What happens next
Either people respond (keep going) or they don't (archive with no shame — you learned something). What never happens: the project dies in your laptop.
The system only works if you internalise the last step as non-optional. Shipping is not the reward for finishing. Shipping is the work.