Getting Ideas organized and projects completed?
rwgast_logicdesign
Posts: 1,464
Do any of you guys who have something to show have any advice on how to get things done? I have an issue where I have way to many things I want to do and I do all the r&d about what needs to be done, maybe I even get the parts togather, but I can never acually get things completed or physically started at the moment. Right now I have a few(6) propeller projects I want to do or am in the middle of, Im getting into arm and embedded linux (theres some huge undertakings here too), I need to kearn KiCad and build a web site. I want to sit down and polish my skills learn pasm well. I feel like I never get any of this stuff done no matter how physically organized I am or how much I belive in my project or know how important it is to learn something. Basically I only accomplish things by somehow getting through a project doing alot of r&d and maybe learning the bare minimal about software as I have too.
Do any of you have a system to get the things done you want to do and learn the stuff you need to learn without getting to sidetracked?
Do any of you have a system to get the things done you want to do and learn the stuff you need to learn without getting to sidetracked?
Comments
I can have a thread for each project .
Keeps my projects Fresh and up to date..
* I need to add a few tonight that I did this past week ,
Peter...
restrict myself to a certain space and stop buying parts till space available ...
Enjoy!
Mike
But its not the destination, its the journey thats important. As long as there's another impossible project, its still fun.
I restrict myself to 3 concurrent projects - 3 at work and 3 at the Propeller!
Enjoy!
Mike
Organized? Completed? Not sidetracked?
Is this even possible?
Every propeller project I've done is still a work in progress. I think I'm done... and then there's some tweak I can do to make it better.
Walter
The journey is just beginning! ...add a wife, a 10 yr old, a house with 2 acres of grass, a demanding job (in the exciting world of IT), a basement renovation and various other professional and personal distractions. Lots you do yet little accomplish do you!
P.S. and a new puppy!
-Phil
Woof, woof. Grrrrr, grrrr. Woof, woof.
-browz
Yes the wolf at the door is a great motivator, but when your local gas station wonders how you manage to run out of gas while pulling up to the pump for the 6th time this year, it seems rather dismal.
You might try organizing projects according to topic.
A. Electronic fundamentals
B. Analog applications
C. Digital applications
We tend to over-emphasize the digital here, but all are important.
I don't know about you but, I have so many projects going on at the same time that I have no time to be organized. I use my memory for mostly everything. I just sort things out via lead times and priority.
At least my boss accepts the state of my office as it looks like a hurricane went through a electronics warehouse. And yet I know where every resistor is except if it falls on the floor.
Good luck!
Tons of details make for distraction. For instance, I thought all micro-controllers have a Brown Out Reset. But I just discovered the PIC16f57 does not and that is why Parallax's BS2 has that outboard BOR on it.
This in turn made me ponder if brownout control is really all that important. I guess so if you are using other chips that expect there logical Highs to not slide to zero. Without some sort of brownout control, a nice project can turn into a nightmare as everything becomes unpredictable.
The Propeller as a brownout pin too. And one should pay attention to what one does with it. Yet another 'ah ha' moment.
Or another question might be "What fun is a completed project?" Getting sidetracked is part of what's interesting about this hobby.
I've got 2 or 3 dozen projects in partial stages of completion, and at any given time I work on whichever seems like the most fun at the moment. (yes, it's just a hobby for me, too.)
My challenge has been being able to organize both the code and the hardware for all the different projects such that they can be set aside, then picked up a few months or years down the road.
The best strategy I've come up with is having lots of shelving for the hardware, and on my computer, a separate folder for all the files for each project - SX code, spin code, Delphi code, datasheet PDFs, documentation.
Having separate folders has lead to lots of redundent copies of some of my spin library files, but I've found that's better than having one common library that, when modified for the current project, breaks a dozen older projects.
I have done a few finished projects for other people, but there's no magic about getting them done; you've just got to put the time in until they can be delivered.
-browz
That way you can be the wolf to our door ;-)
I'd expect finished projects and contest entries must be good publicity.
Sounds like a great contest name "wolf at your door" contest.
Ditto mindrobots
Wife, difficult pregnancy and now a 1 year old, 1950's house in renovations - which lead to an exponential increase in my todo list! And work, is all consuming, I still wish they were right in the 80's that by the turn of the century we'd be job sharing - instead for the last few years it's been the opposite with not enough resources so end up doing multiple roles simultaneously, with focus brought to which ever one has the highest visibility/priority issue..... Often needing me to pull a rabbit out of the hat at last minute.
Every time I'm getting into a project another higher priority time consuming event eats all available time and removes the fire from my projects...... Sigh
You must have missed Ken and Invent-O-Doc's presentation at the last UPEW. They're working on having a big medical training / instrument contest sponsored by Parallax and the Army (IIRC).
That might be in your kitchen. Scrabble games like that one probably happen that way in Port Townsend every day. It is sorta a fantasy land, isolated from the rest of the country.
Grrrr isn't a word, but it's also true cats can't type on a keyboard. Can't fool me! Hah.
I think the trick to this project stuff and completion is taking it all in small steps, but with the whole project in mind. And when it becomes not fun, drop it like a hot rock and move on!
-Phil
I found Browser's alter Ego
Misto >>>
Sorry browser... your cover is blown .........
+1. My bench is never laboratory clean, but when I take the time to open up some real work space, I get a lot more done. Part of it is simple organization, which makes it easier to resume after umpteen interruptions.
Duane Degn has his parts neatly organized in multiple storage bins and he has a master list of which part is in which bin. I'll never be that organized, but every little bit helps.
(When Duane loses his list, then he and I will be about even).
Another good motivator is SHAME. Announce LOUDLY and BOLDLY to the world that you are working on a project and that it will be finished by a certain date. Commit to writing and submitting an article on schedule about your FINISHED project to a magazine (Servo, ROBOT, etc) and let that sword of damocles hand over your head. Keeps me moving. You rest, you rust!
If I had to meet hard deadlines for a significant portion of my work, I think I'd change occupations. It would be too stressful. Being motivated by the sheer joy and challenge of doing something and turning it into a finished product is much more satisfying. (I think it should be obvious to anyone who's been around here for a few years, that I'm not motivated by shame: PropCAM
-Phil
I get English edittng work occasionally and the customers that are most demanding of my conforming to deadlines are the ones that manage deadlines most poorly. This always seems to be the case. They have to have a project done by such and such date and the won't give it to me a week before. They show up a day or two from the deadline at 12 midnight and just demand that I have to take it.
There are planning processes for deadlines - Critical Path Monitoring and PERT charts and bar charts. I have used all of them and they really make one productive and less stressed.
But those tiny one-time projects from people that land on your doorstep still are the most stressful.
LOL
I guess the CMUCam4 puts that on the back burner?
-Phil
Would sending Browser to New Orleans for two weeks give you enough time?
Jim
-Phil
Contests are the ULTIMATE deadlines to force you to get the job done. They're fun and can be quite stressful if you want to win. I've done more than a few, including the Trinity Firefighting Robot. That was a solo effort, but I think it's very neat that so many high school kids are getting involved in Team robot events, which teach deadlines, working as a team, and of course electronics and mechanics. At some of those VEX world championships, you see teams lofting the small "nerdy" kid who drove the robot up on their shoulders just like he was a football hero. THAT'S great.