I have always been coding, working on new things, watching my contributor graph fill out over the year. I knew I was doing stuff, but when it came to making my resume, filling out the projects section turned out to be harder than I expected. I had over 50 repositories by this time, and an even longer list of ideas, but none reached the finish line. I wasn't proud of a single project. Not a single one was truly finished.

The Joy of Starting Something New

Starting a new project is always fun. You have an amazing idea (one that you still truly believe is amazing), you create some initial code, maybe a website, maybe just a README, and push it to GitHub. Then you spend a day or two adding features. But over time, it becomes less exciting. You face your first barriers, you realize how much work is required. And then a new idea comes along! You abandon the previous project entirely and are already pushing a new repo to GitHub, creating an infinite loop. Or, after a while, you just get bored by the amount of work needed to really polish a project and leave it unfinished.

The Brain Behind the Loop

There’s a reason starting projects feels amazing while finishing them feels… like a chore.

Dopamine Hits from Novelty

Our brains love dopamine, and novelty is one of its strong triggers. Each new idea or repo gives a small rush of satisfaction. We feel the immediate hit of accomplishment, even from the smallest things. That’s why first commits, first UI, or first working features feel so magical. But the excitement fades as the work becomes repetitive and requires persistence.

Perfectionism and Overwhelm

Completing a project often means polishing it, fixing all the edge cases, and writing documentation - the type of work that is boring and not immediately rewarding. Who will really notice that your app doesn’t break in some insanely rare edge case? Our brains prefer the creative spark over the grind, so perfectionism can make finishing feel impossible.

The Illusion of Progress

Even though your contributor graph shows you’re active, there’s a huge difference between activity and completion. This can lead to guilt or dissatisfaction because you did a lot, but there’s nothing tangible to show for it. That’s exactly how I felt, and it was the moment I decided to take actionable steps.

Slowing Down

I knew I had to focus on the most important things and push them to the very end, so I could feel a real sense of accomplishment, not just a momentary one that later leads to dissatisfaction. I decided to set strict rules for myself:

Only two ongoing projects

From now on, I will only work on two projects at a time. I find this number is a sweet spot: it gives flexibility while still limiting distraction. I will try my best to finish them. I’ve already caught myself thinking about new ideas, but instead of starting them and falling back into the loop, I add them to my development ideas list. Describing the idea in the note gives me a small dopamine hit, and then I return to my current work.

Archiving projects

Starting a new project doesn’t bind me to finishing it. Some projects turn out not to be worth it, they can require huge amounts of work with little return. That’s why I allow myself to abandon projects. But here’s the thing: abandoning now means never returning to them. Previously, I would leave projects unfinished, still thinking I might get back to them. Now, leaving a project means completely archiving the repository and letting it go. The power of archiving isn’t just practical, it frees mental space and stops the guilt loop.

Current Focus

Following these rules, I am now focusing on two projects. If you read this blog in the distant future, I hope you click on them and see polished, complete work:

• arcade - classic games in your terminal
• minilang - simple interpreter written in go

Join me!

If you’ve ever felt the same frustration, that sense of lack of accomplishment, consider this your sign. And remember: done doesn’t have to mean perfect - just 90% is enough to feel proud.