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Project Duration Tolerance

dougw

There are lots of motives for doing projects, but lets focus on the satisfaction of completing a project.

Complex projects may yield more satisfaction, but they take longer to complete - when does that tradeoff become untenable?

What is your comfort zone for hobby project duration?

This is a strange poll for me to formulate because I get lots of project ideas, which I write down, and periodically push forward incrementally. It could take years to push all the way to completion and sometimes they never complete. The typical scenario is I get an idea and start thinking through the solution over a couple of weeks, then start collecting components over a few months, then I finally go into a frenzy of detailed design (PCBs) for a week, then I take another couple of months to get around to going into a 2 week frenzy of building and testing. This process doesn't fit well in the poll options above.

It seems like I go through a process where I start without much commitment and gradually build commitment until the scales tip and I fully commit. Most often I won't tackle a project where I cannot complete the detailed design in a week or two, but this would often be sufficient to create a microcontroller PCB with a full set of user interface peripherals and a sensor system plus some actuators all in a 3D printed housing. I find the 3-4 month design challenges on element14 to be just doable within my comfort zone. Project 14s are a little more comfortable.

Does your project duration tolerance correlate to your attention span?

  • it very much depends. it mostly has to do with how much i care about the ed result of that project. I've been wanting to make a proper dual power supply for many years now. Last year i put something together with parts from my parts bin, which took me a bit over an hour to do, and the result was good enough for what i needed it then, but it kept nagging at me that i didn't make what i wanted to. I want it to have current and voltage control, like a real lab power supply, i want it to have logging capabilities, i want it to be stable, and a crazy thought, why not also have it source adjustable AC? (that last bit might not actually happen, but still). this is going to be a long project, but now i got the important parts, and that has been another motivator. this power supply project also rekindled my idea for a DC load project, and so i also got the important parts for that one. am i certain i will complete those projects? not really, but i have been working on them for the past couple of weeks, and it doesn't look like i'll stop any time soon

  • I have a success rate VS satisfaction curve. 

    If the project is highly satisfying and I;m having a decent success rate with milestones, then I can stay focused 3-4 months tops.

    If encountering difficulties reaching milestones and/or the personal satisfaction loses it shine, then a project may get shelved earlier.  

  • It's somewhat tricky to give a meaningful vote to that pole. Trying to take a project idea and implement in one solid chunk of time is highly ineffective, IMO. You need thinking and day dreaming time to ponder over how to solve issues. I find 3 weeks is about the max you can go before effectiveness starts to drop as the intensity of work impacts your ability to see wood from trees. You need to have a break. On the counter side, just working on projects over the weekend is not often effective either as you lose momentum quickly (3 to 4 days is optimum). Personally I'll work on something for 2 to 3 weeks and then shelve it for a couple of months, and on the very rare occasion shelve something for more than a year. You'll be surprised by how much your brain has processed info, made things clearer and even solved problems in the background. Complexity as you scale means you're building too fast.

  • For me it depends on the nature of the project, paid for or not. If I'm being paid the time limit is flexible but six months has worked out well enough in the past.

    For "Rabbits" (home or in-house projects without a customer) then a month of actual work is a long, long time.

    But many Rabbits run for a year or more with odd bits of time applied to them as interest, parts or time are available.

    (The term Rabbits was learned from a friend who worked in a Government lab in the 1970s.)

    MK

  • in reply to michaelkellett

    Nice term : ) At one workplace we used to call them 'homer' projects (for obvious reasons).

    Very few had home labs, so we would work on our homers' after 5pm, by the time the cleaners had arrived to vacuum around us.

  • in reply to michaelkellett

    Guys I know called rabbits "homebrew projects" or "home shegoshies".

    I often do "skunk works" projects at home - when the company doesn't want to dedicate resources to it.

  • The scope of any project will defiantly impact the schedule or expected completion date.  Long term projects that include outdoor activities (like my path lights and water feature), that can be greatly impacted by the weather, like 100 degree summer days.  Also, the number of unique components or processes will have an impact, as well as attempting to utilize new and/or poorly specified components, as these all have learning curves and hidden challenges.  

  • I would change the word finished to "shelved for when I have more time."

  • Well given I'm in the 5th year of one hobby project, I have to say it's more about the journey than the destination. I do have milestones along the way of course.

  • I'm definitely a person who can park a project on a shelf for years and then finish it up.