What is the trigger that motivates you to actually start work on a hobby project? And what motivates you to stop working on a project?

dougw 7 months ago

Sometimes the biggest impediment to progress is simply making that first move to do something.

Maybe you have no trouble getting motivated on an exciting new project, but the motivation peters out due to any one of a myriad of things that plague projects.

If you struggle with starting or completing projects hopefully some of the answers here will resonate and you will at least find out you are not alone.

By the way, if you have solutions to any of these problems, we all want to know your secret....so please share below.

robogary 7 months ago in reply to dougw

Why yes it does now that you mention it. Operator error !
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michaelkellett 7 months ago

Same reason for not starting as for stopping - too many projects and things to do and not enough hours in the day.

Paying customers displace pure fun projects (of course).

Although paying projects are often MORE fun - get to do what I like doing and no guilt !

It's quite rare for the other reasons to happen.

MK
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dougw 7 months ago in reply to wolfgangfriedrich

And forest fires....
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dougw 7 months ago in reply to robogary

Your browser doesn't show 2 polls with 6 options in each poll?
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robogary 7 months ago in reply to dougw

Adding to your stop (pause) reason --- the project works, Im far from satisfied, but nobody else cares or can tell the difference.
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robogary 7 months ago

Ouch - 2 questions but only one answer to select. My error log shows improper syntax :-)
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robogary 7 months ago in reply to genebren

Amen. I will add that thing that slows me down on starting a project is having to order part(s) first.
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wolfgangfriedrich 7 months ago

Q1: Other, because cats.
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gpolder 7 months ago

lack of time is the major problem, either for starting as finishing a project.
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Fred27 7 months ago

I find that I always have a few projects in mind that sit there vying for the scraps of my free time to get started. With a busy job and family commitments it can be hard to start anything.

The trigger to start can often be an odd one. For instance, I recently saw a nice reflow oven project using an air fryer / pizza oven. It gave me some inspiration to do something similar myself. However, what kicked it off was a saved eBay search for the same model. When one popped up for peanuts, I clicked "buy" and here we go...

As far as abandoning projects goes, I find that as a hobbyist the definition of "success" differs from a job. The main motivation for most projects is to learn and have fun. If I've done the hard bit and learned what I needed to, the in some ways the goal has been met. Finishing the project is nice - and things like E14 contests can help - but otherwise there's no real need for the final product exist. This is obviously very different if it's your job or someone actually wants the finished item.
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