When Your Project Becomes a Burden

From excitement to dread.

Hey there Solo Dev!

It’s been two weeks since the last post. I spent last week by the pool, eating lots of tzatziki, gyros and bread in Greece.

But now, I’m straight back in the swing of things, yet one thing’s been on the back of my mind: my progress on Solopreneur Liftoff feels like it has stalled.

Sometimes things just go wrong.

The last thing I did before going on vacation was to add a backend service for users to be able to send feedback emails for Solopreneur Liftoff easily.

I thought everything was great. I’d verified that it works, and would come home to implement the frontend for it, add password changing and recovery functionality, implement an account status system, and be good to go.

I was almost ready to deploy!

Wrong.

I came home, raring to get back to it.

Instantly an issue was revealed to me: the token I use for authentication expires after 7 days, but refreshing it wasn’t working properly.

So I changed the authentication flow to fix that and add better security.

But new problems just arose.

I’ve been dealing with authentication issues since then. It’s made it difficult to find the discipline to work, as this is the type of issue I dread.

I haven’t spent as much time working on Solopreneur Liftoff as I wanted to, and it’s been around two weeks since there’s been visible progress.

I’m currently deep into a long debugging session, trying to pinpoint the exact reason.

Right now it sucks, but it’ll turn out better (I tell myself). But hey, these are the times we learn the most, right?

This is an inevitable aspect of Solo Dev projects.

This experience has reminded me of the Gartner Hype Cycle:

1. Innovation Trigger: We get an idea and are excited to start building

2. Peak of Inflated Expectations: Our excitement grows as initial progress comes easily

3. Trough of Disillusionment: We hit technical roadblocks and motivation crashes

4. Slope of Enlightenment: We start solving problems and confidence gradually returns

5. Plateau of Productivity: We reach a sustainable pace of development.

I’m currently in the trough of disillusionment.

If you're in a similar place with your project, know this: it's inevitable. Every worthwhile project goes through this cycle. The difference between abandoned side projects and shipped products is simply whether you push through this trough.

Here are 3 ways to navigate the trough.

1. Redefine progress

When features aren't being added and bugs aren't being fixed, it's easy to feel like you're making zero progress. This is when we need to change our definition of progress.

Progress is also:

• Gaining new knowledge

• Showing up

• Trying

Keep doing your best, and view progress as more than just new features.

2. Break the pattern

Sometimes the best solution is to change something:

• Your environment

• Your approach

• Your schedule

If an issue persists, hit it from a different angle. Try working somewhere else, or even just going for a walk to think. If the current approach doesn’t work, maybe try a different one. If you usually code at night, try a morning session.

3. Create small wins

You need momentum when something seems impossible.

You can get it through small wins:

• Fix a minor UI bug you ignored

• Refactor unreadable code

• Add documentation

Small wins can create the momentum you need to tackle the bigger things. And there’s always a small win to be had.

There’s light at the end of the trough.

Photo by Simon Wilkes on Unsplash.

The good news is that the trough doesn’t last forever. Redefine progress, break patterns and create small wins, and eventually, you’ll start climbing the slope of enlightenment.

I’m not there yet, but I will be.

You will too.

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If you have any particular methods of dealing with the trough, I’d love to hear them.

How’d you climb out?

See you next Saturday!