syzygy
Experienced Member
Yeah, it's not the fixes.txt file that is elusive to me, it's the FIXED.txt file.
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Managing your retro projects...tips?
- Thread starter syzygy
- Start date
dluck
Experienced Member
I feel all the pain. Sheesh I have a project just to keep track of my projects. Walking around the house, the backyard, the garages I remember projects I've put aside for one reason or another. (Not even going to mention the 4800 sqft warehouse which probably reveals 2 or more stashed projects every step I take in there.)
After I retired I thought great I I'll have the time now to dust off the projects and finish them up. Ha.
As I said earlier, one of the projects is project(s) management. So I started a spreadsheet.
Name of project is a column which I keep adding entries. I have another column called priority which I've not filled anything out yet.
All projects I'm putting in there, like scanning family photos, things I want to investigate,things I want to restore, PDP8, PDP11, analog computers, cars, player piano, Atari Pipeline pinball, SFBA Living Computer Museum,... the list goes on and on.
I can only keep a few things in my top priority list that I'm actively working on. I'm really good at defocusing out and ignoring projects that are of lower (sometime temporarily) priority to me. (To my wife's dismay for projects we don't agree on current priority).
But the master spreadsheet of projects has become important.
I need to add columns for estimating time to complete, dependencies, what is it waiting on (why am I not currently working on it), etc.
I probably need to add an importance column (not same as priority), maybe it would say why important, not just a rank.
Probably a "who else wants this" column.
But any way, this process has helped me realize the scope of my projects and I start to realize it will take more than a lifetime to complete all of them.
There is some comments about when to abandon a project. I would hate to think about projects like that. I would prefer to believe that it is likely there might be someone else that would now be better to take over the project. If that person can be found, then that can actually be the best outcome. I could enjoy seeing a project of mine come to life without spending the the time on it.
I think I'm rambling now, but my point is, if you have so many projects, you might want to just start with creating a list of them Also one other point popped into my head while typing this. I think we all like to remember the fun things in our past, in days of old people made scrapbooks to remind people of those memories, those pictures are like keys that unlock memories. Getting stuff written down in a well known place allows me to not ever worry about forgetting those projects.
And it can also show me how daunting my project list is, take a look at the actual importance of a project, and then decide, to let it go to someone else.
And then I also need to fight the constant urge of "Oh look another shiny thing to play with or take apart"
cheers all,
dale luck
After I retired I thought great I I'll have the time now to dust off the projects and finish them up. Ha.
As I said earlier, one of the projects is project(s) management. So I started a spreadsheet.
Name of project is a column which I keep adding entries. I have another column called priority which I've not filled anything out yet.
All projects I'm putting in there, like scanning family photos, things I want to investigate,things I want to restore, PDP8, PDP11, analog computers, cars, player piano, Atari Pipeline pinball, SFBA Living Computer Museum,... the list goes on and on.
I can only keep a few things in my top priority list that I'm actively working on. I'm really good at defocusing out and ignoring projects that are of lower (sometime temporarily) priority to me. (To my wife's dismay for projects we don't agree on current priority).
But the master spreadsheet of projects has become important.
I need to add columns for estimating time to complete, dependencies, what is it waiting on (why am I not currently working on it), etc.
I probably need to add an importance column (not same as priority), maybe it would say why important, not just a rank.
Probably a "who else wants this" column.
But any way, this process has helped me realize the scope of my projects and I start to realize it will take more than a lifetime to complete all of them.
There is some comments about when to abandon a project. I would hate to think about projects like that. I would prefer to believe that it is likely there might be someone else that would now be better to take over the project. If that person can be found, then that can actually be the best outcome. I could enjoy seeing a project of mine come to life without spending the the time on it.
I think I'm rambling now, but my point is, if you have so many projects, you might want to just start with creating a list of them Also one other point popped into my head while typing this. I think we all like to remember the fun things in our past, in days of old people made scrapbooks to remind people of those memories, those pictures are like keys that unlock memories. Getting stuff written down in a well known place allows me to not ever worry about forgetting those projects.
And it can also show me how daunting my project list is, take a look at the actual importance of a project, and then decide, to let it go to someone else.
And then I also need to fight the constant urge of "Oh look another shiny thing to play with or take apart"
cheers all,
dale luck
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Find somebody else that wants to do them: sell it, trade it, or pass it along. Better somebody who really enjoys it and wants to do it right than to half-ass it just to get it done. I have spent way too much time un-doing somebody else's "chores" that they clearly weren't interested in enough to do right.
This is a really good topic though. I feel like my blog helps me stay organized and always has good notes and photos I can look back on to help me finish long term projects. I have many unpublished posts that I use like a notebook. And a separate box for each project is helpful too. With the number of projects I have, the discipline to finish one (of the many) before starting another has been my guiding principle and ambition lately. That helps to make the less exciting projects a little more tolerable- knowing that I get to start a new one once it gets done.
If I ever get to the point that I need to make a spreadsheet of my projects and can't just look at a few labeled boxes on a shelf (or systems on my work table), I will know that I have way too many projects!
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syzygy
Experienced Member
I'm looking at that through the rear-view mirror.