A productive person is not necessarily a hard working or disciplined person.

I struggled with it as well. I personally think:

1. You need defined, realistic and very motivational goals to keep going on the long run. Write them somewhere and come back to them often to keep the motivation flowing.

2. You need to enjoy what you're doing to build your project. This is essential.

3. You need to work in small chunk. Don't burn yourself with tasks of 2 month. Split the tasks as much as you can.

4. Ship as soon as your MVP is good enough, means when you can see the first value your customer can have with your product. That's why you need a list of small task for your first version up front and you need to stick to it.

5. Don't hesitate to cut tasks out. It's better than adding new ones.

Easier to say than to do of course... but I try to stick to it.

I am guilty of starting way more things than I finish. My life is a series of strung together side projects, with about a 30% complete rate, and of that, about a third splat and never go anywhere after getting shipped. I'm having a ton of fun and enjoying it a lot. Starting things is the most fun part, finishing them is the most rewarding, and getting people to use them is the most profitable.

Ever since I read this https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17138794 I see this theme over and over again.

I believe it is a very good lesson to learn. My take away is, if I do start a project now, I'll make sure it's something I will complete, so it'll either be a tiny one, or a complete tiny step of a bigger project, but certainly something that can be an entity on its own.

In my early years lots of projects were unfinished by me, but today I am focusing only on main things that give me customers and profit and if the strategy does not work, I am testing another one until I find the working model for my business.

Very true Harry, thanks for sharing!