Personal Projects vs. Time
I’ve been having great luck lately stretching out my personal projects over long periods of time.
This makes them easier and harder because:
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There’s nothing I can’t solve given enough days of loading the problem into my head by thinking hard about it and then sleeping on it. So that makes it easier than trying to figure it all out in one big push.
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But it’s also harder because now the hard part is sticking with it day after day, week after week, and even month after month.
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It’s also harder when it gets stretch out long enough that I forget what I learned earlier.
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But that’s actually better for long-term memory, because it acts as spaced repetition, keeping the memory active over a longer period of time.
Time and pressure eventually make the hardest problems give in. And repetition over time makes it stick in your head.
So the benefits of long-term consistent progress (or "showing up") are multi-fold.