All the time I remember myself (which is literally since an age of six) I had one huge problem. I find something interesting or stumble upon interesting idea, get fired up, and start doing. But few weeks later I slow down and eventually drop it for some new shiny thing.
Luckily enough at school I really enjoyed computer classes, chose computer science as my major at university, and then it became my career. In the field of programming we move in small iterations and objective for each of them is slightly different and challenging. So while working on same product for several years still every month or two it feels like completely different thing.
This keeps me “hungry” throughout two decades now.
Btw, I’ve just checked. It’s amazing. Literally this month 20 years ago I started my first full time job as a software developer.
In software development we work on a product, which is ideally never-ending process (assuming people love using it). There is no actual end point. Yet, there is a vision, a North star. Product is always work in progress.
Along the way we have long-term projects to add significant new functions and small projects adding enhancements. Also we have some fixes and tiny changes here and there. And all this happens in short incremental iterations.
Interestingly enough I can look at life in very similar way. Living life is like working on a product. We want to live long and enjoy it. For some people this is as simple as enjoying simple things like their hobbies or time with kids or friends. For others it’s a bit more complicated as they need actively move forward, learning new things, achieving new heights. I’m definitely in a second group and obviously my thoughts are biased towards it. Anyway it all starts in a life vision outlining the picture of the life you want to have and defining direction you should move to.
While our vision defined direction, our goals based on the vision define our strategic projects. These projects are here to allow us live the life we envision. They are top of the top among all other projects and tasks we have.
Then we have operational projects which basically keep us above the water. We always have something requiring our involvement just to keep us safe and continue moving. Operational projects appear because something happens in our lives. Maybe something at home needs be done, someone or some institution requires us to do or provide something, some problem happens and needs to be solved, etc.
And finally there some chores, errands, and misc tasks. These are just small individual tasks happening in life.
With this in mind I structure my weeks and days so that I have room to work on a couple of strategic projects, several operational projects, and whatever misc tasks I have to do.
This way I make sure not only that my ongoing needs and issues are under control, but most importantly that I move forward my goals contributing to my life vision.