Organizing Personal Work

Make some lists

The first thing that truly helps me – as simple as it sounds – is making checklists. Just writing down the different projects or research topics I'm currently working on makes it so much easier to decide what to do when I have some spare time.

Keeping track of everything might be easy with one or two projects, but once you start more, you'll inevitably forget some of them when doing a mental check. Having a clear way to log these projects and split them into sub-tasks makes everything easier to maintain in the long run.

There’s also a psychological bonus: the small dopamine rush you get when ticking a task off the list is a surprisingly powerful boost. It helps refill motivation for the next step. This, in itself, is already a good enough reason to start writing checklists.

Flexible but clear rigor

Setting goals that are too hard to reach, or rhythms that are too hard to maintain, is extremely counterproductive. I’ve often found myself in vicious cycles where I ended up disappointing myself for not achieving something “in time” or “good enough”.

The key for me has been to create a clear structure while keeping it flexible. I now try to balance one main project to push forward with one side project for experimentation. It prevents dispersion while leaving space for curiosity – which is essential for creativity.

Instead of overthinking the “perfect plan”, I focus on micro-steps that can be done daily:
- 15 minutes of music tweaking,
- a quick MuViMa frame generation,
- writing down one caption idea or blog note.

These tiny actions compound. By the end of the week, I’ve advanced in every area without feeling stuck or overwhelmed.

Finishing instead of endlessly starting

Another trap I constantly fall into is restarting new ideas instead of pushing my existing drafts forward. It’s easier to open a blank FL Studio project or a new script than to dive back into something already started.

But in the long run, this behaviour is exhausting and frustrating. I’ve realized that I need to preemptively design around my own laziness and weaknesses: making it as easy as possible to pick up an existing project, so I don’t give up halfway through and leave it in a folder forever.

That means putting systems in place so that finishing becomes the path of least resistance. Every time I do that, I end up with real progress instead of just a pile of forgotten experiments.

Tools and habits

What makes a huge difference for me is fluidifying all the technical aspects so that creating becomes the easiest part. A few examples that helped me:

• Using simple CLI tools like Taskbook to manage my checklists directly in the terminal.
• Centralizing all my productions (music, visuals, blog drafts) on a home server, accessible as easily from my phone as from my main PC.
• Preparing project folders with clear structures so that I can instantly see what’s in progress and what’s finished.

When all the friction is removed, the focus shifts naturally to creation instead of logistics.

At some point, I’ll write a separate post to describe my personal setup and homelab, because having a well-designed workflow is as much part of creativity as inspiration itself.

Final note

This post is mainly a reminder to myself: don’t let laziness win by always restarting from scratch. Build systems that make it easier to finish what you start, or at least turn it into something shareable.

Discipline doesn’t mean being strict for the sake of it – it’s about anticipating your own weaknesses so you don’t end up disappointing yourself.

Your future self will thank you for every project you’ve pushed forward instead of abandoning halfway.