When it comes to working on new features there are a few obstacles that I usually have to overcome: the tendency to overthink, and the need to see something on the page.

Overthinking has been a constant issue in my life. I’m not saying this is a short-term flaw that results in long-term benefits. This is more of the reinventing the wheel type of overthinking. In Laravel, a lot of the heavy lifting has been abstracted away behind readable, succinct helper functions and classes. They’re just begging for me to reach out to them!

Lately, this has manifested in how I choose to interact with the database. Instead of utilizing the Eloquent ORM, I’ve been opting for raw SQL queries. Maybe this is just an instance of my day job creeping into my personal projects, but I feel like I have more control over the results of a raw query than one constructed by Eloquent. Of course, this is most likely incorrect and the real issue is that I just don’t know my way around the ORM. Hey Siri, add, “Read the Eloquent docs” to my todo list.

One of the ways I’ve managed to get through this analysis paralysis is to just sit down and start on a task. I know it helps me build momentum when I see something on a page, so I’ll throw something out there. This triggers me to refine and refactor design and code. I might not be a designer, but I know what doesn’t look good to me. So I can take a few swings at making things look better. This leads into the second way I manage to produce something I can publish.

My most productive coding sessions have been when I have a list of small-to-medium tasks that I can check off. In terms of design, having a basic mock-up done in Figma helps a ton to direct my design so I’m not just throwing anything on the page without some sort of cohesive focus. Rarely do my Figma mock-ups become the finished product, but they serve as general placeholders for my layouts and provide components that are easier to improve upon in isolation.

Difficulty just starting something is a common obstacle for many people, but the best way to get through it, is to do it. 🧀