Make a list
Personal projects are one of the best ways to develop as an engineer. Most people know this, but a sense of overwhelm often stops them from taking action and ultimately, nothing gets done.
What works for me is so simple to perhaps sound trite: write a list, and work through it.
This forces you to boil ideas down to specific, well-bounded items in the list you can literally tick off:
- "re-create X from scratch"
- "get certified in Y"
- "write a blog post about making lists..."
The added benefit here is that you can see your progress, which feels great and is addictive, and thus encourages yet more action.
If you spend just 30 minutes coming up with an impactful list of mini-projects, it will make a return many times over. Sometimes effective action is driven by hidden simplicities, like making a list.