Makerlog 1700

Just hit 1700 day streak on Makerlog.

This might be the last time I talk about my Makerlog streak because by 31 Oct it will be gone - the new Makerlog will no longer have streaks.

So… some parting thoughts:

• It’s not as crazy or unhealthy as you think. It’s not about working like crazy 24/7, weekdays and weekends. It’s just 1 task a day. The task can be small. But it has to be a real task. For me, the one task that ensured I kept up this long was my daily writing here on Lifelog, about indie hacking, products, experiments, ideas, or just life. I write, then log it over at Makerlog. As long as I write, my streak will keep going.

• In a way, 1700 could have been my writing streak too because I started on Makerlog on the same day I started daily writing on the now-defunct 200wordsaday. That is if I didn’t intentionally break the writing streak to build Lifelog (after 200WAD closed down). Pretty nostalgic to think about those days when I started logging and writing… I was on a digital nomad trip in Ubud, Bali. First time nomading, and in my early days of indie hacking. I remember working from cafes every day, and launching my Wordpress-based products there (that’s the only tech stack I knew back then). 1700 days is over 4 years, which sounds about right how long I’ve been shipping.

• Even though I ‘celebrate’ the streak, it’s hardly the main motivation anymore. In the initial days, yes. Not wanting to break the streak does help a bit in maintaining the habit. But I remember, after about 2 years, that number doesn’t matter no more. The habit’s ingrained, the system runs itself, and I’m doing it because of a deeper why, because I enjoy it (I mean, daily writing). It’s no longer about the streak. At some points I remember the Makerlog logging API going down, and I wondered if the streak will break. After a few minutes, I realised I don’t really care that much. But that is not to say that the streak is a useless mechanism. It’s super useful in the early days of habit formation, at least for me. But once instrinsic motivation takes over, it becomes just a nice-to-have external artefact to look at.

• Enthusiasm is easy, endurance is hard. Over the 1700 days, I seen so many promising indie makers come and go on Makerlog. Some burn out and drop out, others move on to fulltime jobs, some just disappear without a trace. All burst into the scene with fireworks, and a fire in their eyes and belly. What separates enthusiasm from the endurance? I wish I had some pithy wisdom bomb to share. I wish I knew. But one thing’s for sure, this is a marathon, not a sprint.

Here’s to the 1700. And to the old Makerlog being witness to my indie hacker baby days.

🍻🍻