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31 features in 31 days

I did it!

At the end of November in 2008 I vowed to introduce 31 features in 31 days, it took me 26.

I feared it would be a long month, but it actually flew by.

By the end of the first week, I started struggling with motivation. I wasn't getting much sleep and the biggest obstacle that would plague me the whole month cropped up: I couldn't think of new features.

I'd assumed that development time would be the problem, but it turns out that you can get anything done if you stay up long enough.

On top of the 31, I ended up pushing a bunch of features that I thought were too small to be considered one of the 31 for the project. That wasn't part of the plan.

At no point during the month did I ever have a list of features that I'd do. I just sat down every night decided on a feature, wrote the code and pushed it. Sometimes it would take hours before I even came up with an idea about what to do.

If you're curious about which features I introduced and in what order, check out the full list.

If you've never used enjoysthin.gs, you should give it a try. If you have, thanks!

Lessons learned

I was always doing this project for myself; there were never thousands of users clamouring for new features. But it turns out "myself" is a good motivator.

Announcing this project is the sole reason that I finished it. Had I just told myself that I'd do 31 features in December, I'd have made it to about 3.

People are nice.

I know why so many sites automatically opt you in to email features. Email is a startlingly effective way to drive traffic. However, I have no regrets about opting everyone out who signed up before I introduced the email feature.

Apparently, I really enjoy pictures of animals. Also, space, old-timey photos and pictures of musicians are very popular.