On the path to greatness, there will be 100 overcomings.
I will chronicle my attempts to overcome procrastination. My technique is to start small, really small.
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I really have been negligent toward developing my programming skills. And to be honest, it's emotional. Programming, once you get past the basics, gives me a panic of feeling overwhelmed. I can solve problems via code, I can "think like a computer," but the pure range of 3rd party software and documentations gets me. Especially the documentations. Nothing makes you feel stupid quicker than trying to code with something that has bad documentation.
It's not really the amount of 3rd party stuff that is the problem, it is the suspicion that you are always using the wrong stuff. That you're some obsolete idiot. Not helping things, is the fact that there are certainly flame wars where people are more than happy to confirm these thoughts. This has lead me to a paralysis where I can't work on anything. And that is not going to help me get any closer to making a piece of software that 10,000 people use.
The answer is still the same to all other places where I procrastinate: start small, and keep working every day toward small things. Also, I should just make it fun.
During the summer, I was playing a lot of poker. Though, I like backgammon better, it is safe to say that any game with randomness is an interest of mine. So, projects with poker are the kinds of projects I can code with easily and then make things that I could gain some enjoyment out of. I can work on graphics and displays. I can make algorithms to analyze hands. I can do projects like closed Chinese Poker and give myself some fake opponent to play more low-ball poker with.
Doing poker-related projects gives me a real purpose when I am coding and that is far more motivated than anything that reeks of meaningless exercise.
Now that I am done with debate tournaments for a bit, I can start on these poker projects. A few think slices at a time, and probably by the time tournament season rolls around, I can at least have a new toy or two for my own enjoyment, and possibly some further skills (or a series of projects that I could use to gain skills in other programming languages) that help me toward my big 10,000 people goal.
