Knowing when to put the mouse and keyboard down is hard.
I made this quite detailed shader, but it only fills a tiny part of the screen... Like maybe the player will see this once or twice max, but the rest of the time this element will only take up 40x40 pixel area ๐
What techniques have you found that help to keep you on track and let you understand when it's time to stop?
It sounds like you're talking about project management. My approach is to keep the next 4 or 5 tasks to be done written down in a backlog. Writing detailed tasks about what you're planning can actually be quite fun once you get stuck into it.
Doing it this way means I'm wearing my project manager hat while I'm managing my tasks. So I can see the big picture, take in the wider context, and make more informed decisions about how much effort is reasonable to spend on each task. Whereas if I try to think about the big picture stuff when I'm deep in a rabbit hole with my developer hat on I tend to have a skewed perspective.
That being said, often the most difficult thing is staying motivated. So if you've enjoyed the process, and you've made something this beautiful, and no doubt honed your skills along the way, then I don't think you've got anything to worry about. Keep up the good work!
I do currently keep a list of tasks and organise them daily, but what you said about putting on a different hat made me realise that I've been treating it as a chore to get done as fast as possible, whereas I should respect this stage and allot myself the time to get into the correct headspace. Thank you for the detailed reply and your encouragement!