It's normal, sometimes I can find the energy and sometimes I can't. On my side it's not exactly lack of energy but lack of motivation from time to time. I also waste one weekend day on games/movies/books just to relax a bit and accumulate motivation.
Ask HN: How do you find the energy for a side project after a 9-5 job?
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Re: Ask HN: How do you find the energy for a side project after a 9-5 job?
#22Put yourself before your job. That doesn't mean to not do your job, it means set up a daily routine where your own self care and interests get top billing, while leaving enough space to do your job. So if doing a side project is your most important personal goal right now, set aside daily time, earlier in the day, to work on it.
Re: Ask HN: How do you find the energy for a side project after a 9-5 job?
#23I have the same question. Sometimes it seems like everyone on HN is reading a non-fiction book, a fiction book, exercising regularly, has 2 kids, just defeated depression, is 2 weeks away from finishing their side project, and has a $150k/year job.
You read like 100 posts and then your mind conglomerates them all into one "person" the "other HN poster".
Reality is that most of the good tech people are super weak and out of shape. Parents are sleep deprived and just get a boost from coffee and post something optimistic, etc.
Some side project they spent 100 hours on is just some CRUD app. The non-fiction books are just pop psychology stuff with 5 pages of ideas and 100 pages of trite filler.
Just blaze your own path, live healthy, take idea from this awesome community. Never compare yourself though, at least anymore than a surface comparison.
Re: Ask HN: How do you find the energy for a side project after a 9-5 job?
#24I have the same question. Sometimes it seems like everyone on HN is reading a non-fiction book, a fiction book, exercising regularly, has 2 kids, just defeated depression, is 2 weeks away from finishing their side project, and has a $150k/year job.
I don't get this impression from reading HN. I think how you interpret what you read can sometimes say much more about you than you might think!
That said, in hacker news (like other social communities) people share the good parts and what they want to be recognized for. It is like believing that someone`s life is full of glory because they say so in Instagram or Facebook.
Re: Ask HN: How do you find the energy for a side project after a 9-5 job?
#25Do you really really really want to have a side project?
As someone who works a full time job that I love but drains me, I need to be really motivated about something and curious about it to work outside hours!
Right now for me it is Java+Spring and Golang, I did some contributions to big OSS projects (mind you, the contributions were very minor. Like typo in docstrings). And am also doing a small side project (mind you, I got the springboot crud tutorial to run with my POJOs and bought a domain!)
If for some reason it becomes an energy drag I will drop it. I have already dropped more than 20 domains of side projects and that's OK. I will playing video games for a while or watching netflix.
If I am not getting paid to do it then I really have to enjoy it! I usually scratch an itch for a while and then give up, maybe when it happens that I don't give up in one idea of side project is because I truly enjoy it and it can become a full time thing to me!
Re: Ask HN: How do you find the energy for a side project after a 9-5 job?
#26Put yourself before your job. That doesn't mean to not do your job, it means set up a daily routine where your own self care and interests get top billing, while leaving enough space to do your job. So if doing a side project is your most important personal goal right now, set aside daily time, earlier in the day, to work on it.
This also applies to working remote, in my experience.
Re: Ask HN: How do you find the energy for a side project after a 9-5 job?
#27I purposely pick side projects that I'm excited to use myself. That helps a lot. It helps even more when it's a project that me + at least friend wants to use then I get energy from bouncing ideas off them and using the project myself.
Re: Ask HN: How do you find the energy for a side project after a 9-5 job?
#28Don't beat yourself up. Everyone has their own circumstances and its not even like you can expect 'high performers' are actually telling the truth. It's like people who lie on their Resume or those who 'do nothing but look busy' at work. Most are just trying to build impressions.
Try to squeeze whatever time you can comfortably out of your schedule until you find the idea that truly excites you. Then you will find the extra energy you need. It won't always go smooth. You will be exhausted at times, which is ok, that's just a signal to take a break; for few hours or few days. If you can't get going at all, you are probably working on something that sub-consciously you know isn't worth the pain.
Having a good co-founder or being part of a community helps and can make things move faster. But remember, most of the times when people say they launched something in 3-4 weeks while working 12-18 hours a day; they are skipping the part where they spent months in stress and no/low productivity until they finally stumbled upon the idea (and figured out the logistics) that got them going!
Re: Ask HN: How do you find the energy for a side project after a 9-5 job?
#29Very sound advice already posted on this thread. I've done this for the last year, so I'll reiterate some tricks that have enabled me to do so:
1. Yes, it's only the mornings that have worked. After a full days of work the mind can't quite switch context back to the side-project, so getting this done first thing in the morning is best.
2. Take a detailed note before switching context out about what were you thinking and the next steps. Read that back to get a jump start. Repeat.
3. Sleep early. Completely ditch alcohol. Cancel Netflix etc subscriptions. Limit coffee. Sound, restful sleep in dark and quiet (earplugs if you have to) is essential for pulling 10-11 total productive hours a day.
4. Exercise. Outdoors, in fresh air. Even a bit of cycling will do. Fitness and stamina go a long way in building focus and working those extra hours. I cycle to work (well, before Covid and after) to accomplish this specifically to keep fitness levels sound.
5. Turn off distractions. Phones off/flight mode with screen facing down. Told friends and family that they shouldn't tempt or distract. Even had to let one-two friends go because I realised I was always fixing problems for them and they had come to expect them to be fixed in x hours. Email/chat apps off. Anything that can prompt a notification is off. Issues can always wait a couple of hours.
6. Solitude. Or noise cancelling headphones just turned on.
Re: Ask HN: How do you find the energy for a side project after a 9-5 job?
#30I think we should consider the inference of side project, the desire to make money. A lot of people spend time working in their garden. We don't call this a side project.
My advice is if you or your family need more money then do a side project. If not I've two suggestions;
Have a hobby instead of a side project and take the pressure off.
Invest more time in your friends and family.
I have had side projects for 20 years. Born out of necessity, then supported by my employer, now the backbone of my startup, https://whoohaz.com