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Ask HN: How do develop a side project when you have a 40hr/week job?

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Re: Ask HN: How do develop a side project when you have a 40hr/week job?

#81

Post by kbart »

nibnib wrote: post #78
kbart wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Getting up early" advice definitely doesn't work for all people. I, for example, am more productive at evenings/nights and my brain doesn't work at until 9-10am despite of how much did I sleep a night before. The better advice would be "adjust the routine to your natural rhythm".

I thought the same until I started a job that required an early start. Even after years of extreme night-owl scheduling I didn't find it difficult after a the first month or so.

Well, my work starts at 8am for more than 5 years now, still can't get used to that.

Re: Ask HN: How do develop a side project when you have a 40hr/week job?

#82

Post by joe563323 »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #37

The better question might be to ask what are you doing instead and why. It may be that those things are more important to you, or it may be that you are avoiding other issues. For me, the challenge in understanding my own choices, is understanding the root of those choices. It can help if you have a neutral third party to talk to about why you choose to do X rather than Y, but barring that there are other techniques…

Are you saying that you work only 1 hour on a project? If so were you able to complete any project? Just wondering how this could be possible?

Re: Ask HN: How do develop a side project when you have a 40hr/week job?

#83

Post by hunvreus »

kbart wrote: post #67
hunvreus wrote: post #11

Same as for working out or cooking, you can always find time. I cut alcohol years ago and tend to go to bed at reasonable hours: the feeling of waking up at 5:30, getting a good workout and two to three hours of work before you even start to get ready for the office is pretty empowering. It feels like you already had a day worth of productivity in. So, to recap: 1. Don't drink (or drink in moderation). It leads to la…

"Getting up early" advice definitely doesn't work for all people. I, for example, am more productive at evenings/nights and my brain doesn't work at until 9-10am despite of how much did I sleep a night before. The better advice would be "adjust the routine to your natural rhythm".

I thought I was a night owl as well for years. I even had insomnia through college.

But we're all wired to sleep at night. Once I started going to bed early, waking up early got easier first, and enjoyable later.

So no, I think I would still recommend people to try and sleep early to wake up early.

Re: Ask HN: How do develop a side project when you have a 40hr/week job?

#84

Post by hunvreus »

kbart wrote: post #81
nibnib wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought the same until I started a job that required an early start. Even after years of extreme night-owl scheduling I didn't find it difficult after a the first month or so.

Well, my work starts at 8am for more than 5 years now, still can't get used to that.

Go to bed earlier.

Re: Ask HN: How do develop a side project when you have a 40hr/week job?

#85

Post by pc86 »

dkokelley wrote: post #19

A (the left-brain/logical approach): There are 168 hours in a week. If you work 40 of them (+ 10 hours for inconvenient lunch breaks and commuting) and sleep 56 of them, you have 62 hours left. There you go. Figure out where those 62 hours are and spend them wisely. Organize your schedule so you have enough hours when and where you need them. B (the right-brain/emotional approach): Yes, you have ~62 hours from the ab…

I've never been the most productive person, but I find myself hitting a wall once I use about 15-20 of those 62 hours on a side project. For my schedule and life, that's the point where it starts impacting things like sleeping a full 8-9 hours and eating healthy meals at regular times.

YMMV and I've known people who regularly put in 35-40 hours of side project work on top of a 40+ hour job, but they've certainly been few and far between in my experience.

Re: Ask HN: How do develop a side project when you have a 40hr/week job?

#86

Post by pc86 »

kbart wrote: post #67
hunvreus wrote: post #11

Same as for working out or cooking, you can always find time. I cut alcohol years ago and tend to go to bed at reasonable hours: the feeling of waking up at 5:30, getting a good workout and two to three hours of work before you even start to get ready for the office is pretty empowering. It feels like you already had a day worth of productivity in. So, to recap: 1. Don't drink (or drink in moderation). It leads to la…

"Getting up early" advice definitely doesn't work for all people. I, for example, am more productive at evenings/nights and my brain doesn't work at until 9-10am despite of how much did I sleep a night before. The better advice would be "adjust the routine to your natural rhythm".

Has there been any scientific evidence suggesting this is the case?

In college I struggled to wake up in time for 8am classes (that I had no interest in taking). Not surprisingly, a big part of the problem is that I was staying up until 11, or 2, or 4 every night. My typical schedule now (29 years old) is asleep around 9, up at 4:30 and gym 5-6:30 or so. Weekends are only an hour or so later than that, and it's been that way since about 3 years ago.

My point is I think it is as much why you're waking up early as it is a "natural rhythm" or something like that. I would much rather go to the gym at 5:30 than to a liberal arts gen ed class at 8:00. Yes it's possible my circadian clock shifted I suppose, but I think it's as much desire or habit as anything else.

Re: Ask HN: How do develop a side project when you have a 40hr/week job?

#87

Post by pc86 »

bostonvaulter2 wrote: post #18
hunvreus wrote: post #11

Same as for working out or cooking, you can always find time. I cut alcohol years ago and tend to go to bed at reasonable hours: the feeling of waking up at 5:30, getting a good workout and two to three hours of work before you even start to get ready for the office is pretty empowering. It feels like you already had a day worth of productivity in. So, to recap: 1. Don't drink (or drink in moderation). It leads to la…

Just curious, what time do you go to sleep to get up at 5:30? Do you get around 8 hours? I'm guessing at least a little bit less.

I am on a similar schedule, and I will start getting tired around 8:45 or so. I'm usually in bed by 9. My first alarm is 4:27 but if I'm particularly tired or don't have anything extra to get done in the morning I will turn that one off and let the one at 4:55 wake me up.

Re: Ask HN: How do develop a side project when you have a 40hr/week job?

#88

Post by kbart »

pc86 wrote: post #86
kbart wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Getting up early" advice definitely doesn't work for all people. I, for example, am more productive at evenings/nights and my brain doesn't work at until 9-10am despite of how much did I sleep a night before. The better advice would be "adjust the routine to your natural rhythm".

Has there been any scientific evidence suggesting this is the case? In college I struggled to wake up in time for 8am classes (that I had no interest in taking). Not surprisingly, a big part of the problem is that I was staying up until 11, or 2, or 4 every night. My typical schedule now (29 years old) is asleep around 9, up at 4:30 and gym 5-6:30 or so. Weekends are only an hour or so later than that, and it's been…

I can get up early and do things, but I feel best when going to bed at 2-3am and getting up at 10-11am. By "natural" cycle I meant that if woken up without an alarm clock and go to bed when feeling sleepy (i.e. during lazy holidays) I tent to align to the mentioned hours.

Has there been any scientific evidence suggesting this is the case?

Can't find it after quick googling, but I've read about a study which claims that there are no such things as "night owl persons", but it didn't convince me as it was talking about extreme cases as staying up all night long and sleep during the whole day.

Re: Ask HN: How do develop a side project when you have a 40hr/week job?

#89

Post by Chris2048 »

dkokelley wrote: post #19

A (the left-brain/logical approach): There are 168 hours in a week. If you work 40 of them (+ 10 hours for inconvenient lunch breaks and commuting) and sleep 56 of them, you have 62 hours left. There you go. Figure out where those 62 hours are and spend them wisely. Organize your schedule so you have enough hours when and where you need them. B (the right-brain/emotional approach): Yes, you have ~62 hours from the ab…

I find my lunch hour to short to both eat and then go to gym, and shower. Hell, I usually take at least 15m to shower. PLus I need time between workouts and showering, or else I'll still be sweating after I showered (take about 20m to stop :-/) as such I always schedule stuff like that after work, or weekends.

The TV thing is a must tho. I don't have a TV at all, the gogglebox is licensed to sit down and watch. You even end up watching re-runs, ads etc. so it's less efficient than YouTube, even factoring in all the shit on YouTube..

If you don't relax enough though, you just end up crashing, in an unscheduled manner... I'll not though, I don't consider reading that relaxing - It still requires a lot of thinking, for technical reads anyway, plus the actual process of words-to-brain-concepts translation is surprisingly exhausting as well...

On the last bullet, My brains seems to care more about unimportant distractions than important things. I Do have to watch my time...

Re: Ask HN: How do develop a side project when you have a 40hr/week job?

#90

Post by Chris2048 »

hunvreus wrote: post #11

Same as for working out or cooking, you can always find time. I cut alcohol years ago and tend to go to bed at reasonable hours: the feeling of waking up at 5:30, getting a good workout and two to three hours of work before you even start to get ready for the office is pretty empowering. It feels like you already had a day worth of productivity in. So, to recap: 1. Don't drink (or drink in moderation). It leads to la…

I don't go out and drink as much as I do, but ironically, spend more time planning how to make cocktails as a hobby.

I consider it an upgrade of quality over quantity ;-)

I agree you should avoid working in the bedroom tho, or you might find it harder to sleep.

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