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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?

#101

Post by rufus42 »

If you be honest, almost every suggestion won't work. When you feel the need to really finish a project, you just cannot hold back and start to code in the night or during your normal work day.

What I can suggest (for your sanity and social life): - Pick the weekends (one or two days) where you code for 5-6 hours. - Do it during your work day. If you want something out of your side project, just don't work hard enough at work so you have ressources left for yourself - Ask your boss for a 25 hours working week or try to get one day off without salary reductation to see if you be as productive as before. If not, ask for 10% less.

Divide your side project in learning and developing.

Get a book which you can read during your commune, or even an ebook which you can read during work.And then, at home, take a weekend/one day off/two nights off to develop and code.

I also suggest the Lean StartUp method, which is not only helpful for StartUps, but also for side projects. The key is to develop in small iteration to always have a finish product you can test.

So, don't do everything, pick one little feature, develop it and see where it goes from there.

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

#102

Post by matheweis »

Small amounts of time, scheduled regularly, add up quickly.

A few years ago I spent my lunch hour ~3 days a week or so building up a little app for Mac as well as Windows. 3 hours a week is ~150 hours a year. You'd be surprised how much you can accomplish.

The other thing that I think helped was I kept a running list of specific tasks that needed to be accomplished. So instead of spending my hour browsing the web or just doing random stuff, it was an hour of focused time spent towards building the next specific part of the app.

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

#103

Post by Chris2048 »

fleitz wrote: post #30

Stop reading, start doing. Imagine someone asks how do I train to run a marathon? Start by running 1 minute a day and add a minute every few days, after 2-3 years you'll be running long enough to run a marathon. There is no substitute for doing, there are no shortcuts, there is no miracle pill (well, ADHD meds may help...) You must actively decide that your sideprojects are more important than whatever else you are d…

By that logic, The day before the full Marathon you ran a Marothon-1 minute, and the day before a Marathon-2 minutes...

Even if you are capable of keeping that up, it might be better to increase distance, otherwise you might be just slowing down, making no progress...

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

#105

Post by SneakerXZ »

jakobegger wrote: post #64

I worked on my first app next to a 40hr/week job. It wasn't really hard, since I liked my side project. My schedule from Mo-Fri looked like something like this: 7AM: Get up, shower, cook breakfast 8AM: Take the bus to work 5PM: Come home, buy groceries, cook dinner, etc. 7PM: Work on side project 1AM: Go to bed This worked well since I lived alone during the week (on the weekends I travelled to my home town and staye…

You are lucky, you need only 6 hours of sleep.

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

#106

Post by hourdays »

A masochist approach: I live in a Paris suburb and have a full time job in Paris. I use my 3 hours of daily train homework travel for side projects (web dev & co). There you have it: move further away from your job and take the train (away enough to take a non crowded train and not the subway :-)

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

#107

Post by taurath »

jhildings wrote: post #98
pc86 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

One great advantage by staying up late rather than waking early is the amount of people active. More people are outside, or want to communicate with you, traffic is louder and so on. In the night after 12-01 those things calm down

Unless you're young and everyone is on the same schedule - I still get a lot of friends poking me at like 11:30 before I go to bed.

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

#108

Post by volaski »

reedlaw wrote: post #60
volaski wrote: post #57

I work 40hr/week yet I have plenty of time to work on my stuff. Of course it would be much better if I could fully commit to my project but hey i still need money to sustain myself and need to compromise with reality. Anyway, sometimes when I really get into it I can even work more hours than my day job. In extreme cases, I would leave work at 6pm, get home by 6:30, take a shower and start working at 7pm. Work on my…

Only do this if you want to be totally turned off by programming within a few months/years. Working 40 hours a week at a computer and then coming home for more is bad enough for your body. But beyond that, any single activity reaches a point of diminishing returns when engaged in to the exclusion of all others. It might not happen right away, but at some point there will likely be regret that you didn't spend more ti…

Since you bring this up, let me tell you what really happens. You are right there is a burnout factor. In fact it does happen and I have grown to live with it. But the cool thing about burnout is it doesn't last forever. If you have lots of ideas and you like to build things, chances are your motivation will come back soon enough. I personally think working passionately for a few months and taking a break for a week and going back and forth is much more productive than doing it half-assed and wondering how others "find time" to work on things. Also, this is a subjective thing, I'm giving my point of view based on how i think and you're writing your advice based on how you think but neither of us are absolutely correct because every human being is different. Some people put higher priority in socializing and enjoying life's other activities when it comes to living a life. Some people put higher priority in building something that they will be proud of. Most people belong to the former group and that's why it's hard for them to find time to work on stuff. Sure you can live a well-balanced life like 90% of the population and live a normal life, or you can be different. Most people will think the latter group of people are heartless and idiotic, etc. but those people have highest ratio of success statistically. Lastly, I have been doing this for years and I am not "totally turned off by programming". I do get burned out time to time but after a couple of weeks of taking a break i'm fully energized and back at it. Like I said, it's just a difference in mindset. If you have something that you feel is meaningful enough to build, nothing else matters.

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

#109

Post by rubydoggy »

I think that if you love something you will find time to spend. I have a 40hr/week full time job (i am not a developer) but development is my hobby and i start my challenge to take the chance and find a job as a developer. You also need a lot of support if you have family. I am blessed because my wife give me a lot.

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

#110

Post by fleitz »

Chris2048 wrote: post #103
fleitz wrote: post #30

Stop reading, start doing. Imagine someone asks how do I train to run a marathon? Start by running 1 minute a day and add a minute every few days, after 2-3 years you'll be running long enough to run a marathon. There is no substitute for doing, there are no shortcuts, there is no miracle pill (well, ADHD meds may help...) You must actively decide that your sideprojects are more important than whatever else you are d…

By that logic, The day before the full Marathon you ran a Marothon-1 minute, and the day before a Marathon-2 minutes... Even if you are capable of keeping that up, it might be better to increase distance, otherwise you might be just slowing down, making no progress...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory
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