So true, It's really hard to get the mental balance to not think about your side project while doing other things :(. I'm also at the same position.
Getting too absorbed in side projects
31–40 of 113 posts
Re: Getting too absorbed in side projects
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
I feel like this is an excuse (sorry to be blunt). I’m a new parent and managed to build and release a side project in the first few weeks, as well as keep up with a bunch of other side projects. I’ve just had to adapt the way I work on them. Eg I’m spending significantly more time planning than before, I’m using tools that have been consistently applied to solve similar problems, I’m ruthlessly prioritising features…
You mean the first few months, before they learn to roll-over, are easy; you can just put them anywhere and they will stay there, mostly asleep? When they get older and start rolling around and walking, then the amount of time you have to be watching them increases dramatically. Especially when they go from 3-4 naps a day to 1 or 0. Let alone that sitting around programming all day is probably not what you should bec…
0 naps when it should be 1 or more is always a fun stage for both parent and child. His comment isn’t going to age well.
Re: Getting too absorbed in side projects
#33I'm too absorbed by parenting that I dream about side projects I will never do. Enjoy the free time
Enjoy the time with your children too. The memories you build with them today will last a lifetime, and will be much more valuable than any side project you're dreaming of
Yeah I know, that's why I keep myself on sync and spend all the time I have with him!
Re: Getting too absorbed in side projects
#34Hire cleaners. Outsource laundry. Have food delivered.
If you love hacking, nothing wrong with hacking from the time you wake up until the time you go to sleep.
Re: Getting too absorbed in side projects
#35Great post. I suffer from this to some degree (not to the point where I lack sleep). For me it's just that I feel this sort of obligation to work on the side project when I would rather, for example, read. Then I start to feel resentment from the side project because it's taking me away from that other thing. This is basically the same thing that the article says :)
What helps for me is having a set time when I always work on my projects. Which for me is an hour or two before work. This makes me feel less obligated to work on them after work. But if I choose to, that's ok too.
Re: Getting too absorbed in side projects
#36I'm too absorbed by parenting that I dream about side projects I will never do. Enjoy the free time
I feel like this is an excuse (sorry to be blunt). I’m a new parent and managed to build and release a side project in the first few weeks, as well as keep up with a bunch of other side projects. I’ve just had to adapt the way I work on them. Eg I’m spending significantly more time planning than before, I’m using tools that have been consistently applied to solve similar problems, I’m ruthlessly prioritising features…
Be careful with this. When the kids go to bed, then your spouse wants your mental attention. If you go into side project mode every evening, you spouse might not seem to mind, but gradually it can take its toll, and you might not be aware of it until it is too late.
Re: Getting too absorbed in side projects
#37I spent a few years working on side projects of different magnitude.
My process repeated the same cycle: I come up with an idea for a side project, start working on it, get more and more involved with time, until a few months later I am completely burnt out. At that point I drop the project, take a few months break, rinse and repeat.
I'm glad to say that once you identify this pattern, you can start working on it and develop healthier habits. I'm also glad to see that I am not the only one who struggled with this. I wish more people, specifically young and enthusiastic programmers, read this article and learn from it.
Re: Getting too absorbed in side projects
#38Hire cleaners. Outsource laundry. Have food delivered. If you love hacking, nothing wrong with hacking from the time you wake up until the time you go to sleep.
> Outsource laundry
Know any good services for that? I feel like this is always the hot, new startup idea that's gonna take over but they always fizzle out
Re: Getting too absorbed in side projects
#39This was my experience last year. In my case, i just want to build a neat, universal stack for my future projects. I started with Haskell and feel the pain with GHCjs. Then i tried out Elm, Vue, Purescript and they lacked of SSR capability at that time. Then i start with Next.JS and feel the pain with its opinionated choices. Now i'm done with a pure Typescript, React and Apollo stack. I reached my goal, not a fun experience, but learnt a tons of things from it. I must say, balance is hard to achieve once you're far from your goal.
Re: Getting too absorbed in side projects
#40I've got the same issue, but only for the first 80% of the project. At that point, the project becomes a burden I have to finish, otherwise I would have wasted my time.
The initial burst of inspiration is always exciting: you've got a novel idea, there are no restrictions, no deadlines, no requirements. You don't care about bugs or beauty, just about making things happen. You could even abandon the project and it wouldn't affect anyone.
But the last 20%… I usually struggle with that last sprint. You need to handle the boring aspects of the project only to make it solid enough to launch and "decent" enough to share. This happened with CSS Reference [1]: very excited at the start about the concept, but then I had to go through all CSS properties one by one, and it took a very long time.
My most successful side projects are actually the ones that were quick to start and quick to finish. I had the idea for a "Web Design in 4 minutes" tiny project once [2], and for a few days, I couldn't stop thinking about it. I managed to design and code it rather quickly (as a result, several bugs still exist, but at least it was launched).
In comparison, "JavaScript in 14 minutes" [3] took me months, and I was dreading not being able to finish it. It was in the end less successful.
[1]: https://cssreference.io/ [2]: https://jgthms.com/web-design-in-4-minutes/ [3]: https://jgthms.com/javascript-in-14-minutes/