My employer is kind enough to let me work on open source projects on paid company time if they are loosely connected to work. However, I tend to actually use more of my own time at home (mostly on weekends) than I do at the office.
Ask HN: How do you find time for pet projects?
31–40 of 77 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you find time for pet projects?
#32You need to keep the technical architecture of the pet projects as simple as possible.
From what I can see (myself included), there's more tendency to make pet projects more technically complicated than needed (usually because they're thought of as an opportunity for technical experiment & also less responsibility if things break), and these complexity will make project context switching much, much more painful, which will lead to less time of meaningful developing.
Re: Ask HN: How do you find time for pet projects?
#33Everyone here is saying "it's not hard", but it really depends on your circumstances. I am newly married and have a I bring my laptop with me in hopes of working on the bus during my commute, but the bus is often far too packed for me to even have the arm room to pull my laptop out of my bag. Because of this, I sometimes just jot notes in a notebook, but that doesn't get me very far when the majority of what I need t…
Please reduce your commute time to < 30mins. Even if it costs you $1k/month more. I did this, and now I have more time and energy to do more of what I want to do.
My 1.5 to 2 hour commute is a great time for me to get on my laptop and get work done on my side project. With up to 4 hours a day to dedicate to other things while on the bus, I can get far more done than I could once I got home.
Re: Ask HN: How do you find time for pet projects?
#34Throw away your television. About 95% of the time I spend on my projects is time I used to spend watching TV.
This has worked for me. By dropping cable for netflix and hulu....I end up spending more time usefully.
Streaming only what you actually want to watch is a great way to limit the time you spend watching things, especially with Netflix as there is never anything you want to watch on it.
Re: Ask HN: How do you find time for pet projects?
#35As others have said, if you have a zillion projects, you don't get time to focus on your projects. First, finish the one..
But, when you say a zillion projects, you automatically reminded me of how I use to be. My mind is like a buzzing bee, always having ideas. So I've got some more advice for you:
Look at what you HAVE to launch for pet project #1. The smaller details and functionalities can be added later on in v2 or whatever. I always had issues not being able to complete projects, because I was keep on coming up with "cool new additions that I insisted I needed to add". Don't, it will only delay you more and more, and you'll never launch.
Focus.
Relax.
Build v1.
Write down your ideas if you spontaneously come up with a new one for later, and brainstorm before you start working on v2 again. Then, repeat above steps. Or, start a v1 of another project. But working on multiple things at the same time isn't productive.
Different people like different approaches, but this one worked for me after getting very frustrated with myself.
Re: Ask HN: How do you find time for pet projects?
#36I work on one project at a time. Every night my wife goes to bed at 10. I go to bed at 11. That is my time during the week. On the weekends my son sleeps from 11->1 or 2. So I get a couple of hours in there too (sometimes).
I go to the gym during lunchtime. Unfortunately that is easier or harder depending on where you work.
I think one of the best pieces of advice that is being repeated here is to have just one project at a time. I think this is golden, if you are pressed for time then more than one will kill you.
Re: Ask HN: How do you find time for pet projects?
#37Try to carve out a few hours during your real job to work on it. Build a little momentum, and then when you get home you'll be more inclined to reach for the laptop instead of the remote.
Re: Ask HN: How do you find time for pet projects?
#38Back before quitting my job to work on one my projects full-time, I used to wake up an hour early and getting work done in the morning. I'm not a morning person by any stretch, but I found I was a lot more productive right when I first woke up than coming home after 8+ hours coding at work. As a secondary benefit, I found that starting off my day by creating something of value that I cared about energized me and tended to put me in a better mood for the rest of the day.
Re: Ask HN: How do you find time for pet projects?
#39A "zillion" is probably too many. Focus on one, ship that, then move on to the next one if anything. Focus is really important (especially since you want to start your own startup one day based on these projects). Also, keep in mind that context switching is expensive -- switching from one project to another requires a change in your mindset and maybe even the technologies/syntax you're working with. It's very easy t…
This schedule is admirable for a single person but would clearly not work the OP. This gives him no time at all with his wife or kids.
Re: Ask HN: How do you find time for pet projects?
#40Married, two children. I find myself wishing the days lasted 36 hours instead of 24. :P I have a full time job as well and do not have the time for pet projects. After work I get home and have some family time until it's bed time. Then my wife watches some TV while I work for about 1 hour tops. As you know, 1 hour is NOTHING when developing. I take at least 45 minutes to get into a groove and ultimately I do nothing…
Serious question, not trolling. Why did you make the choice to have a family, then?
I too have a wife and two children and often feel the same as parent. The choice to get married (at 18) and have kids (first one at 20) was actually quite deliberate. We talked about whether we wanted to live it up now and do all the serious stuff like having kids later in life ... or get the kids out of the way then while we have energy and save our "golden years" for traveling the world, or generally doing whatever we want.
So I'll be 40 when my youngest turns 18 ... just in time for my mid-life crisis :P But in all seriousness, 11 years in (I'm 31, and my daughter is 11) and I'm still happy with our decision. I'll let you know in 9 years how that turns out ;)