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Where do you find the time for side projects?

justinjackson.ca

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Re: Where do you find the time for side projects?

#21

Post by JackMorgan »

jbattle wrote: post #15
buckbova wrote: post #3

One thing I can suggest. Don't commute to work and if you do make it as short as possible. This time is wasted.

Depends on the commute - I bought a small laptop so I could work on my side project while on the train. I've found that I can get a lot done in the 10 20-minute legs of my weekly commute. I'm sure it is less efficient than taking the 200 minutes in a solid stretch - but it was easy to fit into my life so I kept with the habit (which is the hard part for me). (At least until I stumbled on a good book - totally off the…

I've been doing this 40 minutes total a day for almost a year. I've probably doubled my knowledge of programming in that time. Something about the short time and nothing else to do gets me to focus like crazy.

Re: Where do you find the time for side projects?

#22

Post by drhayes9 »

agentultra wrote: post #14
mijustin wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Congrats on shipping! Could you share a link to the book? I'd love to see it. BTW: My next book is specifically aimed at helping developers with marketing - http://justinjackson.ca/marketingfordevelopers/

http://dungeonmastersdelight.com/ Thanks for taking a peek. Let me know what you think of the site. If it's something that really interests you, get in touch. I really like to get reviews/feedback. :)

Good on you for getting it done. This also happens to be relevant to my interests — purchased.

Re: Where do you find the time for side projects?

#23

Post by dmlorenzetti »

buckbova wrote: post #3

One thing I can suggest. Don't commute to work and if you do make it as short as possible. This time is wasted.

Not necessarily. For me, commute time (about an hour a day, on a bike) is down-time, during which I can think about and strategize on projects. Traditionally, it's also a time when insights and inspirations strike, though obviously that may not be the case for everybody.

I also find that having a little psychic space between work and home helps me better regulate intrusions between them.

Re: Where do you find the time for side projects?

#25

Post by semerda »

Zikes wrote: post #2

> The short answer is: I work on side-projects whenever I have a spare moment. I sacrifice other things (watching TV, reading the newspaper, playing video games) so that I can do creative work. This is the real answer. You do not find time, you make it.

Yap. Totally agree. We are great at filling in our daily life with stuff giving us the perception we are too busy. But how important is that stuff.

We are great at keeping track of our money but very poor when it comes to keeping track of where and how we spend our time. Once you do you find out where & how you spend your time you will find opportunities. Always. Then optimize!

I remember years ago when I 1st decided to sell our TV and go TV-less. The best decision I ever made. It was like a massive block of free time opened up each day. Next was removing stuff that was not adding value and finally maximizing my time i.e. instead of sleeping on a commute I would review my GTD list etc.

Re: Where do you find the time for side projects?

#26

Post by nine_k »

My problem is not that I don't have 2 spare hours a day. The problem is this time is severely fragmented, with 15 or 20 minutes being the largest fragment.

Working on code takes some concentration which is hard to attain in 30-60 seconds; it's closer to 10-15 minutes, but then the time is up.

Re: Where do you find the time for side projects?

#27

Post by petercooper »

Every "main project" I have (or have had) began life as a "side project." Literally. 100% of my non-consulting income (and my consulting income is peanuts) for the past 5 years has been from side projects that stuck and did well enough to go full time.

Given this, it's absolutely imperative I continue to invest time into experimenting and trying out more side projects, because they could well be my main gig in a few years.

Re: Where do you find the time for side projects?

#29

Post by rhubarbcustard »

For a long time I fell into the trap of thinking that I needed to find a block of a few hours so that I could sit down, get into the zone, and get some side-project work done. The result of that was that I never found a 4 or 5 hour block unless I took a day off work and so I made slow or no progress.

More recently I've made the concious effort to do small pieces of work wherever I can fit it in: lunch break, get up an hour earlier, an hour in the evening, etc.

If your tools are set up for a quick start then it's pretty easy to get some good work done in a spare 30 minutes and all those small pieces of work soon add up to a finished product.

Re: Where do you find the time for side projects?

#30

Post by rfnslyr »

thibaut_barrere wrote: post #8

Start freelancing, then raise your rates and use my little calculator [1] to "make time", then work on side projects. Also: as someone who did a lot of side-projects over the last few years, my advice is "start a side product" instead (if you want to end up living out of it, that is). [1] https://www.wisecashhq.com/goodies/bootstrapper-calculator

Uhhhh http://cl.ly/image/3l1h251S060B
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