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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?

#31

Post by cpprototypes »

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.

Time is important, but another factor is mental energy. I have only a certain amount of mental energy for each day. Things like TV, reading, and exercising are good when I'm in a low mental energy state. If I have a hard day at work, it doesn't matter how much free time I have since I just won't have the mental energy left to work on a side project.

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

#32

Post by ochoseis »

sdegutis wrote: post #13

> 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. I tried this approach for a while, but it greatly degraded my quality of life. Eventually I found that I was always hunting and hoping for a spare moment, instead of just enjoying whatever moment I was already in. It's true th…

I know the feeling -- It makes me seem like I'm always distracted when I'm around friends and family because I'm either thinking about or working on a side project. What I need to do is stop multitasking and focus on the right things at the right times -- and the author suggests good ways of doing that while not sacrificing quality time with others: wake up early, use lunch (don't like this idea), wait 'til kids asleep, etc.

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

#33

Post by RoadRunner_23 »

Justin, I did not see you mention wife and kids activities anywhere in the article. 1. Does your wife work? 2. Who takes kids to their activities? including playing the basement, reading stories to them, taking them to McDonalds 3. How much family time do you spend per day? 4. How does your typical day and weekend look like ?

Curious.

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

#35

Post by Alex_MJ »

Set up times to work with people. The best stretches of pounding out productive side project work usually start with discussing it with a friend, both lamenting how much we're wasting time and messing around on it, and then we show up at one person's apartment or a coffee shop and hack on our respective side projects for 4 hours straight.

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

#37

Post by mijustin »

RoadRunner_23 wrote: post #33

Justin, I did not see you mention wife and kids activities anywhere in the article. 1. Does your wife work? 2. Who takes kids to their activities? including playing the basement, reading stories to them, taking them to McDonalds 3. How much family time do you spend per day? 4. How does your typical day and weekend look like ? Curious.

For sure:

For reference: I work 8 hours a day at my day job, with an hour for lunch.

1. Wife does not work outside the home (full-time caregiver) 2. We both share kid activities - I try to take as many of these as I can. 3. Basically from 5:30pm - 8:30pm I'm in dad mode: dinner, chores, playing with kids, reading bed time story, putting them to bed. 4. Typical weekend: I wake up early Saturday & Sunday and work on personal projects. The rest of Saturdays is hanging out with family. Every Sunday we try to go skiing as a family.

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

#39

Post by trustfundbaby »

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.

This is the only answer. Back when I was trying to build a prototype to try to get some angel investment. I kept trying to find time to hack on the project, unsuccessfully. It wasn't till I set myself a hard schedule that it fell into place for me.

I'd wake up at 6, go to the gym for 2 hours. Be showered and ready to go to work by 9. In at work at 9:30. Out by 6-6:30. Home by 7. then I'd allow myself just 1 hour of TV while I made and ate dinner. so I'd start working on my stuff by 8:30-9. then I'd hit the sack at 12.

It added up, and I was able to get it all done and ready to go in 2 months. Unfortunately the investor flaked on us (shocking), and my partner wanted to go in a different direction. So I'm now stuck trying to do the pivot on my own, which is hard(er) because I don't have the Real estate license I need to complete the pivot.

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

#40

Post by randomdata »

rfnslyr wrote: post #30
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

Perhaps some validation would be useful, but 20 days per week?
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