Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Where do you find the time for side projects?

justinjackson.ca

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 136 posts

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

#51

Post by will_work4tears »

trustfundbaby wrote: post #39
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 T…

I don't see anywhere in there that you suggested you have kids or are married, so forgive me if I'm assuming here.

Being married by itself is a huge drain on time, though maybe not as much as dating, there is more leeway given. However, throw in a toddler, and a small commute, and here's what my schedule looks like:

Up at 4:30am, leave for work at 5:30, get there at 6 am. Work until 3-3:30 or so, go home and (M/W/F: workout, T/Th: Occupational Therapy for Carpel Tunnel - done soon though), 4:30pm - off to pick up my son, 25-30 minute commute each way, spend 30 minutes chatting about his day with my parents who watch him, and get home about 6-6:20pm, cook dinner, wife gets off at 7, home at 7:30. Eat, give kiddo a bath, put him to bed. At this point it's about 8:30pm, Since I get up at 4:30, I tend to start winding down here and go to bed at 9 - and hopefully asleep by 9:30.

Tuesdays and Fridays are a bit better: Tuesday they drop him off, the wife is off Friday (4 10s) so when I get home and work out, I have a few hours I could blow. We usually watch our weekly movie here if the toddler "allows it", but I could work with the TV going (she wouldn't give it up).

Saturday and Sunday are my big work days for getting stuff done. I have to compete with my wife's attention since we don't see each other much all week, and I usually have a "honey do" list of things to do, but I put aside at least 2-3 hours each day for that. Add on watching the kid, doing grocery shopping, and my wife's social events, it often cuts into my time considerably.

Time doesn't fly when you get old so much as when you get married and have kids. ;)

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

#52

Post by pedalpete »

cpprototypes wrote: post #31
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.

I'd actually argue that TV is bad when you have low mental energy. It may feel good and that you're relaxing, but have you ever gotten up from watching TV and though "now I'm refreshed!".

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

#53

Post by evanspa »

latj wrote: post #50
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.

I dont know if I buy it completely. When you have a full time job and 4 kids you dont play video games, watch tv, etc... you just constantly do things that have to be done. Either his kids are older or he has someone else doing most of the parent work.

This. I have 2 kids, ages 6 and 9, and there's always something to do (help with homework, help with piano, take to soccer, make a cake from scratch together, etc). When everyone's asleep, that's when I work on my side projects. If I'm lucky, I get 2-3 solid hours before my body physically shuts down. I made a decision years ago to do away with tv, video games, etc during "me time," and instead work on projects / catch-up on reading. It's about slow, steady progress. It might take me a month to crank-out what amounts to be 10-hrs worth of work, but, in the end, it gives me more happiness than if I spent that month on tv.

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

#54

Post by LVB »

nine_k wrote: post #26

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.

I struggle with this as well. My coping mechanism has been heavy use of lists. I write down what I'm going to do before I do it, if it is going to take any time at all. Sounds brutally inefficient, and I guess it is, but I've found that the "sync up" penalty was much worse overall when I didn't use the lists. This way I know exactly where I was and can ramp up a bit quicker.

The other satisfying part about lists (esp. hierarchical, I use Todoist fwiw), is that there really is a lot that can be fleshed out about what needs to get done on a project when there is even a little spare time. I'm not going to code during the 5 minutes spent waiting for the dentist, but outlining some fairly low level tasks I need to complete is doable and useful.

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

#55

Post by Adirael »

pc86 wrote: post #42
cpprototypes wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I find that I get energized on my short (20 minute) drive home. Maybe it's the change in context, but even if I'm mentally fried at 5 I find that I can at least get another hour or two.

That happens to me, I have a 20 minute commute too. I do it by motorcycle and it makes me wake up in the morning and be ready to do whatever I want to do in the afternoons.

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

#56

Post by 300bps »

latj wrote: post #50
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.

I dont know if I buy it completely. When you have a full time job and 4 kids you dont play video games, watch tv, etc... you just constantly do things that have to be done. Either his kids are older or he has someone else doing most of the parent work.

Either his kids are older or he has someone else doing most of the parent work.

I have a full time job (40 hours per week), 3 kids under 10 and a side consulting job that takes from 15 to 20 hours per week where I make about an extra $80k per year on top of my full time gig.

I also take my 3 kids to their basketball games, karate, cheerleading, baseball, soccer, lego mindstorms club, etc and help them practice each of their sports at home, help them with homework, etc. In fact I recently attended a Parent University for 3 nights of 2 hour sessions to learn modeling with Singapore Math so I could help them with that homework.

What do I avoid? TV, movies, other media consumption. I think of myself as a producer, not a consumer. I also don't have any hobbies beyond the one I've loved since I was 10 years old - computers. It just so happens I can make a lot of money with my hobby.

Contrary to your assertion, it's very possible to have 3 young children and work 55-60 hours per week and do a lot of the parenting work.

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

#57

Post by 300bps »

will_work4tears wrote: post #51
trustfundbaby wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 T…

I don't see anywhere in there that you suggested you have kids or are married, so forgive me if I'm assuming here. Being married by itself is a huge drain on time, though maybe not as much as dating, there is more leeway given. However, throw in a toddler, and a small commute, and here's what my schedule looks like: Up at 4:30am, leave for work at 5:30, get there at 6 am. Work until 3-3:30 or so, go home and (M/W/F:…

There is time leakage all over this itinerary you have listed.

Up at 4:30am, leave for work at 5:30

It takes me 15 minutes to get up, shower and prepare breakfast which I then eat in my car on the way to work (2 pieces of wheat toast). What do you do in this hour?

Also you realize that most people don't have things like occupational therapy for Carpal Tunnel taking up time in their day? (Incidentally, I "had" carpal tunnel for 2 years until someone on Slashdot told me about http://www.rsi.deas.harvard.edu/mb_what_is.html and I haven't had CT problems in 8 years, so just passing it along).

so when I get home and work out, I have a few hours I could blow. We usually watch our weekly movie here if the toddler "allows it"

Again, major time leakage. First, with three kids under 10, a full time job and a 15-20 hour per week side job I don't look at any time as "time I could blow". The concept of a "weekly movie" is completely foreign to me.

I'm not saying you shouldn't enjoy wasting time on things like movies, but you shouldn't correct someone when they say that most people are capable of making the time if they shift their priorities around.

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

#58

Post by wvenable »

evanspa wrote: post #53
latj wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dont know if I buy it completely. When you have a full time job and 4 kids you dont play video games, watch tv, etc... you just constantly do things that have to be done. Either his kids are older or he has someone else doing most of the parent work.

This. I have 2 kids, ages 6 and 9, and there's always something to do (help with homework, help with piano, take to soccer, make a cake from scratch together, etc). When everyone's asleep, that's when I work on my side projects. If I'm lucky, I get 2-3 solid hours before my body physically shuts down. I made a decision years ago to do away with tv, video games, etc during "me time," and instead work on projects / cat…

My problem is that by time I get to that point, my brain is done for the day. After 8 hours of work, an hour of commute, dinner, kids, etc I don't have enough energy to do side projects.

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

#59

Post by MichaelGG »

pedalpete wrote: post #52
cpprototypes wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'd actually argue that TV is bad when you have low mental energy. It may feel good and that you're relaxing, but have you ever gotten up from watching TV and though "now I'm refreshed!".

Odd, I find that watching TV or movies does have that effect - I get bored of just consuming, and I want to produce.

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

#60

Post by will_work4tears »

300bps wrote: post #57
will_work4tears wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see anywhere in there that you suggested you have kids or are married, so forgive me if I'm assuming here. Being married by itself is a huge drain on time, though maybe not as much as dating, there is more leeway given. However, throw in a toddler, and a small commute, and here's what my schedule looks like: Up at 4:30am, leave for work at 5:30, get there at 6 am. Work until 3-3:30 or so, go home and (M/W/F:…

There is time leakage all over this itinerary you have listed. Up at 4:30am, leave for work at 5:30 It takes me 15 minutes to get up, shower and prepare breakfast which I then eat in my car on the way to work (2 pieces of wheat toast). What do you do in this hour? Also you realize that most people don't have things like occupational therapy for Carpal Tunnel taking up time in their day? (Incidentally, I "had" carpal…

I certainly wasn't "correcting" anything. He gave his schedule, I noticed he seemed to be single with no kids, and showed him my schedule (which is pretty light in comparison to other parents or parents with two high school kids with activities, etc)

Yeah, there's time leakage, but not as much as you make it out to be.

Up at 4:30, ok, I hit snooze for 10 minutes once. I then sit and drink some coffee and look at hacker news. 15 minutes or so. I shave (my head too, I'm a baldy), do my morning business, and shower. That's about 20 minutes. I usually have some dishes from the night before that need cleaning, or a dishwasher that I empty.

Like I said, I could work during Movie time, but you know what, I love my wife and enjoy spending time with her. I also have other hobbies (seems you mentioned above that your work is your only hobby)

I also notice some of the other wifes don't work and take care of the house and kids. My wife works full time, and I'm a good husband that does my share around the house and and equal share raising the kid. Sure, I could push more on her and be selfish, but I'm not going to.

My only real time leakage is in the mornings (I like and feel I need time to wake up) and on Friday with a weekly movie. I don't really care that you think it's odd. 2 hours a week watching "TV" is so minimal people I know call me a freak. The fact that it seems alien to you to set aside time to relax and not think about anything says volumes about you (not necessarily bad things, mind you).

Thanks for the link. Looks a little, uh, suspect. My wife is a Physical Therapist though, I'll run it by her.

Edit: Link might not be relevant for me, only been doing OT for a couple months, before that had an EMG done and nerve damage was shown to exist.

Post reply on HN