Ask HN: How do you keep up the energy to work on side-projects after work?
Curious about what other people do to maintain the energy (and money) to work on side projects after work. What's your side project working schedule like?
Getting out of bed early. Getting something done on a side job. Getting to the gym.
1. If it's to learn more, I would instead suggest focusing on learning on the job. It's more realistic, you can get more resources, etc.. E.g. I've found learning new programming languages much easier at work than in my spare time: https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/09/09/learn-a-new-programm...
2. If you want to create a side business, I've done some combination of working half an hour each morning and increasing my personal time by negotiating a part-time job. An interview with someone who has negotiated shorter workweek at many companies: https://codewithoutrules.com/2018/01/08/part-time-programmer...
Setting small goals has always helped me keep up the energy to move it forward. When you're working in really small time chunks, it's important to make sure you have something achievable to accomplish. You're not going to be able to do things like "finish the sign up flow" in one night, but you can do things like "finish the authByPassword() method" and still be moving forward.
As for the money aspect of it, that's simple, just don't spend any. Bootstrapping is all about doing more with less, so don't spend anything until you absolutely have to. When you do finally start writing checks, make sure you're spending on things that will have the highest impact.
It doesn't work well if you have to get off every half an hour to switch trains. Or if you can't get a seat.
I always make sure to workout, sleep plenty and eat right which tremendously helps my mental fatigue. Also I quit my high stress job and work for a company with much more relaxed work environment so my daytime work is fun and doesn’t burn me out.
But I agree, it’s not easy balancing life, family, passions, future aspirations. It’s like a wheel you’re trying to keep balanced and round and things will always give and take.
Regarding money, I don't spend any. Between free services, free/promotional tiers of paid services, and open source tools, there's rarely a need to spend anything until your project is generating cold hard cash.
- Working on side projects that have less overlap with work and scratch technical and creative itches that aren't a part of my day job.
- Getting in the habit of sitting down to do some small task every day. Some days that turns into a multi-hour super-productive hack fest, sometimes it's writing a piece of copy and that's it. Now that I'm in that habit, I put in a really productive session about 2x per week on average, but I try to not care about that statistic.
- Setting easily achievable goals every week, and trying to consistently surpass them (examples: add an 'about' section, write a query)
- Getting serious about working out and eating mostly right fixed the afternoon doldrums for me. I normally do weights and cardio in the morning before work and a jog/yoga/swimming after.
Using S.M.A.R.T. goal system (https://www.yourcoach.be/en/coaching-tools/smart-goal-settin...) is helpful, too.
"I will resolve this 1 bug." "I will scope out this feature" "I will wireframe this UI" "I will start and tabulate this survey with these 2 questions"
These are all helpful and can be easy to finish.
Best so far is 4 day work week - Friday is exclusive for me, weekends for family. Pay-cut is 20% but I gain 50% more time off, time is money too.
(I also wrote a book with more stories and advice, with a whole chapter on negotiating part time work based on my experience and that of others: https://codewithoutrules.com/saneworkweek/)
If you're feeling too exhausted/no time/other is getting in your way, identify what exactly the issue is:
- is it other personal stuff/hobbies? (ask yourself why your side projects rate below these... are you willing to re-prioritize?)
- is it family? (unless you have buy-in/support from them, you may be screwed esp. if you have a S.O./kids... sorry)
- is it the day job? (ask yourself if its really work maxing you out or pressure you're putting on yourself. If it's truly external pressure from work, devote all of your free time to getting the hell out of there ASAP: life's too short)
- etc. etc.
The bottom line is to figure out where your time/energy is going. Assuming that the side-project is something you want to do, it should not be too difficult to find at least some time for it or understand exactly why you're not making progress.
Having covered all that, here's what I'm thinking might be going on from the way you phrased the question: do you really want to do the side-project(s) or do you just feel like you should because it seems like everyone else has theirs? If that's the case, you really shouldn't be bothering with a side-project... it's not for everyone.
IIRC this was how Scott Adams found time to draw Dilbert when he had a full-time job.
It was so good the next day back at work I handed in my notice which is what the following video is about!
I guess thats why they always recommend release soemthing early , so you can get some small measure of success: at least get some positive feedback to validate your idea.
But if I need to work on my sides during the evening, one trick I found is making my room extremely bright, making me think that it was still daytime. I also force myself to be away from my bed. As soon as I lay down, there is no way I can get up and be productive.
I find trying to work on projects after work just leads to a bunch of time wasted context switching, and 'not unwinding' can be seriously bad for your mental health.
If I open absolutely any distraction within the first 15 minutes after I get home, my night is shot.
It's funny how much of my time is dictated by momentum alone. In a sad, "Do I actually have free will?" kind of way.
In that case, if the desire to do side projects is great enough, I suppose the correct solution would be to try going for a somewhat shorter work week.
I work on something that's actually fun.