Ask HN: How do you keep energy to work on personal projects after work hours? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How do you keep energy to work on personal projects after work hours?

20 pointsguzamy21 comments

I have been on vacation when I started working on a personal project, so I had plenty of time. Now that I’m back to work, I feel I’m struggling to keep up, because once I arrive home (I work from 9am to 6pm and commute time is 1 hour) I’m so tired that I can barely focus and code. I’m very passionate about this project and don’t want to just work on it during week-ends.

How do you do it?

PS : I also want to start working out, but do I even have time for that if I can’t free time to work on my project?

View on HN

I'm lazy and thus, I trick myself into working out. I'll ride my bike to work or I'll walk to work. At the end of my shift, I have to walk home. No other choice.

When I get home, I still have an abundance of energy, so I hop on my MaxiClimber for 10 minutes, and then I have a protein shake as my reward afterwards.

Then I code till I fall asleep at night, which is usually about 3-4 hours. When I wake up, sometimes if my wife isn't bothering me, I'll code then before work. And if there is any downtime at work, I'll code during work.

Sometimes i even code in my sleep which is probably how I code even faster, knowing what I'm going into. But I'd say get some sleep before you code.

Very passionate about coding.. it's my escape, my gaming, my fun time.. its just that time where I get to be creative.

This is one of those replies I am not entirely sure if it is satire or not.

Your willpower is at full charge in the morning. Try to wake up early and use that time on your side project. It will require you to sleep a little earlier at night.

Also, keep a well defined list of tasks for your project. This will help you make the most of your time in the morning, you can grab a task and hit the ground running.

I'm in the same boat. I have the same commute time. I also have side projects. I also wanted to work out.

For me I've come to realize that due to time constraints and depleted energy levels I can only focus on one thing per day and that I have to do it in the morning before work. To me that's the key aspect. And it's something I had to come to terms with.

Right now I'm focusing on fitness (I run) and I get virtually nothing done on my side projects. However I'm confident that I can switch it up in the future.

I've tried to have a full time job and work on a side project, and if the side project is actually hard (not just some CRUD app) I can't progress at all. I think some of us expect too much from ourselves in terms of constantly working. If you had the mental capacity to work on your project, you'd probably already be working on it.

Ask hn: how do I push myself beyond my body’s well defined limits

Dude, I've even tried popping a Ritalin / Vyvanse (a few remaining from college years - don't bother, you get insomnia later and still can't produce), grabbing a coffee, taking a shower.

All no go.

A short nap is not enough as I'm already tired for the day, and a long one just gets me sleepy, then it gets too late already, and if I stay up late I won't be able to perform at work.

I second the thoughts of another person here who said there are so many productive hours in a day. Maybe if we were not bound by office hours, back when I was a student or in my short stints as a freelancer I could push two "rounds" of productivity in a day.

I also want to start working out, but do I even have time for that if I can’t free time to work on my project?

Start working out. Do that for a few weeks. You may find your energy levels rising and time for stuff suddenly being less of an issue.

Use your workout time to do double duty for thinking about other ways to free up time and energy, stuff related to your project etc. Maybe even use it to do things like listen to podcasts that might be pertinent to freeing up time or developing your project.

At some point i managed to work only 3 days a week which was nice and i still had enough money. So maybe ask for a shorter week. Another point that did help me was my own story board that motivated me a lot (i saw the board all the time at home)

You have to prioritize, but the job that puts food on the table has to come first. I have a full time, non-technical job and I wake up earlier to work out or work on projects. I say "or" because I only have time to do one or the other, so I tend to alternate.

I’ve been doing software development professionally for about 20 years.

I’ve tried to do side projects during all this time, and my conclusion is: I don’t think there’s a solution. There’s just only so many productive hours in a day.

If you want to do a side-project, the only thing that’s ever worked for me is to take time off work. Minimum multiple weeks, ideally a few months. For example between jobs.

You can start planning for this while you have a job. Cut out unnecessary expenses, so you save money. Without saved money, you can’t take a few months off.

The key is to do it when you wake up. Just set your alarm 5 minutes earlier and spend those extra 5 minutes working on your project. It's tough, but try not to dwell on 'only being able to work X time on it' as this doesn't add value. I'd definitely recommend pacing yourself so that you finish your project. Consistency is the key. If you can commit 5 minutes each day to working on it, you will be well on your way.

5 minutes ? i need hours :D

This is what I followed when I built CloudBuddy (https://cloudbuddy.cloud). For any side project it starts off being exciting and looking like a climbable mountain. Then when you start getting into it, it seems daunting. Each day I would tell myself I am going to put one foot in front of the other and walk up the mountain. No matter how slow it seems, I will make it to the top. Some days I was so burned out; those were the days that I only worked 5 minutes on it and called it a day. Other days, I was into it and naturally blew beyond the 5 minutes.

It took me 2 years and 3 months to launch CloudBuddy (which has paying users). There isn't anything special about me or my circumstances - I'm married, have a child and have a day job.

If anyone is having difficulty working consistently on their side project and it would help to have someone to talk to, email or drop me a line. My contact info is in my profile.

"Commute time is 1 hour"

Well, there you have it! (if you commute by train, that is).

I almost exclusively work on my side projects during commute, which is also 1 hour. Especially the morning commute is very productive, on the way back I find myself lacking focus so I do some reading about sales, design, marketing.

Also, prioritize working out. Schedule time for it, even if it is 1-2 hours a week. You will earn more time in extra energy than it will cost you.

Do it before your job, get up early. Whether you need 1 hour, 2 or 3, whatever's best. Once you develop the habit things become easier, it will be hard not to do it. It's very energizing having already done a satisfying day's work, it's like 2 days in 1.

People have been doing this for a long time. I remember reading about 19th C novelists who wrote their novels by writing for an hour each morning before their day job.

Try to get an issue done before starting work, slow and steady wins the race. All nighter every now and then when something is super interesting.

As for working out, ehhh yeah I'm supposed to do that too.. new years resolution? But being active gives you more energy so there's that, once you get to it.

Wake up early and work on your personal project for an hour. Repeat for a month, then a year.

I used to be a PT in the forces. Exercise only needs to last 20 minutes if you do it correctly to get benefits. Everyone has 20 minutes a day.

My advice is to get home and do a 20 min hiit workout. This will perk you up. Get some food and code away

Drugs help. Caffeine, etc.

The solution to coding and working out is planning.

Draw up a product roadmap and get the units of work down to ~1hrs work that you should be able to see a change at the end. Do the design down to little atomic units. Likewise, plan sets in the gym.

This also gives you excellent practice for managing a project.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com