Sideprojects Are Hard

I would recommend waking up at 5am and work on your side project until 9 am - this is what I did. A year and a half ago, I created a side project that I half finished and then abandoned after a month. After learning some lessons from this, a few months later I then created another side project, got some grant money for it, quit my day job, raised more money, and currently have 10 employees and millions in funding. Granted I wouldn't call the company or product a big success but it does pay the bills and gives me the freedom of not having a boss.

Side projects are definitely hard. You have to optimize and focus on all the right things to have any degree of success.

I would also think about the worst case scenario and best case for anything you do. Worst case, always make sure you learn a lot of lessons and skills. That way your time didn't go to waste if your project fails.

As you stated, you also have to care more about your side projects than other things (such as free time, being free of stress, or performing super well at your dayjob). There are a lot of sacrifices involved.