Ask HN: How do you plan your side projects? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How do you plan your side projects?

6 pointshiggins6 comments

Hey HN!

Like a lot of you I tinker away at side projects before and after work.

My system for how I plan my "work away from work" is roughly:

- Capture all ideas as a digital one-sentence "pitch" - Repeat entries are okay - Add context (links, examples, growth strategies) if they are novel - When I get free time from executing all existing commitments, hit the idea backlog and see what feels doable based on the coming weeks, my energy and interest.

Please share how you plan your side projects! Justin

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1. Buy or gather everything needed for the project and put all parts of the project in a box. Probably it may be a directory on a file system if the project is something digital, but as I love to get outside of displays most of that boxes for me are some real cardboard boxes in the offline world, full with offline stuff.

2. Wake up as early in the morning as possible because evening is never a good time for any projects with uncertain time constraints - because waking up early constantly is important per se. Believe me or not but all my time except of more than 1 year I was an owl and now I realized that this is a key for my productivity.

3. After your morning coffee realize that there are a lot of boxes around. Pick any one and start working! And get ready that most of that boxes gotta be untouched for the sake of dealing with the most important/interesting ones.

haha excellent!

I sort of do this for physical projects too. I call it the "stub your toe method"

Put the physical things on the ground around the house and if you stub your toe on it, address the thing!

thanks for sharing

What time do you get up in the morning?

Usually at 5AM, but I never start those "usual" boxes before 7AM nor gathering to work before 7AM. This two hours are for the most important things: either sleep if I feel like I need some or making my research which I consider the most important thing I do in my life.

Actually a summer makes early waking up easier because of the bright sun lighting into my bedroom, but a winter makes easier early going to bed because of lack of light and because I have moved from a city which are famous by actively throwing out orange Sodium lamps in the favour of blue LEDs nowadays. Blue light is my personal enemy of my productivity.

First and foremost, pinpoint the goal. Is it purely for funsies? To acquire new knowledge? Must it be pragmatic? Perhaps a business venture? Are there any users who will interact with the thing?

Next, break it down into steps. Write everything down like a brainstorm meeting.

This is a preliminary plan. Identify any known unknowns and research topics until they become known knowns. In the end, there is a list of steps to be done to achieve the goal. Can't crack it yet? Not a problem, put it in the reserved zone and move on.

Tackle step #1, or perhaps start with the most troubling one, then reassess the remaining parts. Is the goal still stand, or has something changed? No? Excellent--proceed. Yes? Take a half step back and adjust the plan.

Repeat.

Don’t forget to take breaks, drink water, and, please, be forgiving.

I don't really plan.

I get an idea, draw up a diagram and start building it.

Eventually, I'll screw something up and learn something. That's part of the process.

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