Ask HN: How much time per week do you spend on side projects? - sharemywin
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metaphyze
To everybody posting about not working on a side project because of children,
I would ask you to reconsider that if you're truly passionate about something
and want to develop it. I've been working on a side project for a few years
now. I also have kids and spend a lot of time with them. I've discovered that
it's actually very beneficial to spend an extended time working on a project,
and by extended time, I don't mean hours every day. I mean stretching the
project out over years. For one thing, it gives you the freedom to reconsider
solutions and approaches. Work is usually focused on delivering as quickly as
possible. It's very refreshing to have the time to consider a problem
thoroughly and let it play in your subconscious freely. Also, your kids need
time to themselves too so there's no need to feel guilty. But to answer the
question, I spend probably 0-15 hours per week, usually working at night after
the kids have gone to bed.

~~~
jwr
Seconded. It took me two years to build my current side project, and that's
ok. I am no longer 20, I don't have to rush to do everything in an instant.

I also noticed that because of the slower pace I often avoid solving problems
that can be bypassed altogether. When working at a frantic pace I'd often
notice that I solved a problem that didn't really need solving.

~~~
osullivj
Someone once said 90% of problems go away if ignored. In the 19th century
British foreign policy coined a phrase for this approach: "masterly
inactivity".

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jermaustin1
I replaced programming with woodworking. I find it a lot more enjoyable after
8 hours of building software and 1 - 2 hours of administrative work to
transition to building "hardware". My side projects are all furniture my wife
or other family members ask for.

~~~
roryisok
This is happening to me at the moment, currently upcycling an old timber door
into a bench

I find woodworking a lot more satisfying than coding. You can point to
something solid and say, "I made that", and your family don't have to be
technophiles to enjoy and appreciate it

~~~
Lukeas14
My code has a much bigger immediate impact. But I always assume that 10 years
from now it will all have been rewritten or projects replaced/cancelled.
However, my wood projects that I've given to family will be passed down to the
next generations (hopefully).

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Ocerge
None. After my first cup of coffee in the morning when I have artificial
enthusiasm I always tell myself I will start when I get home, but after 9
hours of making somebody else rich, I am just out of energy, and not
interested enough in software to push through.

~~~
gremlinsinc
Sounds like me...only I procrastinate and spend all the time I would working
on a side project --thinking up ideas, or 'researching' what others are doing
so I can copy/make better/build it and make$$.. Seems I never get past that
'market research' phase .... spend too much time on
hackernews/reddit/indiehackers.

~~~
shuki
Have I posted this while i was sleeping? It sounds exactly like me. I guess I
am bitten by analysis paralysis bug. With hundreds of new frameworks coming
out each day, one day you think to solve a problem with shiny new tool, next
day there is a new one. I spend @ couple of hours each day "thinking" about
items to build, unfortunately not been able to draw a line in sand and start
it.

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jwineinger
I have a wife and 3 young kids, so I have no side projects. I wouldn't miss
these years for anything

~~~
tinbad
+1 before I had kids I spent maybe 5-10 hours a week on random side projects
and freelancing, since I had twins they are my full-time job and my full-time
job became kind of side project

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throwaway2016a
2 - 6 hours a week but that's going to go up as I turn it into a real
business. Eventually I will quit my full time job but for some amount of time
it will be like having two jobs.

I pretty much make my wife mad at me every Saturday by locking myself in the
office while she watches our daughter.

But I hope that if I can make something of it then it will help my daughter
and our family long term more than my current job can.

I also try to dedicate at least as much time (usually double) bonding with my
daughter (she is a year and a half). They are only this young once.

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adrianpike
About 5 hours a week on [https://getelapse.com](https://getelapse.com),
chunked into 20 minute slots like lunch breaks or downtime at home between
family stuff. The only way I'm able to make forward progress is by being super
strict about CI+CD.

It's actually doing a good job of forcing me to code really well, because if
you've only got 20 minutes to get a _thing_ done, you can't have much
cognitive overhead or switching costs.

~~~
blacksmythe
Sound like you are dog-fooding your product:

    
    
       https://getelapse.com: "An elegantly simple tool to help you focus on the tasks you need to get done."

~~~
adrianpike
Sure am! :)

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judah
2-3 hours a week on Chavah Messianic Radio[0], a non-commercial Pandora-like
radio station for my religious community.

It's been going for several years now, and enjoys a nice user base. It started
out in Silverlight, then KnockoutJS, and now AngularJS [1].

[0]: [https://messianicradio.com](https://messianicradio.com)

[1]:
[http://github.com/judahgabriel/chavah](http://github.com/judahgabriel/chavah)

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davelnewton
Depends highly on family scheduling.

On weeks where I have a free Saturday (no kids or girlfriend) I can get in a
solid 8-12 hours depending on motivation and other chores.

On weeks where I don't get that Saturday it can range from 2-6 hours if I'm
lucky.

My current side project is something that if I had a company I could task out
2-4 devs, full-time, for probably 3-6 months just to get to beta state.

It actually really sucks, and is more depressing than I generally admit.

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rwieruch
Between 7 and 14 hours a week. It depends if I can dedicate one full day on
the weekend to it. That happens rarely. Otherwise I stick to one hour every
morning before work to do the most important thing. My side project is my
website where I attempt to teach about web developement (JavaScript, React)
[https://www.robinwieruch.de](https://www.robinwieruch.de)

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nickswan
Before my side project became my main gig, I worked on it a couple of hours
each evening. I told my girlfriend I was committing to the project and moved
my computer desk and PC down to the tv room so we still spent time together
while she was watching TV in the evenings.

We didn't have kids at the time, but I imagine the same thing still working
now as kids are in bed by 7pm (on a good night!).

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cdnsteve
None right now. Work demands are exciting team capacity so I'm often needed
for overtime work. Any spare time is spent with family.

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mrieck
I average about 14 hours per week on my animation platform. It took a few
years to have a release:
[http://www.superanimo.com](http://www.superanimo.com)

The difference for me was when I got a nights and weekends membership to a
coworking space. Since I'm paying for it I force myself to go at least 3 times
a week.

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ankurlemarc
I spend just 4 hours a week on my side projects.

Right now

1) building a newsletter about stories & life lessons by real mystics.
www.realmystics.com (2 hours a week)

2) Building a platform for finding meditation workshops & art therapy classes
in the city (2 hours a week) www.lightup.life

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jrm2k6
I would say around 5/6hours a week. Most of it on the weekend. I am building
[https://iheartreading.co/](https://iheartreading.co/). I have been working on
it for a little bit than a year, with a big break last year (5/6 months
without doing anything).

I try to spend maybe 15 min every day checking where I am at, and several
hours per weekend, when possible, working on features etc.

Trying to work on it in the evening after my work day is challenging, as I
have not a lot of energy/motivation.

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Faizann20
I usually spend one day every week. For the last few months, I have been doing
a lot of side projects related to the use of machine learning in sports
analytics and cyber security. I usually have an idea and spend the next few
days trying to write code for the idea. I have had a lot of success with my
side projects on Fsecurify.com and Crickytics.com. I initially got a lot of
good response from people and that gave me motivation to keep doing these side
projects.

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emodendroket
Some weeks a few hours, but usually none, honestly. I have lots of things I'd
like to do and most of them I don't already spend 40 hours a week doing.

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Namrog84
Side projects hours are directly proportional to how happy, satisfied, and
content I am with my say job.

At my previous job it tended to be 15+ per week easily. But now it tends to be
0-2 hours per week. It's not a bad problem to have; to enjoy and feel
satisfied with everything at the day job.

I still wouldn't mind being more side project engaged sometimes though. It's
always a struggle.

~~~
Joeri
I'm the same way. My current work project is in fact more interesting and
ambitious than any of my side projects (distributed rules engine fed with
realtime sensor data to take autonomous action to optimize workplace
convenience for office workers), so I haven't spent meaningful amounts of time
on a side project in months.

I do still work on dev talks to give to user groups, it engages a different
side of my brain than the programming side projects do.

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RabbitmqGuy
For my side project,
[https://www.rabbitmqhosting.com](https://www.rabbitmqhosting.com), I usually
spend about 1 hour per day(average 5hrs per week).

As a developer I usually find the marketing side of things to be a bit tricky
to do. So as a workaround I usually carry out marketing during my 40minute
commute to my day job.

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Jemaclus
I have a bunch of side projects. I spend about 5-10 hours per week on them,
but usually just one project at a time. For example, one week I might spend 5
hours working on a Hamilton costume. The next week I might spend 8 hours
working on my MUD, and the following week a few hours on my arcade cabinet.

None of my projects are really monetizable...

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8bittaco
Usually about 12 hours. I try to get 2 to 3 hours in on weekdays as soon as I
get home from the office. I take weekends off unless I'm feeling particularly
motivated/inspired, but with the MLB, NASCAR, F1, and Indycar seasons in full
swing right now, my weekend schedule is pretty packed...

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DutchKevv
40+ haha.

Im a Freelance Javascript developer currently having a very easy/boring job..
No kids, no wife, just a dog :)

So including weekends I easy hit more then 40 hours!

TradeJS

[https://github.com/DutchKevv/TradeJS](https://github.com/DutchKevv/TradeJS)

~~~
osullivj
Very slick GUI: nice work!

~~~
kewin87
Thanks! :D

Still working on it hard. My plan is to have a stable v0.0.1 by end of next
week

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madamelic
2 - 3 hours in the morning, 3 - 4 at night. Most nights.

I take Saturdays off for the most part, Sundays I work for 4 - 5 hours.

So like anywhere between a few and another full-time job. Admittedly it isn't
a side project, more of a side-venture I am trying to make my full-time job.

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jetti
12.5 - 30 hours depending on how motivated I am. I have a 3 hour commute
(round trip) with 2.5 hours of that on a train so it is perfect time to work.
At night it all depends on my motivation

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deathspin
50% of my time is dedicated to my side project (20-40 hours).

Over the last 2 years I cut consulting hours down to 20, and increased my
hourly rate so I could work 50% of the time for 75% of the money.

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thesmallestcat
None. 40-50 hours a week coding at my day job is more than I need.

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nunez
Lately an hour or two per week. The only free time I get during the week is on
weekends and I usually prefer other things over my side projects.

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vgprice
Between 6-9 hours per week. I'm able to work about 3 hours at night, after an
8 hour work day. Usually 2-3 nights per week.

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doc_holliday
I try to get in 20-30 hours a week just now.

(Have dropped most other activities because I am pushing to try launch in
couple of months).

~~~
codefined
I think at that stage it becomes your main project!

~~~
doc_holliday
Still have a main job 40 hours a week. (But yes working on making it main!)

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apolymath
about 20 hours per week, says RescueTime. I also work 10+ hours a day, 5 days
a week at a full-time job.

~~~
bruleyii
How do you find time for family?

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davelnewton
Not everybody has a family.

~~~
bruleyii
True, but it seems to be a pattern in all the articles.

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needz
Probably around 10 hours a week. Usually this is all on Sunday. I'm dead to
the world on Sundays.

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lostmsu
It severely depends on the mood (even in long term). From 3-5 during bad weeks
to 20+ for good ones.

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tmaly
10 hours a week based on how busy I am.

You really need to pre-plan what you will do to get the most out of the time.

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azrealus
around 10 hours per week working on a social word game for polish market:
[https://goo.gl/MQkme0](https://goo.gl/MQkme0)

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andreapaiola
Some hours... 3-6, max 10 if it's really interesting...

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sharemywin
now that I have kids it very hard to find time anymore.

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david927
About 10 hours on a good week. Zero on a bad week.

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thebouv
Not enough for my own satisfaction.

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joshmanders
20+ hours a week.

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hammock
3-6

