
Making Time for Side Projects - bgilham
https://medium.com/@bgilham/making-time-for-side-projects-22fbee546b45#.4ncedu481
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analogwzrd
Regarding accepting meetings, etc. Robert Heinlein has a great quote...

“Do not confuse "duty" with what other people expect of you; they are utterly
different. Duty is a debt you owe to yourself to fulfill obligations you have
assumed voluntarily. Paying that debt can entail anything from years of
patient work to instant willingness to die. Difficult it may be, but the
reward is self-respect. But there is no reward at all for doing what other
people expect of you, and to do so is not merely difficult, but impossible. It
is easier to deal with a footpad than it is with the leech who wants "just a
few minutes of your time, please—this won't take long." Time is your total
capital, and the minutes of your life are painfully few. If you allow yourself
to fall into the vice of agreeing to such requests, they quickly snowball to
the point where these parasites will use up 100 percent of your time—and
squawk for more! So learn to say No—and to be rude about it when necessary.
Otherwise you will not have time to carry out your duty, or to do your own
work, and certainly no time for love and happiness. The termites will nibble
away your life and leave none of it for you. (This rule does not mean that you
must not do a favor for a friend, or even a stranger. But let the choice be
yours. Don't do it because it is "expected" of you.)”

~~~
ryandrake
But the article is about side projects, i.e. projects being done at home or
otherwise outside of work. Who the heck struggles with juggling meetings
outside of work? Do people have conference rooms in their house or something?

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cableshaft
Do you have friends that invite you to things on a regular basis, or groups
you belong to that ask you to host or present? It's possible for that to take
up all of your spare time if you let it. I kinda did for awhile, I've been
trying to reign it in a bit lately.

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calferreira
I think the main issue on side projects is managing your own expectations. You
have to be realistic and think that as the name implies is something you do on
the side and it's not your main priority. So try to work on it as much as you
can but don't blame yourself if you can't work on it for a day or a few days.
We all have lives and have stuff to do that are more important then side
projects otherwise they wouldn't be called that way.

I'm devoting a single our per day on an android app and i'm having a great
progress, i'm doing a tiny feature every day. And that's fine, it's done when
it's done, i'm the one doing it and managing so there's absolutely no problem.

If you start looking at the side project in a very serious way, you'll end up
with guilt , frustration and remorse and that just kills the fun out of it.

~~~
0xfeba
How, with just an hour, do you manage to get anything meaningful done?

I've tried that and I have to spend 10 minutes figuring out where I was, 15
minutes researching how to do the next bit that I want (esp. for a project in
a new dev environment), 10 minutes upgrading various libraries or other stuff
that is needed/needs updating, and then maybe 25 minutes of actual coding. I
progresses very slowly.

Maybe my side projects are too ambitious, at least relative to my skill in
their respective areas.

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d3ad1ysp0rk
There are some methods to figure out where you were - I will not prescribe
one, but a few are; leave work unfinished, manage a trello board with small
functional pieces and prioritize the list, write lots of comments, write non-
passing tests, etc.

Also, if you're putting in an hour a night, why are you updating packages?

~~~
dwightgunning
I find that writing myself a note with the next couple of things I need to do
or try out (if I'm stuck) really helps.

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erikb
The question is how, after working 40+ of the best hours of your life on other
things, spending another two hours in traffic and another two hours with your
family. Then somehow you need to get out of the tv chair and to your desk and
put in another two to four hours of side project work. The question is not
about understanding that consuming != producing.

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ensiferum
Also:

\- spend less time at work (nobody cares about those stupid TPS reports
anyway)

\- work smarter, i.e. produce more per unit of work.

\- focus only on the stuff that actually matters.

\- commit to task. I now set a goal (completing a small task such as fix a
bug, implement a feature etc) for everytime I plan to work on my projects. For
example next weekend: saturday -> setup webdev environment, sunday -> redesign
my personal webpage.

~~~
IndianAstronaut
Setting up bitesize tasks is the best way to make progress. Add a new div to
my page today, set up a function to handle it tomorrow, clean up a page after,
etc.

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afoot
I wonder how many hours that would have otherwise been productive have been
spent reading about productivity.

~~~
bgilham
Heh. That's why I called it out in the post too. It's definitely something
I've fallen into.

Reading about productivity can be useful, IF you use what you read. Most
don't.

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tertius
If you don't act on what you learn you're just escaping.

I think many many are in a similar boat. I try to tell myself the above and
realize that I should spend my "reading" time on things other than
"productivity." I.e. planned procrastination isn't a bad thing. Just don't
fool yourself that you're being productive.

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anthonylukach
For me (and I'm guessing a lot of other developers) the hard part is balancing
time between side projects and the other passions in life. I love diving in to
a new technology and building things when I get home from work, I have
seemingly bottomless energy for that. The real hard part is ensuring that
you're not neglecting all the other responsibilities in life: partner, kids,
friends, chores, etc.

The thing about the software industry is that there is always so much to
learn. I always wonder how field leaders manage their personal lives whilst
remaining sharp and current on emerging technologies and methodologies. That's
the real challenge, staying abreast on the state of the art while not becoming
a hermit.

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albertTJames
I wonder who can afford to say no every time they are not thinking HELL YEAH !

I think HELL YEAH ! probably twice a year...

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TrevorJ
I don't totally buy the "Stop doing things you hate" advice. I've learned over
the years that anything worth doing is going to walk you through the valley of
drudgery at _some_ point. Doing things well always includes aspects that you
may not enjoy, but many times it is worth working on it anyway to get to the
goal.

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pgm8705
I'm on board with all his points except for "Stop doing shit you hate." Lovely
idea, but completely unrealistic.

~~~
brianwawok
Depends how wealthy you are I guess. If you have a billion dollars, I doubt
you need to do ANYTHING you don't like.

As your money scales down, you may have to do a few more things you hate ;)

However I think it might be easier to find joy in things you hate vs just
hating them :)

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dasboth
> it might be easier to find joy in things you hate

That is arguably the key to happiness :)

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tmaly
Taking action is probably the best advice one can get out of that post.

I have a small side project I have been working on over the past couple of
years. If I am lucky I get a hour a day Monday to Friday to work on it. You
really have to push yourself if you want to make progress on something.

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dpflan
It seems as simple as make time for yourself and your ideas and your actions,
then actually use that time with intention and focus.

~~~
bgilham
It's simple, but not necessarily easy.

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comments_db
"...But every second you spend learning about productivity is a second you
aren’t, well, being productive..."

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fucking_idiot
Just make sure you realize that there is a life out there.

You're missing out. How much longer do you have left to live? You need to hang
out with your kids and GF. Life is really short.

