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Ask HN: How do you stay focused on your side projects?

7 points by DigitalSea ↗ HN
I have a full-time job, but I love nothing more than to come home and work on my personal side projects (sometimes at the behest of my girlfriend, but she understands). I have some solid ideas, but feel as though I have too many ideas. I have one idea I would like to complete which is a classifieds website. It's rather simple, I've designed it and have a bit of code written using the PHP framework Codeigniter. I however feel as though my enthusiasm for the project has dwindled lately (maybe I'm depressed or just over-worked) but I do want to finish it. I start coding it and then I start rewriting parts I think could be better (infinite scope creep). Don't get me started on my other project that I've been working on for 6 years either...

How do you keep focused on your personal projects in the midst of life commitments, work and the other curve balls that life throws you? I see some amazing side projects occasionally get submitted to HN and am jealous of people who manage to release things. I would love some tips and advice and some stories from fellow entrepreneurial HN'ers.

8 comments

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rex_gsd
I've been working on a side project for about 6 months. It grew out of a need I saw in some friend's primary businesses and thought it was a worthwhile project. I essentially worked on it about 2-3 weeknights a week and about 4-5 hours on Sat and Sun as time permitted.

I stayed focused by setting small goals, achieve this function by the end of today, then call it quits. Before I knew it the code was finished to my satisfaction. I finished the code at the end of January and have some ideas for the next project.

I try to get one side project (One SaaS app I can sell to subscribers online typically) a year completed. This one took about 200-300 hours I think, thought that's just a rough guess.

krapp
I have too many side projects, i'm a terminal project starter. My real "project" is learning to just pick one and follow through.
niggler
"How do you keep focused on your personal projects in the midst of life commitments, work and the other curve balls that life throws you?"

How many hours a day/week do you spend on HN? Why not route news.ycombinator.com to 127.0.0.1 for a week and spend that time working on your personal projects? If you find that isn't enough time, you should figure out why you dont have at least a free hour a day. Usually it'll be something trivial like miscounting other entertainment times, which you can redirect.

datashaman
Make your side project test driven or use bdd principles to lock down what it is you're trying to achieve. Don't change your code unless its tied to a required feature. That should stop scope creep and that feeling of being lost in the code without direction.
lifeisstillgood
1. The test-driven idea above is a really good one. I find a combo of running tests and auto-docs to be Powerful in keeping me motivated. Python doctest, sphinx Are excellent

2. MVP and focus - really choose one small thing and ship it Script your deployment process so you can in one day write a function run the tests then push it live. That will seriously motivate you

3. Outside help - know anyone else who might work with you? There is a very good reason pg says solo founders don't work well. The motivation levels needed are huge.

4. Put time aside in the week to see your girlfriend (over a table, with a candle, just on the sofa does not count). Similar with family friends. Don't go mad on this try a date night each week and a friends night. Your social life may improve (depends where you are now I guess)

[dead] lifeisstillgood
1. The test-driven idea above is a really good one. I find a combo of running tests and auto-docs to be Powerful in keeping me motivated. Python doctest, sphinx Are excellent

2. MVP and focus - really choose one small thing and ship it Script your deployment process so you can in one day write a function run the tests then push it live. That will seriously motivate you

3. Outside help - know anyone else who might work with you? There is a very good reason pg says solo founders don't work well. The motivation levels needed are huge.

4. Put time aside in the week to see your girlfriend (over a table, with a candle, just on the sofa does not count). Similar with family friends. Don't go mad on this try a date night each week and a friends night. Your social life may improve (depends where you are now I guess)

benjamincburns
For me the best motivator has been witnessing the success of a good friend's side project [1]. That, and I've also found that it's really important to commit to imperfection. It's better to have something small out there garnering feedback than it is to build something in a vacuum for months at a time.

Try taking a planned weekend to scrap together the absolute minimum features of your project that might be useful to another individual, and publish them. Commit to actually publishing by the end of the weekend so long as at least one other person might find usefulness in your work. Publish no matter how imperfect it is. My side project's [1] plan is a gazillion times bigger and more interactive than what's implemented today, but what finally got it out the door was the exercise I just described.

[1]: http://corkboard.me [2]: https://threadcheck.me