How to Stay Motivated for Side Projects?

You’ve been hard at work all day, fixing bugs, adding new features, updating old ones and it comes time to clock off. You go through your usual evening routine, whether it’s walking the dog, making your evening meal for yourself or for your family, spending time with your kids or your significant other.

It gets to say eight… maybe nine pm and you think… hmm shall I work on that thing that I have been thinking about…

I’ll do it tomorrow…

Well, guess what? Tomorrow rolls round and the same thing happens again. Sound familiar? It does to me.

We have all been there, and to be honest who can blame you, no one wants to work 24 / 7. But this idea is really bugging at you and your struggling for motivation to start it.

So how do we get passed this?

How to find motivation

First of all ask yourself the question, why do you want to work on this idea? Is it for fun? Do you want to learn how something works? Do you think it could make you some extra income?

You need to be clear on the reason why you want to work on it, what ever that may be. Having a long term goal helps; ask yourself what could this become in a years time? Two years time, or three even? It rolls round faster than you think.

So what are my personal top tips, that I think are key for getting side project underway?

Try setting time aside to work on it

Now you have heard this a million times before haven’t you? But take a look at your week and see where you have free time. If you can find one hour on one night a week, that’s 52 hour in a year. You can do a lot in 52 hours. If you can set that time aside on that specific evening, you know thats what you’re doing. But what if you can’t find time on an evening?

Try getting up early

I did a part time degree over 6 years (let’s not talk about the pain of it here) but I found this key to getting some of my work done. Evenings are hard, especially after a long day. I much prefer getting up an hour early and spending some time on something before work. Plus, if everyone else is asleep there is no one round to bug you.

Try breaking it down into smaller pieces

This one always used to get me. I would have these huge ideas and wouldn’t know where to start, or the sheer scale of the job or task was enough for me to actively avoid starting it. Break it down to the smallest possible thing it could be. You don’t need a website to launch a blog, you can just write one post and post it on medium. You don’t need to make a pretty well designed app if you have an idea, it doesn’t need settings, or login or dark mode etc… it just has to work. When it works, then make it pretty 🤩.

Break it down to the smallest possible thing and make something, rather than never making anything.

Getting started is the hardest part

Getting started is the hardest part, but you’ll find (at least I do anyway) that once you actually make a start on it, you’ll want to continue working on it. You’ll start to see progress and then you’ll find yourself making time to work on it.

You won’t always feel motivated

This is where your long term goal comes in. I promise you now before you even start, you won’t always feel motivated. Your alarm will go off at 5:30am and you will think to yourself

WTF am I doing?

What kind of mad person gets up at this hour to work on X Y Z. And I promise you will feel like that. But it does get easier, and when you complete what ever it is, or you reach your first milestone, or you get a Test Flight build. You will be so happy you put the work in.

Anything learned is never wasted time

If you don’t make it to beta, or Test flight, it doesn’t matter. If you write your first article and you think this isn’t for me, again it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you tried, you put the effort in and had a go, and as long as you’ve learned something from it, it was worth it. Then wait for the next idea and start all over again!

Conclusion

• Set aside dedicated time each week for your side project, start small… baby steps.
• If evenings aren’t working, try early mornings (this one works for me 😉).
• Break it down into smaller pieces, you’re not building the next facebook overnight.
• Once you start making progress, you’ll find yourself making time to continue.
• You won’t always feel motivated, but keeping sight of your long term goal helps.

Keeping motivated for side projects can be hard, finding the motivation in the first place can be even harder, and finding the enthusiasm to work on something when you are clawing for motivation is the hardest part of all.

But remember, anything learned is never wasted. Knowledge compounds over time and makes us better people, better developers, and, ultimately, better versions of ourselves.

And if all this side project malarkey isn’t for you, thats ok too. No one said you have to have a side project, but I personally love what I do, its more than a job, coding is a great hobby. what ever you do, just make sure you can find the fun in it.

Thanks for stopping by 🙂.