People in full-time employment, when do you work on your side projects/startups/businesses?

I have an hour long commute to and from work by train. This is where I do a lot of my side project work. I often get asked if I hate the commute but it’s actually my favourite part of the day.

I get up early. The brain works better and I get 2 hours of quiet work time in before I get to work. And then I put in another 2 at night for about 4 hrs a day

This is what has worked GREAT for me the past couple of years, it's very simple and unoriginal too. Post-it notes. So I write down a bunch of post-it notes and that's the backlog of the thing I'm trying to build, and then I call that "version 1.0". I then promise and threaten myself to eternal self hate if I don't work at least one "session" every day after work. It usually happens in the evening. A session can be an hour or 10 minutes, it doesn't matter, I took a step forward. Those steps quickly becomes progress. That's my way and it has helped me a lot.

If you run anything besides your full-time job it has to be fun, this way it's less likely you will face burn out. It will most likely give you energy every time you experience a small victory.

Personally, I am working full-time and after work hours I work on my Blog, especially during the weekends.

During the early mornings and late evenings, I maybe write down some ideas or code some really small improvements. But I almost spend my whole weekend on writing a new blog post, reviewing it and publishing it.

Just remember to have fun and to manage your energy, if you find yourself grinding on a project when you are exhausted from your job you are;

1. Most likely burning yourself out

2. Most likely not delivering quality to your side project

3. You will be more tired the day after

But, I make one exception when I am tired; reply to any reader question that takes the time to email me. In your case, this can be a support question from a customer.

Hope there's something in here that can help you.

I mostly work on side projects after my day job. I'm often tired when I get home, so I'll relax for a bit. Maybe make dinner, watch a show on Youtube/Netflix. But I'll try to break off after one show and usually find I'm feeling energized enough to put in an hour or two. I also try to only work on side projects 2-3 days a week.

I travel a lot for work. I get a ton done on the plane and in airports. Also, night time is prime time for me.

I wake up earlier.

A good week day:

• Wake up 6am, shower and ready to work on my app at 6:40am.

• Work until 8am or 9am (my dayjob has flexibility to enter 9am or 10am).

• Work on my dayjob until 6pm or 7pm.

• Dinner, conversation, netflix with my wife and then sleep, ideally, at 22:30pm.

Then I work about more 6-8 hours on weekends (mostly in the morning).

My business grows slowly this way, but I am happy with the pace.

Of course, all the time not-good week days happen and I am ok with this

IMO definitely, it will burn you out. So i decided that side project time must be included in my work time. In the worst case, i have to reduce my income, but it is not necessarily needed.

After 7 years working as a fulltime employee i decided to become a freelance software developer but tried to get customers and jobs out of my 9-18 work hours before firing myself from my "safe job". I tried working 4 extra hours a day for about 3 months: it was devastating both for my personal life both for my customers. So i took my "leap of faith" and i had to leave my job as an employee and start full freelancing (with zero customers initially) and that gave me the time to work both on side projects and customers...and becoming a freelance software developer was one of the best choices of my life!

It was 8 years ago...now i'm 41 and i have a family with two kids and i hardly can consider dedicating more then 10 hours a day to work/side projects. Honestly, i don't want to dedicate more since you can achieve great results with 40 hours a week and i don't want to loose the things that really matter in my life.

And even if i could go back in time, i wouldn't suggest my "25 years old version" to work more...i would suggest to experience more in the "real life and world" and to work 40 hours a week, no more.

If you are a fulltime employeed, i don't know what to suggest you if not to try to reduce the time you work. But IMO, don't work more then 9-10 hours a day.

I used to have the same issue. These things might help:

• Find a job that doesn't drain your mental energy much during the day. If you can do a bit different discipline at work than on your side project, even better. I worked as a technical lead and programming on the side was a joy. I'm a full-time dev now and it's a bit more challenging as it's the same work at home; however, I have more time and more energy (less responsibility).

• Find out what your sustainable pace is - how many hours a week can you pull off without burning out.

• Recently, I have accidentally discovered a trick that leaves me with much more energy. I was trying to lose a bit of weight and realized that if I don't eat sugar and eat a bit less, I am not tired in the evenings and can work away, a huge difference.

You also didn't mention your age, which makes a difference. I was able to work all the time, day or night till I reached ~33. I can't do that any more and would burn out quickly so have to be smart about it and plan.

Currently single with no kids so I can pretty much do it whenever I want, so:

• off-work hours

• nights (often too late)

Weekends I actually try to keep myself from working on my project.

Before and after work, and on the weekends. It's very tiring, but it'll be worth it.

I also work remotely so that definitely helps. No commute in the way, and I can always tend to my project when I finish my work early.

Usually when my kids go to bed.

It's a fine line avoiding burnout and staying at least a little productive.

Before, during, and after work. Usually busy at my job for 2-3 hours and then it slows down and I have time to work on other stuff.. my job even encourages it knowing we aren't always busy. I usually get most of my work done when the wife is asleep.. not sure why, ha.

Wake up 4:00. Get in an hour to take of everything that's not coding (e.g. reaching out to illustrators, responding to comments on Reddit, reading about competitors).

Work out 5:00.

Full-time gig from 7:00 to 15:00.

Code from 16:00 to 22:00 or 23:00.

Rinse. Repeat.

The biggest thing that helps me is doing one small thing per day. I tell myself only 30 mins a day on my side project is all I have. So I do the next smallest thing - write a single function if I'm coding. Write a few emails if that's the next thing to do.

The key for me is consistency while trusting that a little bit per day is all I need! That faith in a little bit now making a difference in the long run is the hardest part. We all want to see big change quickly, but it's a one way street to burnout town (a place I've been more than a few times!)

Hi Sokar, I had a very similar question!

Maybe interesting to you, here's the IH post:

https://www.indiehackers.com/forum/how-do-you-make-time-for-your-serious-side-project-7175aa3b92

Not if you set up the right rituals and routines, and put in place boundaries.

I love working on my side gig and the idea of having it support me full time keeps me going (plus being genuinely passionate about the space and delighting my clients.)

Kinda trite but it's all about your why - with a stong enough 'why' the 'how' is easier.

Wake up 6am. Arrive to work 8am. Finish work 7pm. Arrive home 8pm. Do chores till 9pm. Code 1-3h. Then off to sleep. Weekends 10am-10pm interrupted by chores. Coding is my downtime, so I don't need to 'rest' so to speak. But as for whether that time spent coding is efficient is another story.

I have 3 kids. Only 2 of them are in school, which means my current manager is a 3-year-old. When I worked full-time (10+ hours/day), I woke up early, listened to ONLY podcasts for tips and inspiration on my commute, and used enormous sticky notes around my house to capture any ideas that would come up throughout the day. I was running a photography business on the side, and would shoot on the weekends and blog/edit/market/etc. in the evenings.

Right now, my husband works full-time, I'm home full-time (with previously mentioned 3-year-old). He works on his "side business" in the evenings. We trade off child-supervising, and I wake up as early as 4am to work on ideas. At night, we read business books and work on ideas together as soon as the kids are in bed.

I think the key is to find a passion. When I had a photography business, you couldn't stop me from working on it. I loved content marketing, editing, creating promo material. I watched Creative Live instead of Netflix. You will hit walls in creativity and energy, but I think that working with a cofounder and staying focused on some cleanly stated goals truly helps!!

Usually in the evening, around 19:00-20:00 during 1 hour. I tried in the morning also but found it too difficult for me.

I work a flexible 9ish to 5ish engineering job. I never do work after my day job, only in the mornings.

I get up at 5:30 AM (as long as I am in bed by 10 PM). I get ready for the day, and I head out to Starbucks which is about half-way to my job. Great WiFi, productive atmosphere, and generally a place I can get into flow very quickly. I'm able to put in 2 - 3 hours of side work in, and they're my most productive hours of the day.

Sometimes if I'm really cranking on a feature I'll work on it during my lunch break.

I have a 45 minute commute and I usually use it to consume audio books and entrepreneurship/growth hacking related podcasts.

The evenings are strictly for family (wife and kids), and cleaning/maintenance. It's much easier to separate the day than to keep thinking about work related things.

I haven't been able to figure out a great time to exercise. I would do it in the morning, but I really enjoy working as soon as I get up.

I put my kids to bed around 7:30pm and will work until 9pm for up to 4 nights a week. I try to go to bed around 10:30pm to wake up between 6am-7am and do an hour or two then as well.

A couple of hours on the weekend won't hurt either but I tend to spend that time with family - as we all need a break from work.

A good idea could be to break down your side project into micro-tasks, write them on cards/post-it notes and then sprint your way through them one at a time. This way the side project doesn't actually feel overwhelming and you know what you need to do. Set realistic deadlines for these micro tasks too.

I get home from work about 6, spend a few hours with my family and then when we all go to bed at about 9 I will work on my own projects till maybe midnight to 1am. Then up for work at 7am again.

I need to take a week off of the side projects and sleep like fuck every few months but if you’re worried about burnout then the startup founder / self employed life perhaps isn’t for you. Burnout is unavoidable, ESPECIALLY if your product is doing well.

In the night, usually from 23:00 to 1/2 AM

I work on side-projects during my lunch pause - It's best time for me.

In the evening, after work.

Sometime when I don't have any plan for the week end I work for a whole day and the next day play some video game :D

I've come to learn I'm not a very good multi-tasker.

After a big initial push to get my business rolling, much of my efforts have been eliminating my day-to-day involvement or reducing it to a bare minimum.

I spend time on my venture so I spend less time at a go on it in future. It's reduced mostly to updating some files and answering some emails, so working in my business happens round the clock, but in very little chunks at a time.

Instead of asking when to work, ask yourself if you are maximizing your time.

I get to my office a couple hours before people start arriving so I can grind on my side projects. After work i walk to the gym, hit a workout and then come right back to the office where I work until late late late in the night.

I work 9-5, then 5-9 with no real burn out I guess. Can't get burned out doing something you love :)

Burnout is a real risk, but if you're genuinely passionate about your project it shouldn't feel like work. I work full time, and touch on my side-project before or after work, as well as weekends and holidays. Because I'm so interested in solving the problems I've set out for myself, I often find myself working longer than I'd planned.

Now, that doesn't mean that I don't start to burn out from time to time, but I think that it can be greatly reduced by passion.

I work on my project most weekends, but to keep some sanity I make sure to take one weekend a month where I keep away from screens as much as possible

Any free-time outside of FTE hours, weekends, holidays.