Find time to work on your project when working full time.
Currently I am working full time and also working on my personal project which I think will help me get rid of 9-5 job. Its been a while I have started working on the project but I haven't had as much progress as I want to. Its really hard to get time to work on week days as its already dinner time when I get to home.
How do you find time to work on your side projects? Do you have to sacrifice your sleep and personal relations to work on them?
20 solid hours a week in addition to full time AND kids. I have to say, that's inspirational. That's grit there. How long do you think you can keep that up? How has it been on your body/health?
(my schedule is similarly tilted toward the morning but not as heavy - 1-3hrs each weekday. About 2 months in it was difficult and I was getting sick often. Now I'm 4 months in and my body seems to have adjusted.)
Thanks for the kind words, but I wouldn't think of it as 'grit' to be honest. That makes it sound like something hard, or tough, or something you need to persevere through (at least to me).
This is easy!
At 2am-ish I brew a pot of coffee, the world is quite, it creates a SUPER productive environment, I play some music or leave the TV on a Netflix movie in the background, and I have a TON of fun working on my own stuff.
It's the single most rewarding part of my professional day. That's fun!
I've never thought about that, again, this isn't something that's hard to do or something I need to force myself to do.
In fact, I don't even set an alarm to get up.
From 7pm to 2am is a solid 7 hours of sleep. Sometimes my body gets up at 1am, sometimes 3am. I let my body decide when it's ready.
Sometimes I don't get up at all!
Last night was a great example. Other areas of my life have been super busy and I was tired yesterday. My body must have needed rest, I didn't wake up until 6am this morning. I missed my productive morning of work, but... not really.
How productive are you when you are tired?
I'm not productive at all! I just sit around wasting time.
At first, when this was happening I thought to myself "I better start setting an alarm and make up the time that I lost" but I quickly realized what a bad idea this was.
If my body needs rest, and I allow it to rest, the next time I'm up in the early morning I'm twice as productive (my body is rested and I am super excited to get back to my own stuff!).
Zero negative impact. I'm not missing any sleep.
Wow that's crazy schedule. I don't think I would be able to follow the same schedule as you. Interesting though.
Don't give into limiting beliefs :-)
Agree :)
Weekends are, of course, the best time to sit down and put in some hours (deep work hours specifically). During the week is the tricky part. As you mentioned, by the time you get home from work it's dinner time and you probably want to unwind.
One thing I have done recently is started waking up an hour before I normally would (around 4am for myself). For that hour and a half, I work. In order to keep myself from looking at my phone, I will use an app (Forest, specifically) that encourages me to stay off of it.
So, my day looks something like this:
4:00 am - 5:30 am: Side projects
5:30 am - 6:30 am: Get ready for work, make lunches, wake up the kids, etc
6:30 am - 7:00 am: Commute into work and reading (20 min I am on a train)
7:00 am - 3:30 pm: Work, work - with reading on my lunch break
3:30 pm - 4:00 pm: Commute home and reading
4:00 pm - 7:00 pm: Dinner, family, etc (all non-work stuff)
7:00 pm - 8:30 pm: Reading / thinking and then bed
I read books that will either help me with my projects or for personal growth, so I could time reading as time towards my projects. End of the day, I spend about 4-ish hours working on my projects in one way or another.
That's really interesting waking up at 4am and going bed at 8:30. That might work for one who works from home. I don't think that is possible for 9-5 job holder. Its already about 8pm when I reach home from work and easily 10pm when I finish dinner.
I didn't mean for my original post to sound like anyone had to wake up at 4am. My intention was to show how I plan my day, according to my schedule.
Prior to my current 7-3:30(ish) schedule (which I commute about 40 mins each way), I worked from 8:30 - 6:00 (ish) with an hour commute either way. I did a similar schedule. just adjusted for it.
Based off of some of the comments you've posted, it sounds like your schedule during the week is pretty packed. It may make sense to focus on weekends for deep work and try to keep the shallow work for the weekdays (in the evening).
It is really hard. Weekends are the best times and maybe 1-2 hour session 2-3 times in weekdays. For some early morning before go to work works better than after work. You should expect lower frequency social interaction but you should not sacrifice sleep. If you can, request 1 day home office which might help to squeeze in more time.
Really important note about sleep, couldn't agree more.
I work every night and most weekends on my side project, and the one thing I've found that makes it all possible is: choosing a day job that's slightly less demanding than you're used to.
For me, this meant finding a job in a larger organization (1000+ employees), rather than the early stage startups I've grown to love. The flexibility of a larger company allows me to come in later and leave earlier. Things move a lot slower, so I have time in my day to respond to emails related to my side project. I no longer work for my day job on the weekends, but instead dedicate the time wholly to my side hustle.
I'm a huge fan of devaluing your day job in the name of investing more in your true hustle.
Same problem, how much time do you spend on your side project in a regular day now?
I try to spend about couple of hours after dinner from about 10PM to midnight on weekdays, but often its already 11pm after the evening chores. I don't sacrifice sleep so I don't like working past midnight. I try to work 5-6 hours during weekends but that time is not enough to have significant progress.