How many hours per week do you spend on your side project?

I think it helps if you shift your idea about time a bit. Instead of thinking “8 hours is too low”, think “what can I accomplish in 8 hours”. These kind of limits can be really powerful, because you think about priorities differently: what do I really need to do move my side-project forward.
Last week I “launched” a side project, while running two main businesses. This was only possible because I’ve gave myself limited time: 8 hours to get a working version live. Since that version I worked (really focused!) a few hours per week on it.

Usually trying to work every weekdays, even for some minutes, even for one task only each day. Trying to work a long session on Saturday or Sunday night.

Roughly 6-10 hours a week, sometimes less, sometimes more. I keep momentum by ensuring I do something at it every day even if it's just a couple of minutes. Been at it since november and starting to see some results in the traffic.

Just checked my Toggl report, last week I spent 10 hours on it.
It varies a lot though, since I work for myself, but it's usually 10-15hrs.
There's a few things in my opinion that are vital if you have limited time and you really want to get meaningful things done:

• track your time: it'll help you make better estimates, you'll keep yourself accountable and on days where you feel like you didn't do much, it'll tell you that you actually worked long hours

• read Deep Work: it changed the way I work and it hugely improved my daily productive time. When I finished reading it I went from 4-5 productive hours a day to 6-7

• plan your week and your day in advance (this is also advocated in the book): planning feels like a hassle but 10 minutes can make a huge difference in your productivity. I always feel like I want to do 300 things in a week and then I get disappointed cause I just did some of them. Planning helps me understand that I have a limited amount of time in my week and it helps me decide what to prioritize

Start small with a little time each day and build some momentum. Can you carve out 30 minutes in the evenings and 30 minutes in the mornings?

That is 1 hour a day or 5 hours a week for your project.

And if you can do that, then you'll get some momentum, and at that point, you can add a few hours on the weekend. With this approach, it isn't an overwhelming amount of time, so it will work even if you have existing obligations and are already really busy.

I shared feedback on finding time for side projects here on another discussion: https://www.indiehackers.com/forum/how-do-you-make-time-for-your-serious-side-project-7175aa3b92?commentId=-LLWi0wXOGmqnwS7jXQ7

Here is one other recommendation.

The night before, write down two to three specific things that you want to get done for your project the next day.

For example, instead of saying "work on the website" you could get specific and write down "test sign up page on mobile devices." That's helpful because you have clarity on what you should do the next day.

And if you miss a day, then that is okay as you can continue the next day.

I treat my side projects the same way as any of my other hobbies (running, pottery): I do as many hours as are enjoyable (and stress relieving) which usually averages at 6 hours per week.

Sometimes I am pretty fried from my day job (which I enjoy, but can be stressful) and I don’t want to work on a computer in my free time; so I use all my hours on pottery and running, and don’t do anything on my tech projects (mainly Guidable.org).

I also wish I could spend more time on my side projects, but doing so would mean that I’d have fewer quality hours for my day job; and I’m not willing to make that sacrifice at this point. In the future, if I really could see a path forward for my tech side project, I would cut the hours at my day job (and invest those into my side projects).

I'm currently knees deep in mine - I want to get features out and make progress. I checked my stats (from WakaTime and RescueTime) for the past week and it looks like I was close to 20 hours. That was actually more than I expected, but part of it is I thoroughly enjoy what I'm working on and look forward to putting the work in, so it doesn't really feel like work.

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