I'm a project manager for myself
Any tips for moving forward with your side project?
One thing I've found whenever I'm working on side projects is that I set myself up for failure...
I carve out a couple hours to work on the side project and when the time comes I close out my coding environment from my day job, cd into my project repo, start the server and stare blankly at my website...
Whereas, in my day job, I'll usually have the benefit of specific tickets/tasks that I can pick up and work on...
Now, I've started to do a lot more project management...
What do I mean?
I create a Trello board for myself and split up work into tickets/stories.
eg. user can receive emails when they are able to tax harvest, user can crud a tracked holding, etc.
I can't tell you how much this has improved my ability to move forward with my project and in hindsight it's obvious.
The way I work shouldn't change so drastically between my day job and my side project.
Lately I've been using a markdown down file to outline what I have to do on my personal project. So far it has been working.
@dfrancoeur65 What are you working on?
Ah, I like markdown for lists/tasks too.
I'll use OneNote for my day to day stuff and note taking.
I'm working on software to help people reduce their taxable income (legally, lol).
Oh that's cool. How far along are you from launching it? In what tech stack are you building it?
I hope to not overwhelm you with so many questions, I am on my journey as well working on a SaaS to facilitate small businesses managing appointments. My stack is: Go(lang) / Postgres / React.js / Next.js / Vercel and DigitalOcean.
I'm going full RoR on this one!
Hmmm, so I'd like to get some beta users by EOM. I'm just working on some data work now so that I can have a recommendation engine for similar assets.
I was using a similar stack as you in a freelance gig (minus Go, which I'm super interested in trying out!)
Awesome, you couldn't have picked a more productivity-oriented stack.
So far Go has been fun to work with.
If you need beta users, let me know. :)
I will! What niche of small businesses are you going after? So calendly for small biz?
Essentially appointment-based service providers.
I would say Acuity for small businesses rather than Calendly.
The company I work for, uses Acuity for some complex scheduling use-cases, and because of my experience there, I decided to IndieHack on the scheduling space as well.
The tool called Acuity, works very well, but it hasn’t really been innovative over the few years, and it worsen after the have been bought by Squarespace.
As far as the need for such tools, Capterra and G2 gave me the insight I needed to understand how appointment-based service providers desperately need such tools.
I am shooting my shot, and I shall see where do I hit. :)
That's sweet! Best of luck, I'd love to check-in at some point and see how its going!
Two days later, I watch "Superman Returns" to unwind. I've been pretty busy the last few days. It's all about my project—https://tylerthecreatormerch.co/—on which I work nonstop all day. For me, it was incredibly challenging. As a result, I need to relax and quiet our agitated minds.
• Figure out what time of day you are most productive and optimize your life around it.
• Say no more to going out, socializing, etc. to free up more time for your side project.
• Celebrate the small wins to stay motivated over the long term