We all start side projects, but not many of us finish them. We begin full of motivation and hope, but abandon ship when progress slows down. Eventually, other priorities take over.
I'm guilty of that too. As someone who's been building a few side projects (pantou-fle, nathanbrachotte.dev, gite la randonnée) and abandoned many more, I've been there more times than I'd like to admit.
But recently, I've changed my perspective on side projects and how I approach them.
The Slap in the Face
Last year, based on a friend's recommendation, I picked up Oliver Burkeman's "4000 Weeks: Time Management for Mortals" and it hit me like a slap in the face. So much so that I've read it a second time this summer. The book's observations hit so close to home the first time that I knew I had to dive back in to fully process it.
It almost felt like the book was written after observing all the things I was doing wrong in life and providing guidance on how to solve them. This time around, I realized I really needed to write down some of its advice and lessons so they stick with me better. (That's also why I'm writing this post.)
One of the many lessons that really helped me reframe the way I think about side projects is this: The search for productivity is a fight that's already lost. Being productive is not about squeezing more tasks into your day; it's about coming to terms with the finite nature of your time. It's about realizing that no matter how much planning and organization you do, you're never going to be able to finish everything you want to do. And that life will happily fill that time with other things no matter what.
How to Change That
So, what's the secret sauce to actually finishing that side project?
Start your day with it.
Yep, before starting your daily job, before that first cup of coffee (okay, maybe after the coffee), dedicate one hour (or any strict, specific amount of time) to your side project.
This simply works because life has a sneaky way of filling up every available moment with more "urgent" tasks. Your side project is never going to be urgent. It's important, sure, but does not need to be done today. There's always tomorrow, right? And in the battle between urgent and important, urgent always wins... unless you change the rules of the game.
By working on your side project first thing, you're effectively saying: "This is what matters to me in the long run, and I'm going to give it my best energy."
It's like paying yourself first in personal finance, but with your time and creativity.
Your day job, family & friends commitments, and that ever-growing pile of laundry will always take precedence over your side project if you let them. Your to-do list is a tyrant, and it doesn't care about your dreams of building the next Google.
That's why you need to carve out sacred time for your side project. Treat it like a non-negotiable appointment with yourself.
The Goldilocks Zone
As important as prioritizing for the long run is, Burkeman does provide some nuances: don't overdo it.
You might think that spending hours on end coding is the fast track to completion. But project burnout is real, and putting your day in jeopardy by working too long on it will make you less likely to return to it tomorrow.
Instead, aim for the Goldilocks zone. Timebox it in such a way that there's just enough time to make meaningful progress, but not so much that you dread coming back to it.
The goal is to end each session feeling excited about picking it up again tomorrow. That's why it's very important to time-frame it and to do it first because once you're done, you have a job to do and a day to go about anyways.
For me, that sweet spot is about an hour a day. It's long enough to get into a flow state but short enough that I'm not sacrificing my evening catching up on work.
Find your own Goldilocks zone and stick to it.
Embracing the Slow Burn
Some days, you're going to feel like you've achieved absolutely nothing in that hour. You might spend it debugging a single line of code or finish your session with a crashing app.
You need to be okay with this.
Engineering, writing, designing - these are iterative processes. You're not going to make great progress every single day. It's about showing up, trying, failing, and trying again. Line by line, commit by commit, brick by brick.
Over time, these hours will add up. Before you know it, you'll have a working prototype.
Consistent input is the key.
Conclusion
Finishing a side project isn't about superhuman productivity, task categorization or sprinting to get it done. It's about understanding the value of your time, prioritizing what truly matters to you in the long run, and committing to a consistent, focused effort.
So, tomorrow morning, why not give it a shot? Make that coffee, sit down at your desk, and work on your project before the world has a chance to distract you.
Do it again the next day, and the next.
Stay committed, and soon enough, you'll be deploying your project to production. Now that's a commit worth pushing for.
