When I did my design studies at university, I rapidly found out that there is the need to develop autonomy and take things into my own hands if I want to develop and acquire new skills beyond the fundamentals I learned at university. The studies at university were quite broad, which means there was not that much room for specialization. I am not telling you anything new probably, but acquiring new skills does not happen by only reading through a guide, watching a tutorial, or a course*.* In addition to it, you need to practically apply what you have been reading, listening to, or watching. And the perfect way to do that is by working on side-projects.

As it can be potentially one of the most exciting activities (and opportunities at the same time) to work on a side-project, challenge your creativity, experience full freedom, and follow your passion, at a certain point, side-projects can become overwhelming. Especially when you are handling multiple side-projects in conjunction with your 9-5 job, people tend to fall into the trap of experiencing the urge to progress with their side-projects although resources, especially time is limited. Finding yourself in such a situation can be demoralizing. You have this idea you want to work on on the side, you want to make progress, and ultimately ship it, however you get caught by life and things are not evolving as you hoped for.

I am a side-project enthusiast. Most of my side-projects never get shipped, although I learned a ton while working on them. However, some others I do ship and they became passions projects that even bring in some additional income (Creativerly, ProductivePrivacy, SimpleSoftware [coming soon]). Once you shipped a side-project, chances are high that it needs some work to maintain it. The list of things to work on then gets longer and longer. Two years ago, I found myself in a situation in which working on my side-projects felt exhausting, overwhelming, and not joyful at all. There were so many things I wanted to work on. I had multiple ideas for Creativerly, I wanted to finally build and publish my personal website, revamp the directory site for ProductivePrivacy, work on some new ideas, and a lot more. Whenever I had time to work on those things, I felt low on energy, tired, and not motivated at all to actually work on them. All I saw were endless todo lists full of things I need to implement.

At that time, I realized I need to create a more healthy relationship with my side-projects. I was not managing my time effectively, I lost organization, and there was no clear understanding of what my goals with those side-projects are. Once there was a time slot that I could have used for working on my side-projects, I felt the need for downtime. However, taking that downtime felt wrong, since there was still the urge to progress with my side-projects. It was time to take one step back, and create a healthy relationship with my side-projects and a plan on how I will move forward.

As a first step, I broke down the things I wanted to work on into smaller tasks, and especially separated essential tasks from enhancements. While my todo list was still growing by doing that, the things I had noted down felt much more achievable, even if I just had one hour during my day, there was still the chance to work on a couple smaller things. Besides that, I started to treat my side-projects as experiments, which helped me focusing on the tasks rather than the end result. Changing my mindset regarding my side-projects helped me overcome the mental barriers I got faced with before. Additionally, it helped me maintaining my motivation throughout working on the projects. Perfection never was the initial goal, I rather wanted to start an experiment and make sure that I am learning something, gain experiences, and align it with my passion.

Another thing I changed, and that may sound mundane but it actually helped me a lot, was starting to focus only on single project at a time. When working across multiple projects, there is the possibility to feeling the need to work across them at the same time. And I get that. I have been there. However, working on all of them at the same time, did not lead me anywhere, besides feeling exhausted, demoralized, and unmotivated. Therefore, I started to tackle my side-projects in cycles and set myself some boundaries.

I now sit down and go through my todo list of a single side-project. After getting an overview of the separation of tasks and enhancements, I decide on a set consisting of both. That overview enables me to assign a certain cycle to the tasks and enhancements within which I am then planing to work on them. So, for a certain amount of time, e.g. two weeks, I use my free time to only focus and work on a single side-project. After that cycle, I sit down again, and start planning the next one.

Obviously, I have not reinvented the wheel here. There are countless similar ways of working, mostly for large teams and big corporations. The only thing I did, was adapting it to my side-projects. Approaching my side-projects like that has not only led to a healthier relationship with them, I also feel more energized and motivated when working on them, and I am making constant progress. I am celebrating all the small wins and embrace the fact that there are always some tasks which challenge my creativity, give me the opportunity to learn something, connect with people, and ultimately also bring my projects onto another level.

The benefits of working on side-projects come from the experience. Therefore, it is pure joy working on even small and tiny things. My side-projects are passion projects, and therefore they should be a fulfilling and enriching part of my life, rather than something that feels like a burden. Realizing and adapting to that has helped me create a healthy relationship with my side-projects.

However, I also find myself in situations in which I just want to do nothing. And that is also such a great feeling. Do not push yourself too hard, take a break, and relax, the hustle culture embraced by tech bros online is one of the most toxic things.

Photo by Christopher Gower on Unsplash / Design by myself using Prismatic Generator by Jacob Waites