Tips on Work/Life/Side Project Balance

Advice: Balancing Day Job with Side Project.md

Advice On Balancing a Day Job with a Side Project

Here are tips I've been given by others.

TL;DR

0. Only follow advice that makes sense for you.
1. Choose side projects that you actually have time to do.
2. Be organized and establish a routine.
3. Prioritize your health, your relationships, and paying your bills above your personal project.

Definitions

In this document I use "side project" to mean any and all of the following:

• second paying job
• volunteer work
• personal project
• side hustle
• gigs
• artistic expression/exploration
• career improvement outside the context of a paying job

Detailed Tips

0. Most advice will depend crucially on your situation, so only use what makes sense for you.
1. Figure out how much time you actually have.
2. Choose side projects that you actually have time to do.
3. Reserve times for, in this order:
   1. Relaxation and mental health
   2. Excercise and physical health
   3. Relationships
   4. The job that pays the bills
   5. The side project
4. Schedule breaks in advance and then make sure to stick to them. Don't be afraid to take vacations!
5. Be vigilant about your health.
   • Check in with yourself regularly on stress level, etc.
6. Be vigilant about your relationships' health.
   • Check in with your friends and loved ones regularly about their needs and wants.
7. Don't be afraid to sacrifice some things in order to keep going:
   • Missing an occasional outing, hang out, fun time is acceptable and expected as long as your health and relationships are not suffering.
8. Reality check: remember that progress will almost always be slower than you'd like.
9. Never touch personal projects while on the clock for your day job, and as far as possible never spend cycles on the day job when off the clock.
10. Don't overuse specific skills in single day/adjacent days. Exhaustion compounds faster if you're using the same part of your brain in multiple areas of life.
    • If you had to do a lot of X at the day job recently, don't ask yourself to also do X on the side-project.
11. Organize your workload:
    1. Break up large tasks into multiple small tasks.
    2. Track your progress. This helps with motivation!
    3. Keep an ideas file or searchable chat where you can easily write things down to get them out of your working memory.
12. Establish a routine:
    • If you can, work, rest, and side-work on the same times each day/week.
      • Example: work on your side-project 2 hours each workweek, or four hours each weekend, etc.
      • Alternative Example: Work nights but not weekends; work weekends but not nights.
    • Otherwise, try to plan week-by-week so that you know what you are doing a few days ahead.
13. Use accountability to foster motivation. Ideas:
    • Keep a dev blog.
    • Keep a dev vlog.
    • Livestream your dev.
    • Post on social media about your current goals, progress, and difficulties.
    • Chat regularly virtually or in person about your current goals, progress, and difficulties.
14. Coworking can help or hurt progress depending on your personality and situation.
    • Working with others can make getting to work easier...
    • ...but groups of people can be distracting.
15. Don't pursue your best ideas, pursue your efficient ideas.
    • Choose ideas based on value divided by work.
16. When considering going full time on your side project, remember that loss of financial stability has non-financial costs in terms of stress and time spent problem-solving.
17. Quick ideas are worth prototyping; quality ideas are worth trying out.
18. Choosing not to do a thing is free, instant, and always works.
19. Overcome perfectionism by looking at the big picture: Stop polishing spoons by asking yourself how much of your house is on fire.
20. If you put in the hours, feel good about yourself.
21. Maintain a sense of purpose: remind yourself why you are doing what you are doing.
22. Pump yourself up! (Music can help with this.)