Finding your motivation

Side projects fall in the same category as eating well, and excerise. We all know that these activities are good for us, but it can sometimes be hard to motivate ourselves to do them.

There are lot’s of great reasons to work on side projects:

• Because you enjoy the process of building things
• To solve a pain that you personally have
• To get better at your craft
• To build your portfolio
• To solve a pain that other people have
• To make some cash on the side
• To build something that may turn into your full-time employment

It’s almost guaranteed that by working on side projects, that you’ll reap more than one of these benefits.

Finding time for side projects?

The big question people always have is, “where will I find the time”? Here are a few suggestions:

• As an experiment, try waking up 2 hours earlier than you usually do. Do this for a week. You may be amazed at how much you can get done in those early morning hours.
• Work two extra hours late at night before going to sleep
• Replace T.V, or Internet time with side project time
• Knock out an hours worth of work during your lunch break

“I don’t have time” is an excuse. We all have time. It just comes down to how we prioritize it.

What can you accomplish with a side project?

Let’s say you worked on a side project 2 hours every weekday, and took the weekends off. How much could you accomplish?

Well, that’s:

• 10 hrs in one week
• 520 hrs in a year (or a total of thirteen 40 hr work weeks)
• 2600 hrs in 5 years (or a total of sixty five 40 hr work weeks!) That’s over a years worth of work!

That’s insane. If you were able to commit to building side projects just 2 hours per day for 5 years, what could you accomplish?

I bet you could change your world… I’m not kidding.

Now go and do it. 🙂