Vinchenso Kendall | Ruby on Rails Web Development, Passive Income Seeker

Why comparing your side project is a bad idea

Sun, 10 Jul 2016 12:03:08 +0000

Just before you sit and work on your side project or start thinking about creating one. Do you ever compare your side project that you started for fun or exploratory reasons to big time success that produce headlines like this:

Why is this wrong?

Not all side projects are the same. You will find that experts like [KL] Kevan Lee , [DA] David Airey, [FR] Fred Rivett or [SF] Spencer Fry will give you completely different advice depending on whether your project is for fun or commercial purposes. So to make sure you benchmarking your project correctly and listening to the correct advice you need to ask yourself:

Is your project for fun or are you doing it for the money?

Experts advice on : For Fun projects

[KL]It should always be enjoyable and interest you.

[DA]These types of projects should never be over thought and its up to you to see where it goes.

For-fun projects are sometimes described as a labour of love. But do not be surprised when these types of projects become something much bigger. Which tends to happen like in the case of Jessica Hirches Company and Tattly.

For example, a side project for me was researching “Co working space for entrepreneurial South African creatives”. I am really interested in Real Estate so I become totally engrossed in the finding out, “where are my fellow programmers, graphics designers, digital nomads , people that can’t afford an office or only need a place to work a few times a week”. Now this may sound like a very commercial objective, but I just wanted to know more about where they hang out. So I could maybe one day join them.

For this type of side project you should always be asking yourself, “ Am I enjoying this?”

Typical Symptoms include:

Losing track of time
Want to talk about it to everyone
Can’t wait to work on it again

In contrast, you should wary of these types of projects cutting into work that “helps keep the lights on”. So do not be afraid to scale back or put on hold.

Experts advice on : Commercial projects

Commercial projects need to be treated completely different. For example, your mindset changes from something you believe in and enjoyability, to finding out whether your idea resonates with an audience.

There are entire frameworks to approaching commercial projects like lean or agile product development. Typically, it involves you shipping often, failing and learning fast; and then repeating this cycle until it gains traction.

This is the approach taken by Fred Rivett with We are Contrast and Do lecture by the Hiett family.

These project types are normally a big commitment that normally take longer than expected. So be laser focused in whatever you trying to achieve. According to Fred Rivett, start small, set a deadline, nail your scope, tell someone and most of all, ship it. Move past your fears and hit the big shiny launch button.

Lastly, do not be afraid to cull commercial project that do not show promise so you can move on to bigger and better ideas.

My advice when it’s a little of both (aka ‘Happy-go-money’)

Some side projects are both for fun and commercial. So now what?

When I think of ‘happy-go-money’ side projects, I think of the following quote by Violeta Nedkova:

“When you get an inspired idea, grab it. Run with it. Learn from it. Don’t ever despair if it doesn’t work out and definitely don’t start with the idea of making money. Side projects should be fun first. If you’re not having fun, nobody else will”

I love these types of side projects and try to treat all my projects like hybrids because it affords me the flexibility to be adventurous, in a structured way. Also, I do not like thinking of the idea of doing something I do not enjoy, in my spare time only, just for the money.

So what do Hybrids look like for you

If we continue using my example of the co working space for creatives, the general research aspect and genuine interest is for fun; and entirely exploratory.

I personally keep all research in a Google Doc for future reference, so this specifically allows me 2 commercial avenues.

In the future I can aggregate all my notes and sell it.
I can build or rent out a coworking space for creatives, provided my research reveals that this market is underserved or I can provide a better offering.

For DA, he just enjoyed learning about logos and sharing it with friends. The site now gets a significant number of visitors, which he can use to monetise his website.

The key here is to do what you like doing and being aware of its commercial potential if or when it presents itself.

Now what must I do with this?

I highlighted how to differentiate between commercial, fun projects and also considering those hybrid “happy-go-money”. We concluded the approach of how the 2 differs, and what should be kept in mind throughout the project to improve efficiency. Also, we’ve found that hybrid projects…

So I leave you with this – to start treating your side project correctly, ask yourself this question

Is your project for fun or are you doing it for the money?

Jay Abrahams interviews John Paul DeJoria

Fri, 03 Jun 2016 20:29:07 +0000

Audio Link from where I heard it: Here

Summary: John Paul DeJoria reveals how he made his billions by following one overarching belief – Treat others as you would like to be treated. He demonstrated how success stems from kindness and being of service to others, irrespective of circumstance.

Purpose: The Idea of this post is to share my notes of this interview with you, so you can extract the same insights I did.

The way I heard it:

We can all do 10x – 15x more than what we doing right now.

An entrepreneur is someone who just starts something.

Be in the Re-Order (Recurring) business, not in Sales (Once-off).

As someone starting out, be prepared for rejection – so it doesn’t shock you.
Be honourable, so even if they don’t buy from you, they will know you are genuine.

Do onto others, as you would have others do onto you.

Success is about your ability to be of service to others.

Your highest high will come from helping others while expecting nothing in return.

Make sure you spending your time, on things that you want to do.

Don’t get upset when you lose something, just come back and do something different.

Surround yourself with others that have the same energy for your goals.

Perform your work as though your boss is watching you.

The thing that separates me from others is my ability to Listen Tentatively

Everyone has a purpose, even if that is to demonstrate what not to do.

Pay attention to the vital few, and ignore the trivial many.

If you can’t manage yourself and your time, you are not a manager.

Pay yourself first.

Be present, it will help clear your mind.

Best Lesson taught: Is to give people the opportunity to do more. When people feel respected and valued, they do more because they want to and enjoy it.

Useful Business Advice: Success unshared is failure, you don’t need money to share.

Advice to Startups: Have 6 months living expense saved.
Don’t invest it all, keep a portion as a liquid Nest Egg.

Be an empathetic leader.

Listen and do things for the empowerment of the team or client.

Don’t let others put you down, what do they know?

Parting Message: In the end, everything will be ok, if it’s not – it is not the end.

What do think?

Love it or Hate it, let me know.

Mastery Guide for Makers

Wed, 18 May 2016 14:13:06 +0000

How do we apply deliberate practice to honing our craft in a simple way?

You can learn anything using the internet, I want to show you how you can master your craft at your own pace.

Why you care about Mastery

Whether you’re a musician, programmer, business person, architect or sportsman, we all want to become better or more skilled at what we do. I know you truly believe that and I believe that for myself and you. More importantly, I know you can do it, we all can.

Doing the same thing for 11 years makes you as skillful as the person with 1 year of experience ,repeated 10 times. I don’t want you to fall into this repetition trap.

So how do you go about?

With simply 25 minutes and a gamer’s mindset.

So why the gamer’s mindset? As a gamer, I love going on new adventures, getting involved in quests and saving the world. Apart from engaging in an adventure and solving problems, you are not afraid to fail. Game over is not the end, it’s just feedback letting you know you need to try a different tactic. You are nearly there.

Adopt the gamer’s mindset so that you are willing to try different things, in order to go to the next level.

25 minutes is 1 pomodoro and just enough time for you to focus, whether you want to practice in the evening or morning.

What is Deliberate practice

Deliberate practice is intentional learning to achieve rapid mastery. Simple isn’t it.

The focus of this post is to inspire action, however if you prefer a comprehensive explanation, check out James Clear’s Post here. (James Clear is a highly respected productivity expert.)

The results of Deliberate practice

After at least 2 rounds of 25 minutes you will realize the benefit of deliberate practice. You will understand how it contributes to rapid learning in a simple way.

Also, you will be able to hone your craft and find it easier to navigate complexity in a more natural way.

Also it is the exact same method used by pro basketball athletes and artists, namely Kobe Bryant, Picasso and Mozart

Example of how it is applied

Let’s demonstrate it with a baskeball analogy:

Consider the activity of two basketball players practicing free throws for one hour. Player A shoots 200 practice shots, Player B shoots 50. Player B retrieves his own shots, dribbles leisurely and takes several breaks to talk to friends. Player A has a colleague who retrieves the ball after each attempt. The colleague keeps a record of shots made. If the shot is missed the colleague records whether the miss was short, long, left or right and the shooter reviews the results after every 10 minutes of practice. To characterize their hour of practice as equal would hardly be accurate. Assuming this is typical of their practice routine and they are equally skilled at the start, which would you predict would be the better shooter after only 100 hours of practice?

—Aubrey Daniels

Both players can claim practicing for 1 hour but only 1 of them is practicing deliberately

Researchers have noted that top artists, musicians, CEOs and entrepreneurs in every industry are committed to deliberate practice. You don’t merely clock in the time, they work on developing specific skills.

Expertise is a process, not an outcome. “Elbow up.”

How you can apply it – Everyday.

For this guide, I am going to assume you are a maker and have only 25 minutes to practice.

I divided it into 2 sections being once off prep work and then the actual steps you take.

I will use Trello for this but you can use anything you prefer like pen and paper or mind maps.

[Pre- Practice]

Step 1: Brain – Dump

The first step is to choose the area of expertise you looking to improve on. For example. Web development, or graphic design, playing the piano. (I will refer to these as Topics)

Then write all the things you are interested in learning about the topic you chose. (I will refer to these as Focus Areas)

For example: [Topic] Web development using Ruby on Rails</p>

[Focus Area] Authorisation
[Focus Area] TDD/BDD
[Focus Area] HTML / CSS
[Focus Area] Javascript [Topic]Graphics design</p>
[Focus Area] Photoshop/sketch
[Focus Area] UI Interface design
[Focus Area] UX [Topic] Playing the piano</p>
[Focus Area] Chords
[Focus Area] Sight Reading
[Focus Area] Playing by ear

Pro tip: For those using Trello – The Topics should be a separate board

Step 2: Start with your Burning Pain

The next step is to choose a focus area which you been excited to explore. I like choosing the one that I am completely fascinated with and lose all sense of time exploring. For this

For this example, I will be exploring Authorisation in Ruby on Rails.

Move your chosen Focus Area to the To-Do section

Step 3: Find a tutorial/how-to guide for your chosen Focus area.

There are always tons of tutorials online on any topic you want to learn. So simply googling will yield more than enough results.

While you’re skimming and checking out a tutorial on your focus area, you will notice new, interesting phrases and concepts. Whether they are linked to your focus area or not, you should add them to your Brain Dump list for future exploration.

Try and limit your finding of a tutorial to max. 30 minutes. This includes quickly skimming through it. I don’t want you to fall into analysis paralysis or for you to fall in love with googling and never practice.

I found this after 5 minutes and will be using it for this tutorial.

Things to look out for in a good tutorial:
How recent is the tutorial?
Is it from a reputable site?
Are there any Social Shares?
Is it broken into manageable steps?
Does it achieve my goal?

Step 4: Break the tutorial into steps

Skim the tutorial and identify the pattern of how it is broken up. The headers are good dividers and helps you identify sections of the tutorial.

In my tutorial, it can be easily divided using the section header. I then wrote out these headings into Trello. Each heading is a To- do item.

Pro tip : Use the name of the tutorial as the name of the To-Do list. This will help you later if you plan to do multiple tutorials on 1 focus area

Step 5: Schedule each step in your calendar

Using each of the to-do items, schedule when you’re going to work on your tutorial. You can use any calendaring app for this. Just make sure it is the calendar you check often and set reminders for the next day and 1 hour before.

[Practice]

Step 6: Set a 25 minute timer and do 1 step

Now it’s time to practice! – Are you excited because I am.

So set your timer for 25 minutes or 1 pomodoro – I use a Trello Chrome extension called Pomello for this – which is simple and works well.

Identify the section of the tutorial you scheduled for today, start your timer.

Move the Focus Area card into the WIP section and Do what you set out to do.

Step 7: Review

25 mins done? How did it go?

If you could not complete the section in the 25 minutes – That’s okay, it happens. You will become better at estimating what you can achieve in 25 minutes with a little practice.

Make a note to yourself about what happened and what you can do in the future to make sure you finish your task. That could do this by reducing the size of the task, defining the objective more clearly or doing some prep work first.

In Trello, I make notes to myself by writing a comment. I tend to put the todo item in square brackets for easy reference. Refer to the screenshot below to see how I do it.

Remember: You will become better at knowing what you can achieve in 25 minutes of focus.

If you, finished the task before the 25 minute mark, tick the todo item off and move on to the next task. Try to stay in the flow while the timer is going. This is called “Riding the Motivation Wave”.

Give yourself a rating

Give yourself a rating from 1 (Noob) – 5 (Master) on that task and write a note to yourself on your experience of that task. This can include what you need to improve on, or something that you discovered.

If you’re happy with your rating and completely comfortable with the task, add to your list how you can achieve the same task by changing the structure, order or going a different route altogether. (This is important)

For example: During this tutorial I discovered that I need to work on better understanding sessions – so I added sessions to my Brain-Dump list to work on later. Also there was a few sections that I did not fully understand – so I scheduled to repeat that section.

If you’re completely happy with this task after you reviewed your experience – Mark this todo item as completed.

The Review section is used when you completed all your todo items and need to review your focus area as a whole

Step 8: Celebrate

You completed your to-do item and you made notes on your experience. Now it’s time to celebrate. So go out and do an activity you enjoy or eat something you love. You deserve it.

Pro-Tip: This may seem cheezy but it’s deeply rooted in scientific evidence to help establish positive reinforcement into your practice, to build a lasting habit.

Step 9: Repeat

Before you repeat steps 5-8, refer to the notes you made on this tutorial.

Make sure that you added anything from your notes you want to improve on back into your Brain-Dump list.

There are 2 general repeat strategies you can use to improve your skill level.

You can repeat the task you did previously until you’re completely comfortable with it. Then, think of and performed the same task in multiple other ways to achieve the same result, before moving on to the next task.
You can do the whole tutorial and then come back and repeat individual tasks that you want to improve on.

This is completely up to you. I apply the second repeat strategy because it gives you context of the entire process and overall objective before diving deeper.

Once all items are completed – move the Focus area to Done.

You got this

So let me know what tutorial you applied deliberate practice to, and how it has helped you.

This tutorial was inspired by the work of thought leaders that have influenced my own work like:

Cal Newport – So good they can’t ignore you

Pat Maddox – Ruby Steps

Levi – SuperHuman Podcast

Charles Duhigg – Author of Power of Habit

Guide to making it Good Enough - Perfection is not an excuse to procrastinate

Thu, 31 Mar 2016 07:14:12 +0000

It feels unfinished, rough, incomplete and unperfected – Don’t worry it’s normal.

I often struggle, worrying that my new project should be “perfect” before it is shipped or shared. This need to have things perfect regularly gets in the way of doing anything at all. Apart from the wasted time and energy spent behind the scenes, it leads to missed daily opportunities for feedback, learning and outreach.

“The best is the enemy of the good”Voltaire

What you will learn

In this post you will learn how to recognise and avoid the perils of perfectionism and how to make use of an actionable framework to know when something is good enough.

Get the actionable framework

What is the Good Enough Principle

The good enough principle is popular in software development and means that the product/service meets its requirements, despite the availability of more advanced technology.
In 2007,the Gates foundation and Microsoft helped fund the publishing of the Good Enough pocket field guide for emergency workers. With the help of Major non-profits, gave workers ready to use information they could use in the field.

The definition at the beginning of the book was –

‘Good enough’ means choosing a simple solution over an elaborate one.

Good enough does not mean second best, it means acknowledging that, in an emergency response situation, adapting a quick and simple approach to impact measurement and accountability may be the only practical possibility

How it manifests in our minds

Creatives are prone to perfectionism, it’s the burden you will constantly carry. The voices of self-doubt is at its loudest when you start out, telling you that you have no business doing this and should stop now before you look foolish and embarrass yourself. All those voices are wrong

Common Perfectionist Triggers that you should avoid

What we tell ourselves	What ends up happening
I need to first get all my ducks in a row	Fail to start
I need to wait until conditions are right	Fail to start
I won’t be able to do it right	Fail to try
I won’t be able to do it to the standard it should be done	Fail to start
It does what it needs to do, but it is not perfect	Fail to ship/release

Why it manifests

As a creative you see projects in its ideal form, making it sometimes impossible to achieve the perfection you see in your mind. So realistically it will feel unrefined – but this is because your art is never finished.

Left unchecked, these feelings will tempt you to quit. No matter how bad it gets -You must not quit. In actual fact you should celebrate it because it indicates you have good taste.

When Expectation and Reality are unaligned

According to Jeff Goins, you should do the following when your expected result and actual performance are not in sync.

Allow for mistakes

Give yourself the opportunity to fail, failure is gift and provides useful feedback. It’s all part of the process and laugh it off even when it’s dreadful (it’s a wonderful form of self-forgiveness).

Keep Going

We don’t create because we’re creative, we are creative because we create -deep I know 🙂

So don’t hold back and keep shipping and keep creating the things you love. It can only get better.

Stop your Self-Sabotaging

Don’t beat yourself up everytime you review your work. Stop apologising before you start presenting your work it’s not modesty or humility its low self-esteem. It does nothing for your audience but make them pity and ignore you.

Beta Mindset

Software that is branded with a beta, is afforded protection and pre-forgiven for errors . You should adopt this mindset, by pre-forgiving yourself for any errors your project may contain, and allow it to be perfected in the marketplace.

Why I should use it

‘Good Enough’ is a flexible and frugal approach to innovation. Entrepreneurs generally operate in two markets, being the emerging and developed market.

Emerging Market

Characteristic:

This market is challenged with scarcity and instability

How Good Enough Innovation benefits this market

More affordable
Easier to use and maintain
Mass-market ready

Examples of success

An Indian entrepreneur, riddled with the problem of “How can I make a refrigerator that does not need electricity”. Using ‘Good Enough’ design principals made the ‘Mitticool’- a highly affordable fridge that requires no electricity, and keeps food, water and dairy cool in the Western deserts of India.

Developed Market

Characteristic:

This market is challenged with complexity and over-engineering

How Good Enough Innovation benefits this market

Caters to the middle-class that seek value for money
Focus on consumers that prefer simpler user-friendly products and services
Considers consumers willing to trade more features for time-saving alternatives

Examples of success

A Google team was demoing an early prototype, map solution to Senior management Despite the reservations of the developing team, Larry and Sergey, so the legend goes, simply said “it’s already good enough. Ship it.” Google Maps is a huge success and its success is rooted in its ability to doing one thing really well. As, Eric Ries describes, “its lack of extra features emphasised its differentiation. Shipping sooner accentuated this difference, and it took competitors a long time to catch up.”

Initially, Saleforce.com was a web-based tool to help sales people track sales calls. It was a specialised application with basic features tailored to salespeople that had an affordable pricing model.

While history has and will produce many examples of successful good enough applications, a “fit-for-purpose” application is the primary example of making it ‘good enough’.

Good Enough vs Quality

“As Carlos Teixeira, an assistant professor at the School of Design Strategies at Parsons said “Good enough is a trade-off, but with good design, the user experience doesn’t feel compromised.” Good enough design, he said, requires going beyond consumption and production to having a deep understanding of the ecosystem—from consumer needs to distribution.

Case in point, while music lovers can hear the difference between uncompressed music formats such as CDs, and highly compressed MP3s, the overwhelming preference is for MP3s because the intuitive platforms on which these compressed files operate (iTunes, MP3 players) are simple and user-friendly. Specifically, they make it easier to listen to more music and share this music with others. The listener’s choice, as a result, becomes less about quality and more about usability and simplicity.

Good-enough products deliver higher value because they are designed to do one thing exceptionally well (functional specialisation), rather than handling multiple things in a mediocre fashion, which can leave users frustrated and confused.”

Good enough is not an excuse for releasing a sub-standard offering, it has to do with focusing on important functionality that is relevant to the customer. You should always create high-quality products. Let’s be honest here, nobody wants to build or buy mediocre things. It’s a lose-lose situation.

So how do I implement Good Enough principles when I am working on my Side Project?

You only need to ask yourself 1 question

Does my solution do what it is intended to do, exceptionally well, for my users.

In the workbook below, we break this question down even further, and it provides insight into how you can make your side project “Good Enough”.

Here is a snippet of what you can expect:</div>

Get the Workbook

Fill your details below, and get the workbook sent straight to your inbox

Get the Workbook</div>

The bottom line is to embrace focused pragmatism. Being cognizant of Voltaire’s quote with which we started can conclude by saying that: What is best is not ideal, but that which works.

</div></div></div>

Don't let your career suffer - How side projects improve your job performance.

Tue, 16 Feb 2016 11:15:15 +0000

Do you worry that your side project will get you fired? Are you worried about poor job performance if you embark on a side project? DON’T BE, you actually doing your boss and career a favour.

Get the cheatsheet to this post

I started my first job a few years ago, and the first thing one of my seniors asked is whether I think it’s a good idea to have so many side projects while having a full time job,”it is not like this job is going to be easy?” Being the new recruit in the team and not to seem too alternative, I became more careful with whom I shared my side project passions.

Fast forward a few years, I now have experience managing a full time job, part- time studying and a few successful side projects for some time. I think back to that question I got and should of replied” HELL YEAH, I think it’s a fantastic idea – here is why.

It is rational for your boss to become concerned that their employee’s side project will consume their staffs time and energy. Leading to instances where you’re not fully engaged or you’re doing just enough to get by while busy with your side project. You tend to justify this, by saying that it’s only for a short time, then things will go back to normal or worse yet, you put off the side project.

The problem is:

Side projects always take longer than you anticipated.
You tend to never stop having side projects, especially for good programmers – we simply love building or trying out new things.
Worst of all – we love our craft as we constantly try to improve, and cannot stand for someone telling us we are average or slacking off.

Side projects left unchecked create a Lose – Lose situation where your employer is left with the cost of an unproductive staff member and you are left with both a flat career and a boss that is trying to phase you out.

But at least you have your side project right?

It could certainly be the case that the sacrifice is worth it. But you’re essentially hedging your career failures for entrepreneurial success or assuming that your side project will make up for your job’s shortcomings. Which can very well shift you into a mindset of “I don’t need this company, I got this side project that’s going to make it”, and when those tough periods come around at work, these kind of phrases start to scream even louder.

Also, your side project may not be ready to provide you with the income you’re accustomed to, or it was not designed for profit but rather something like exploratory learning, a hobby or a labour of love.</div>

There is a better way

It doesn’t have to be you against your boss, there are companies that hire aspiring entrepreneurs and go a step further by actively supporting them in growing their off-hour projects. Below you will see how popular software companies actually make it part of their employees work schedule. It’s not only software companies that are doing this, advertising agencies like Rockfish attribute much of their success to their policy of encouraging team members to start their own business on the side.

You don’t have to change jobs just to pursue your side project, but you can be open and honest about the benefits for both you and your boss.

How & Why side projects enhance your career

Inspires Curiosity, Creativity and Perseverance

Side projects build curiosity,creativity and perseverance. These are all highly desirable traits for any employee. Employees with side projects also understand the value of time and are less likely to squander it, because the more productive they are – the more time they get to work on their side project – that they love.

Broader Exposure

Side projects provide you with exposure to sections in a business that you may not be focused on in your normal day to day activities. For example, as a developer you may not be exposed to the sales and marketing aspects of your software company but in trying to monetise a side project – marketing now becomes relevant to you. Apart from the obvious curiosity, you start to ask better questions when you doing your job because you considering your impact on other aspects of the business. Also your boss will notice your eagerness to learn and understand more about their business; and how you can better provide value to areas that are not even part of your normal job function.

Psychological Recovery

At Google, 80% of your time is spent on the job you got hired for and the other 20% is spent exploring fun, passionate side projects. This policy is well known amongst software engineers and prestigious software companies like thoughtbot. According to Marissa Meyer, an ex-employee of Google, as many as half of google products(like Gmail, Adsense , Gtalk, and Google News) come from that 20% time. The result is more creative and productive employees with a nurtured, entrepreneurial flare for adventure. </p>

Why is their side project boosting their work performance?

In a study by a San Francisco State psychology professor Dr. Kevin Eschleman, who analysed the effect of outside creative hobbies on over 400 employees. He concluded that the reason for improved creativity, collaboration , relaxed and in control employees is due to recovery from work.

So how does recovery help?

Recovery is embedded in the core of side projects. As described in Eschlemanan analysis, creative activities provide valuable experiences of mastery, control and discovery that uniquely influences performance related outcomes like a full time job. In a study done by European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, they describe the effects of a lack of recovery and the reason for creative activities –</div>

From a psychological perspective, it would be better if people engaged in activities in which they sought challenges and tried to match them with their skills. Evidently this also applies to work: Optimal experiences correlate positively with mental health. However, in our society leisure is used as an “escape” from work. “Escapism” in this respect means that people do not seek meaningful leisure activities for their own growth and development, but instead resort to passive activities to escape from everyday strains and problems. Such behavior is frequently associated with a passive lifestyle and boredom, which in turn might feed into apathy and depression. Eschlemanan

Minimizing unnecessary expenditure

Dr. Julie Schor suggests in her book,that side projects can save you from unnecessary expenditure as it breaks the Work -spend -work spend mentality. This means – we work hard to spend more , and as we spend more we have to work even harder- This is a scary reality and vicious cycle that side projects combat by fostering a more creative and productive form of leisure and down time.

Happiness and creativity

Pursuing side projects helps you become more valuable, interesting and engaged in many other areas of your life. Passionate people are difficult to ignore, their energy is attractive and contagious. Your boss will recognise your new energy as it spills into your everyday work.

Keep in mind that a side project need not directly relate to improving or be in your current field, it just needs to be fun and exciting for you.
Exploring different or multiple paths until you find your interests, is time well spent. Playing around with different approaches develops flexibility which is useful in an industry that is constantly evolving. Also, you will be able to treat your project like play instead of work, which maximises your happiness and enjoyment.

Reconstruct your mental framework

Having a challenging hobby or side project that you enjoy can relieve stress and provide you with a new mental framework of thinking. Some of your best ideas don’t come while you’re sitting in front of your computer but instead when you’re fully engaged in a creative activity that puts you in a different frame of mind. Even complex problems, are easier to solve when you put yourself in a different headspace.

Side projects are the new CV

People are more interested in what you can demonstrate or what is in your portfolio over your position. Side project provide you with a portfolio of skills that you can use on your CV to show recruiters that you are no ordinary candidate. It show you’re ambitious, curious, creative and pro-active.

How to prevent poor work performance

So you now understand the benefits of a side project, so how do we juggle a full-time job and pursuing your side project.

Sustainable pace

Don’t work late into the night, so that you cannot perform adequately at your full time job. You want to schedule the days you want to work on your side project and for how long. It’s better to code 2 hours every night, than 10 hours one night and be completely non-functional the next day. Be consistent!

Meaningful goals with manageable milestones

The biggest challenge with any side project is finding the time for it. Setting aside time to achieve goals that are important to you will help make it a priority in your life.

It is also important that you can distill those goals down into manageable milestones that you can track on a daily basis.

Focus

Procrastination and distraction affects everyone, so do not let your guard down. By adhering to your schedule, being cognizant of your meaningful goals and staging your environment to banish distraction, you will push yourself to what is really important.

Be agile

In my experience, side project help you discover more about yourself like:

Are you more effective in the morning or evening?
Are you capable of managing uncertainty?
Are you willing to adapt and pivot if needs be?

The key here is to identify what works for you and do more of it, and if it is not, try something else. Side projects afford you the luxury of being able to experiment, so be flexible.

Overlapping Interests

By combining interest of your side project with that of your full-time job, will help synergistically fuel one another. This will also create a comfortable balance between the two, which can even assist in you getting buy-in from your boss.

Examples of side projects that did it

Now you probably thinking that your situation is unique and that this advice cannot work for you but here are some examples of successful companies that started as a side project, while working full time just like you.

StumbleUpon (Social Network)

Garret Camp and a few of his friends from the University of Calgary started a successful social network with over 25 million users, which started as a firefox extension.

Craigslist

Craig Newmark, while working as a programmer in San Francisco created a small message board where he could post social events. The sites popularity surged when he opened it to the public to post job offerings.

Uber

Travis Kalanick and Garret Camp, built a prototype for Uber as a side project, which is now one of the world’s fastest growing company. Travis attributes the birth of Uber to Garrets curiosity and passion for side projects.

TeuxDeux

Tina Roth Eisenberg impulse for fun side projects led her to create TeuxDeux, a todo solution that appealed to the aesthetically -conscious user. While it may not be a multiple million dollar application it does supply Tina with new income stream to supplement her lifestyle.

You got this !!!

Side projects are financially rewarding, it can create career opportunities, it is the safest environment for you to experiment in, it teaches you valuable skills and it’s good for your health. Start something. It could change your life.

So now that you know that you, your job and boss can benefit from your side project what’s stopping you?

I am keen to know what specific problems you have in balancing your side project. Let me know in the comments below.

Guide to focusing on your side project, even when your tired

Tue, 26 Jan 2016 10:57:17 +0000

Yeah, yeah, yeah we all know focussing these days is tough. There is an entire industry around eliminating distraction and becoming more productive. Cal Newport is the pioneer around deep work and recently even wrote a book about it. I cannot wait to read it. If only I could sit down, and check out all the reviews before purchasing it,”don’t you just hate losing focus and getting distracted?” Arrrrrrgggg!!!</span></p>

Physical vs. Mental tasks

Have you ever noticed how when you want to go for a jog or wish to put the trash out. The task is specific and definitive.

You will walk to the bin, take out the packet and carry it outside. Or when going for a jog, you put on your running shoes, go outside and start jogging until you want to come home.

Alternatively, when you addressing emails, you open your email, read its contents, click the link it referred to and off you go to only return 30 minutes later.

Understanding Distraction

It is clear to see that the potential for distraction on physical projects/tasks is much easier to control than that of intellectual projects. But why is that the case? This is because there is no clear finish line on mental tasks and you just don’t know when it’s done. At PwC, they have specific training and invest tons of cash into staying on task and delivering high value.

The lack of definition may lead to scope creep, but the more savage criminal is distraction.

For example, if you create a feature your application does not need right now. You just end up with code that you could potentially use elsewhere, provided you build things in a modular fashion. However, you will only realise that it was a waste a few nights later when your users validate your feature set.

But at that very moment after you finishing coding, even if it is later shown to be useless, you would think that you were super productive and feel great about your progress. This is an awesome feeling, and would of added to your side projects momentum which is great for the project as a whole.

Protecting your Momentum and Focus

Now let us contrast this situation to what happens when you get distracted. You start with a specific feature in mind , while you busy your phone goes off or an email notification pops up or you see a strange piece of paper on your desk.

It is highly likely that your attention will be hijacked for some time before you return, and this tends to happen often. In the end, you feel unproductive with little to show or a product of inferior quality.

By definition, side projects are done, alongside other commitments, making your time and energy critical components of your success. Therefore, Momentum and Focus cannot be squandered and should be protected.

Here are some techniques to protect your momentum and focus, even when you tired

Secret Weapon #1 : Remember what drives you

There is a reason why you started this side project, so remind yourself by reading or writing it before you start your work session.

For example, Brian Harris from Videofruit gave excellent advice of writing your goal on a blank piece of paper and sticking it on the wall behind your desktop screen. So you will be constantly reminded of why you started on this journey and what you want to achieve.

Secret Weapon #2 : Session State Persistence

According to Edmond Lau (Author of the Effective Engineer), leave your last side project session in the same state you ended it, so that you can just start where you left off. This will absolutely save you some time, by reducing your digital and physical environment setup time

For example, physically shutting your laptop without closing your last used applications or leaving your desk space arrangement in the same place you left it. This is a simple technique that can easily save you up to 30 minutes per session.

Secret Weapon #3 : Adjust work schedule to your Energy levels

You most likely know when you work best, which is normally in the mornings or evenings.

Whichever that may be, schedule your work sessions around when you will be best equipped to address them.

Tasks can be categorized into 3 level

High Energy – Complex, Most important task of the day
Medium Energy – Everything else that does not require top alertness
Low Energy – Mundane, repetitive tasks, or chores

I have the most energy in the morning, so I batch all my high and medium energy task for the morning and at the end of the day, I do the more mundane chores. This is a good way to ensure that you are getting things done early in the day.

Just make sure you figure out what works for you and do more of it. Once you built a routine around when you perform tasks, your body will become accustomed to your schedule and be ready for work every time.

Secret Weapon #4 : Quick and Painless To-Do List

Make use of a to-do list so, you know exactly what will need to be worked on. There are many applications out there to help you like Evernote, Things or OmniFocus.

If you do not use any of the above-mentioned application, go old-school, use just write what needs to be done on a regular piece of paper. The satisfaction you will receive from physically scratching off a to-do item, is so much more intense than ticking a complete box.

Secret Weapon #5 : Healthy lifestyle

Regulate the kinds of food you are eating and drinks you’re having, to help maintain even energy levels throughout the day. Even exercising for just a few minutes will help you with stress, mind relaxation and the necessary energy to get the task done. According to Population Health Management journal, eating unhealthy is linked to 66% risk of loss of productivity and lack of exercise increases your risk of low productivity by 50%

Secret Weapon #6 : Only bite off what you can chew

It is not possible to do everything, in one sitting, so prioritize your tasks or to-do list items according to what is important, so that you getting the most out of your work sessions.

You can do this by either, ranking your to-do items or using Eisenhower’s Quadrants and understanding your velocity (how fast it takes to complete a task)

If you enjoy using a paper-based To-Do list, use a post-it for your To -Dos, this will help limit the list to the most important items and what you can achieve in one sitting

Secret Weapon #7 : Know what you want to achieve

You need some form of goal setting, setting near-term milestones is excellent at keeping you on track.

For example, I set weekly milestones for where I should be and check my progress to what I actually achieved. This is a great opportunity to adjust your approach, know what is working so you can do more of it or what is not working so you can try something else.

When you seated at your desk to start working you should already know what you going to do, so plan effectively.

Planning consists of

Organising information in a way that you can get to it easily
Having you to do list, prioritised and written out so you not wasting time on what you still need to do today
Having your digital and physical environment ready to work

Secret Weapon #8 : Pay attention to your self-talk

It is easy to start telling yourself that your work is crap, you will not finish, that work project is useless and will not work. A large component of your focus and momentum is psychological, so stay positive. If negative self-talk is really troublesome, write it down as a way to purge it from your mind, shelf it away so you can look at it later.

Secret Weapon #9 : Staging your physical environment

Pick a place that is yours and free from distraction

I enjoy working on tasks in my study, which is away from the main house when nobody is home, with headphones on. Sometimes, I do not even listen to any music, but it serves as a helpful ritual in getting ready to work and a great social indicator of being busy.

Before I had a study, I worked on the dining room table, which gets a lot of traffic. I would just place my watch upright in front of me, put my headphones on and if my focus wondered. my eyes would catch a glimpse of my watch and I would be reminded to stay on task.

On a side note, I hear standing workspace have significant benefits in achieving focus and optimal productivity. I have not tried this yet – maybe it can work for you.(Give us some feedback in the comment below if this works for you)

The important point to remember is to create a physical space that works for you whether it be in a quiet secluded room, busy dining room table, on your bed or in a coffee shop. Ensure that you can work in that consistently and have some token to remind you of what you want to achieve. It need not be fancy; it just needs to work for you.

Secret Weapon #10 : Crafting your digital environment

We have thousands of notifications bombarding us every day, so find a way to shut them out while you busy.

Turning on Airplane Mode and restricting my desktop applications to be task specific, is incredibly helpful. Try to keep it simple, if you have a technique that works, keep doing it.. Otherwise, RescueTime and Vitamin R are great for time management and realizing how much time you spend on a particular task.

I listen to music occasionally while I work. The trick here is to find music that helps you think melodically. While I was studying for my Board Exams, I tried classical music but it did not work for me. However, new age instrumentals worked wonders for my concentration and energy levels. I could work hours listening to instrumentals and not even notice the time go by. Find a music type that works for you.

A trick I accidently stumbled upon was listening to a small set of songs on repeat.It is amazing how you get into a rhythm and complete tons of work, while bopping your head and enjoying the experience. If I am not mistaken Matt Mulligan (Founder of WordPress) and Chris Sacca(#3 Forbes Midas List), do the same thing.

Secret Weapon #11 : Don’t break the chain

Work on your side project, almost every day, by doing small, manageable pieces and building momentum.

This article is about 2000 words long done over sessions of 500 words a session. You will be surprised how far you can get by just systematically, working a small piece a day.

Simple ways to track this is by using GitHub streak calendar or marking an X on a calendar.

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Secret Weapon #12 : Discuss your project with friends

If your side project excites you, share it with as many people as you can. Tell them what you want to achieve and when. Social pressure will make you accountable, motivate you to continue.

Secret Weapon #13 : Do things you love

You cannot work all the time. It will become difficult to be productive when you feeling like you’re missing out on life and time with people you love. So spend time with people you care about and do the things you love, which will help your mind from straying into negative self-talk.</div>

So how do you apply this, to your next side project session

Just pick one technique, like making use of quick and painless to-dos. If it works for you, pick another like “discussing it with your friends” and continue to incrementally develop your productivity stack. The important thing to remember is to identify the techniques that work for you, not best practices, just you.

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If you take nothing else away from this post, let it be this.

Find what works for you and do more of it, no excuses.

It is all about you.

Why waste precious time and energy when your side project has so much potential?

NEXT STEP: In the comments below, write one technique that helps you stay focused?

PS: If you like this, receive each new post delivered right to your inbox! Sign Up, using the form in the side bar or get the PDF summary using the form below.

Epic List of Side Project Ideas for Programmers

Sat, 09 Jan 2016 17:47:41 +0000

Out of Side Project Ideas? Here is list of side project ideas just for you!

Is it just me? Or is when you finish an extensive tutorial or course, you like the Energizer bunny going ” Whats next? Com-on world I can program anything” Well not exactly anything, but I want to test out my new abilities.

Now I am still a beginner, so this happens to me often.

So I go to good ol’ Google and spend hours trying to decide on some interesting side project ideas. There are so many resources available that I begin to ask myself questions like:

Do other people use this site, and where are their solutions?
Is this suitable for my Programming Language?
Is this a side project or is it a coding exercise?
Is this suitable for a beginner like me?
Can I show my friends this?
Will this count as something I can add to my resume?

Now, by the time I have decided on a Side Project Idea, I have a thousand tabs open, motivation is gone, and I am tired.

Why jump around the internet looking for suitable resources?
Why waste time checking if there are solutions?
Why waste precious energy ticking off your mental checklist?
Why lose motivation?

As a creative ( yes, programmers are creative – You create software solutions), you should have a central location for identifying right side Project Ideas and start building – In the quickest time possible.

Below you will find a list and a review of resources I check through when I need a little help coming up with Side Project Ideas. It has helped me save many hours of unnecessary searching on the web.

For the best use of this ideas listed below, try to adapt it to your world.

For example, a side project idea below is an Attendance Mangement System. If you are a student you can make an Attendance system for your class, or an entrepreneur could make it for their factory.

Another example is data visualiser if you a student you can make a Visualisation of your Spending habits using banking information; or if you work long hours you can visualise and track your total work hours to identify which period of the year/month/week you work the longest.

Turn the idea into an application that you or someone you know can use, will dramatically increase its relevance and interest to you.

.s
Comparison Table of Large Coding Resources
Review Resources
List Various Sources
Whats next?

Comparison of Resources

	Reddit	GitHub	1000_Projects	Coding Parks	Idea Machine	Internet Wish List
Number of Side Project Ideas	45+	76	1000	15+
Solutions
Suitable for All Programming Languages
Suitable for Beginners

Review of Resouces

It is updated fairly often; however this does not appear to be an active SubReddit topic. There are numerous related subreddits being added all the time. Refer to the side panel of this Subreddit for links.

Many of the suggested ideas are popular web clones or tutorial-styled projects used to teach languages

Notable Projects:

– Dice Simulator
– Rock, Paper Scissors game
– Web scraping Pokemon data to build a Pokedex
– Text Editor
– Magic 8 Ball

Go to this resource now

Github

It is not updated regularly nor is it an active repo. These projects are mainly generated from Marty’s Mega List and RossetaCode.

Beginners may find the ideas in this repo challenging but try it out; you will only get better at breaking down complexity.

Notable Projects:

– Financial Markets Quote Tracker
– Airline / Hotel Reservation System
– Content Management System (Like WordPress)
– Travel Planner System
– Flower Shop Ordering To Go

Go to this resource now

1000_Projects

This repo is not active or updated recently. It is a huge repo of ideas for beginners with a section for advanced topics.
The lack of solutions is disappointing however it is indispensable in helping you come up with your own ideas

Notable Projects:
– Chat Application
– Online Examination System
– Automated Student Performace Analysis
– Data Visualization
– Smart Traffic Light Application

Go to this resource now

Coding Parks

There is no specific repo for side projects on this website. However, the site as a whole contains many project ideas. These Project Ideas are aimed at final year CS students with few of them focused on Android Development.

Notable Projects:
– Library Mangement system
– Attendance Management system
– Loan Management system
– School Management system
– Hospital Management system

Go to this resource now

The Internet Wish List vs. Idea Machine

Both these resources are dynamically updated via twitter however Idea Machines is active and being updated regularly whereas Internet Wishlist is not.

Go to the Internet wish list now

Go to the Idea Machine now

Other useful sources

– Quora (Link)(Link)(Link)
– Books (Link) (Link) – Not Affiliate links
– Hackernews (Link)

Whats next?

Congratulations, you now have ton of side project idea at your fingertips and a review of each to identify the best resources for your needs 🙂

If you found this useful let me know which ones you liked.

If I missed any sites or resources that you use and find helpful, leave a comment below for the rest of the community.

If you want to know how to come up with your own list of side project ideas or want to know how to choose the best side project for you. Sign up for the mailing list and be notified when new tips and blog posts are available.

How to make progress when you have too many ideas

Thu, 29 Jan 2015 11:01:19 +0000

Vinchenso Kendall | Ruby on Rails Web Development, Passive Income Seeker

Why comparing your side project is a bad idea

Why is this wrong?

Is your project for fun or are you doing it for the money?

Experts advice on : Commercial projects

My advice when it’s a little of both (aka ‘Happy-go-money’)

So what do Hybrids look like for you

Now what must I do with this?

Is your project for fun or are you doing it for the money?

Jay Abrahams interviews John Paul DeJoria

The way I heard it:

What do think?

Mastery Guide for Makers

Why you care about Mastery

So how do you go about?

What is Deliberate practice

The results of Deliberate practice

Example of how it is applied

How you can apply it – Everyday.

[Pre- Practice]

Step 1: Brain – Dump

Step 2: Start with your Burning Pain

Step 3: Find a tutorial/how-to guide for your chosen Focus area.

Step 4: Break the tutorial into steps

Step 5: Schedule each step in your calendar

[Practice]

Step 6: Set a 25 minute timer and do 1 step

Step 7: Review

Give yourself a rating

Step 8: Celebrate

Step 9: Repeat

You got this

Guide to making it Good Enough - Perfection is not an excuse to procrastinate

It feels unfinished, rough, incomplete and unperfected – Don’t worry it’s normal.

What you will learn

What is the Good Enough Principle

How it manifests in our minds

Common Perfectionist Triggers that you should avoid

Why it manifests

When Expectation and Reality are unaligned

Allow for mistakes

Keep Going

Stop your Self-Sabotaging

Beta Mindset

Why I should use it

Emerging Market

Characteristic:

How Good Enough Innovation benefits this market

Examples of success

Developed Market

Characteristic:

How Good Enough Innovation benefits this market

Examples of success

Good Enough vs Quality

So how do I implement Good Enough principles when I am working on my Side Project?

Does my solution do what it is intended to do, exceptionally well, for my users.

Get the Workbook

Don't let your career suffer - How side projects improve your job performance.

But at least you have your side project right?

There is a better way

How & Why side projects enhance your career

Inspires Curiosity, Creativity and Perseverance

Broader Exposure

Psychological Recovery

So how does recovery help?

Minimizing unnecessary expenditure

Happiness and creativity

Reconstruct your mental framework

Side projects are the new CV

How to prevent poor work performance

Sustainable pace

Meaningful goals with manageable milestones

Focus

Be agile

Overlapping Interests

Examples of side projects that did it

StumbleUpon (Social Network)

Craigslist

Uber

TeuxDeux

Comparison of Resources