How makers stay productive

Scheduling and deepwork are the two things that changed it all for me, there is a great book by Cal Newport on deep work http://www.calnewport.com/books/deep-work/

Once I figured out how to create focused blocks of time I was able to really improve my time management. It isn't an easy thing but it can be done with time and practice. I have also been lucky I work remotely so deep work has helped with the paid work too.

Scheduling was key though. Also I stopped trying to over do it. I started by setting 1 thing for an hour and doing it. The more I did that the better I got at it. I found it really helped to stop thinking I needed to get it all done in 1 go or a week. If it takes 3 / 4 months so be it.

My thinking is that it's better to do 1 or 2 things on your side projects every week and do them well instead of doing 10 and forcing it.

For some people it's waking in the morning early, I tried that and it wasn't for me, my chrono type is more normal so it became more about sliding things in here and there.

Maybe your Lunch time is a good time to do things. Most important of all don't be hard on yourself if your tired and don't feel like doing it. Give yourself that time to rest and maybe you will find that some other day works for you maybe it's a Saturday that works for you.

It becomes less about hacks and more about habits. Create a habit and your body and mind will expect it. Maybe it's a Monday and Wednesday after work you do some indie work. But Tuesday / Thursday and Friday are rest days. You might find your mind is waiting for the indie work on those days then.

I work remotely, so I wake up ~5:30am and do side hustle before my main job ~9:00am. I use this time to work on my projects or do freelance work. I feel constantly exhausted, but it's okay, I got to use it.

I'm already out of this stadium. but i can tell you what it was like in the past: I mainly used the weekends. btw, I kill a lot of stuff: no parties, no alcohol and all that other stuff you do at parties ;-)

Same situation here. Sometimes I find focus, other times I get a burn out. It's really hard to keep the rhythm for a long period of time, especially when there is no instant gratification (aka $$$).

I second @dehenne at skipping a lot of stuff when your are working full-time and making side projects aside.

So true it is not possible if you balance your life 100 % in all three spheres, your family, your day job and your hobby. I am dodging my office work here and there. At times I hide from my wife on way back from office and find a good 1 to 2 hours block in a cafe nearby. Once home, sit with wife and watch netflix or youtube or go out for a walk or a nice dinner in hotel. If you are meeting your priority goals, you will be able to keep your family happy. Sometimes when I experience burnouts, I go running treadmill and then kill pending office tasks. it helps. I feel, keeping myself flexible helps a lot.

I tried for years to find a way to make a full time job and making work for me. Truth is that I could do it for a week or two max before I would burn out and both my work and personal projects would suffer.

I've learned the hard way to acknowledge my own limitations and that the number of hours involved in a full time job (or perhaps a bit less) amounts to my productive and motivational limits.

Because of this I chose to leave my job and cut my income drastically to focus on making for myself. I still have one or two small clients I develop for on the side to survive but my focus is 90% on making products.

Since I made the switch, despite having much less money i'm enjoying life so much more, loving my work and I have energy for friends and social events as well as being productive. In the past I found that I would choose too much social life because I was so drained or unmotivated from work or I just wouldn't have the energy at all to go out after a long day of work. These days I choose to not stay out too late or have that extra beer because I actually want to be productive the next day.

Obviously this path may not be for everyone but it was an important lesson learnt in my life.

Everyday happiness is much more important than money.

I would also like to add that for me, exercise is extremely important. The weeks I don't exercise are the weeks I often lose a lot of productivity. I don't realise it straight away but exercising every day is much better for me than taking a week off. The energy from exercise often gives me that extra hour or two per day where I want to be productive which could be a key difference when trying to balance a job & making for yourself outside of work hours.

Just use makerlog. Lead a normal life. Sleep well, don't over think. Work smart, Learn more skills So you can save time and have more time More time, more opportunity.

I also work full time. The trick I use for this is to pick the smallest possible task that can progress my project and make myself complete that one task and give myself permission to feel accomplished if I just get that done and nothing else.

This helps because:

• The hardest part about doing anything is getting started, it takes less effort to start one small task than to just start working on a project.
• Once I accomplish something, I often feel the momentum to continue and get a ton done
• Some days (like today) I really don't have it in me and instead of feeling shitty I can still feel like at least I'm closer to having my project made than I was yesterday. Which I think really helps against burnout