Ask HN: How do you keep energy to work on personal projects after work hours?

When I get home, I still have an abundance of energy, so I hop on my MaxiClimber for 10 minutes, and then I have a protein shake as my reward afterwards.

Then I code till I fall asleep at night, which is usually about 3-4 hours. When I wake up, sometimes if my wife isn't bothering me, I'll code then before work. And if there is any downtime at work, I'll code during work.

Sometimes i even code in my sleep which is probably how I code even faster, knowing what I'm going into. But I'd say get some sleep before you code.

Very passionate about coding.. it's my escape, my gaming, my fun time.. its just that time where I get to be creative.

Also, keep a well defined list of tasks for your project. This will help you make the most of your time in the morning, you can grab a task and hit the ground running.

For me I've come to realize that due to time constraints and depleted energy levels I can only focus on one thing per day and that I have to do it in the morning before work. To me that's the key aspect. And it's something I had to come to terms with.

Right now I'm focusing on fitness (I run) and I get virtually nothing done on my side projects. However I'm confident that I can switch it up in the future.

All no go.

A short nap is not enough as I'm already tired for the day, and a long one just gets me sleepy, then it gets too late already, and if I stay up late I won't be able to perform at work.

I second the thoughts of another person here who said there are so many productive hours in a day. Maybe if we were not bound by office hours, back when I was a student or in my short stints as a freelancer I could push two "rounds" of productivity in a day.

Start working out. Do that for a few weeks. You may find your energy levels rising and time for stuff suddenly being less of an issue.

Use your workout time to do double duty for thinking about other ways to free up time and energy, stuff related to your project etc. Maybe even use it to do things like listen to podcasts that might be pertinent to freeing up time or developing your project.

I’ve tried to do side projects during all this time, and my conclusion is: I don’t think there’s a solution. There’s just only so many productive hours in a day.

If you want to do a side-project, the only thing that’s ever worked for me is to take time off work. Minimum multiple weeks, ideally a few months. For example between jobs.

You can start planning for this while you have a job. Cut out unnecessary expenses, so you save money. Without saved money, you can’t take a few months off.

Well, there you have it! (if you commute by train, that is).

I almost exclusively work on my side projects during commute, which is also 1 hour. Especially the morning commute is very productive, on the way back I find myself lacking focus so I do some reading about sales, design, marketing.

Also, prioritize working out. Schedule time for it, even if it is 1-2 hours a week. You will earn more time in extra energy than it will cost you.

People have been doing this for a long time. I remember reading about 19th C novelists who wrote their novels by writing for an hour each morning before their day job.

As for working out, ehhh yeah I'm supposed to do that too.. new years resolution? But being active gives you more energy so there's that, once you get to it.

My advice is to get home and do a 20 min hiit workout. This will perk you up. Get some food and code away

Draw up a product roadmap and get the units of work down to ~1hrs work that you should be able to see a change at the end. Do the design down to little atomic units. Likewise, plan sets in the gym.

This also gives you excellent practice for managing a project.