How do you stay motivated for hobby projects? [closed]

Posted by aubreyrhodes on Programmers See other posts from Programmers or by aubreyrhodes
Published on 2010-11-04T02:26:09Z Indexed on 2012/08/27 21:56 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 141

Filed under:

self-improvement

|

motivation

I started seriously programming as a hobbiest, student and then intern about 4 years ago and I've always done small projects on the side as a learning exercise. Schools over now though, and I spend my days at work as a software developer. I would still love to do projects on the side to learn about areas in computer science that I'm not exposed to at work, but I've noticed that after 8 hours of starring at an IDE it's far to tempting to veg out. Any time I do get up the gumption to work on something for a few hours lately it's gotten left by the wayside.

Anyone have any advice for sticking with side projects when you spend most of your day coding?

© Programmers or respective owner

Related posts about self-improvement

A toolset for self improvement and learning [closed]

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
Possible Duplicate: I’m having trouble learning I've been working as an IT consultant for 1½ years and I am very passionate about programming. Before that I studied MSc Software Engineering and had both a part time job as a developer for a big telecom company. During that time I also took… >>> More
Time management and self improvement

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
Hi, I hope I can open a discussion on this topic as this is not a specific problem. It's a topic I hope to get some ideas on how people in similar situation as mine manage their time. OK, I'm a single developer on a software project for the last 6-8 months. The project I'm working on uses several… >>> More
Time management and self improvement

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
I hope I can open a discussion on this topic as this is not a specific problem. It's a topic I hope to get some ideas on how people in similar situation as mine manage their time. OK, I'm a single developer on a software project for the last 6-8 months. The project I'm working on uses several technologies… >>> More
Software development books are useful, but when to find the time to read them?

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
I have 5 books in my "read-wish-list". When do I read them? I mean I could force myself to use 1 hour during working hours, but this will last for 2 days then someone will ask me to do more "high priority things". One option can be reading at night, but also this has limits, even because I prefer… >>> More
When returning from a period of not programming, do you find you've improved?

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
It seems as though whenever I take an extended break from programming—whether to pursue other interests or simply because I fall out of the habit for a while—I invariably find that when I return to a project and set to coding, I come with an abundance of new ideas, novel approaches, and… >>> More

Related posts about motivation

Tricks to avoid losing motivation?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Motivation is a tricky thing to upkeep. Once I thought that ambitious projects will keep programmer motivated, and too simple tasks will hinder his motivation. Now I have plenty of experience with small and large projects, desktop/web/database programming, c++/c#/java/php languages, oop/non-oop paradigms… >>> More
What is your motivation?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
As software developers we all know that motivation matters. Without it we could just stare into the monitor all day long and do nothing. There are some tricks to get yourself motivated like talking to people or doing the fun part of the project, but they do not always work. In the mean time I started… >>> More
Great post about 10 things that kill motivation

as seen on Geeks with Blogs - Search for 'Geeks with Blogs'
I read a great post on 10 surefire ways to kill morale. Read it here. >>> More
What makes you lose motivation?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
What environmental factors make you lose your motivation? >>> More
Whats does User motivation means?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
What does user motivation means, please justify your answer with an example? How can spot the user motivation based on use of a particular product? Thank you >>> More