Building Something Real in Your Spare Time

Every developer has the graveyard: the folder of abandoned side projects. Half-finished apps, repos with one commit, domain names for ideas that never got past the README. The graveyard grows because the gap between “I could build this” and “I have the time and energy to build this” is wider than it appears.

The Enthusiasm Trap

New projects start with enthusiasm. You have an idea, the technology is interesting, and the first few hours are productive. You set up the repo, scaffold the project, and make visible progress. It feels good. It feels like this time will be different.

Then a week passes. Work was exhausting. The evening hours you planned to spend coding were spent recovering from the day. The weekend had obligations. By the time you sit down again, you have lost context. Reloading the mental state of the project takes 30 minutes, and you only have an hour. Progress is minimal. Enthusiasm fades. The project joins the graveyard.

What Actually Works

Small scope. The projects that get finished are dramatically smaller than you think they should be. A single-feature tool. A script that solves one problem. A static site with ten pages. The completed small project is worth infinitely more than the abandoned ambitious one.

Consistent tiny sessions. Thirty minutes three times a week beats a six-hour marathon on Saturday. The marathon requires motivation; the tiny sessions require only a habit. And habits are more sustainable than motivation.

Solve your own problem. Projects built to solve a problem you actually have sustain motivation better than projects built to learn a technology or impress others. When the project is useful to you, “I need this to work” replaces “I should work on this.”

Ship early. Publish the ugly version. Deploy the minimum viable thing. The act of shipping creates accountability and provides the satisfaction of completion. You can iterate later. Or not — a shipped imperfect project is still shipped.

The Real Value

The value of building something in your spare time is not the product. It is the practice of creating something from nothing, of making decisions without a spec, of owning the outcome completely. These experiences develop skills that employment alone does not: product thinking, prioritization, and the tolerance for ambiguity that comes from working without requirements.

The graveyard is not a failure. It is evidence that you tried. The goal is to have fewer graves and more shipped projects, and the path there is not more ambition — it is less scope, more consistency, and the willingness to ship something small.