This was a cool experiment to read about by John Resig and something I’ve definitely struggled with myself:
There were a few major problems with how I was working on my side projects. I was primarily working on them during the weekends and sometimes in the evenings during the week. This is a strategy that does not work well for me, as it turns out. I was burdened with an incredible amount of stress to try and complete as much high quality work as possible during the weekend (and if I was unable to it felt like a failure). This was a problem as there’s no guarantee that every weekend will be free – nor that I’ll want to program all day for two days (removing any chance of relaxation or doing anything fun).
I particularly appreciated this comment about the GitHub code streak. I’ve often used that as an outward indicator of success in the past, which has proven to be more stressful than helpful:
I think that’s the most important take away from this experiment: this is about a change that you’re making in your life for yourself not a change that you’re making to satisfy someone else’s perception of your work.
Something I’m thinking about more this month as I move towards the goal of hitting 20 hours coding.
Featured illustration credit: Steven Resig