[chatwinra]

Good article. Couple of things I've found really useful whilst building a video game in my spare time:

1. If you like to listen to music whilst you code/work, check out focusatwill.com. It's basically the right kind of background music, ie: not engaging enough to distract you. I used to waste time trying to select music to play for my work sessions, now it's simple.

2. When you finish a work session, write a note to yourself saying where you're at. that way, when you come back to start work again, you can pick up where you left off without spending time trying to remember stuff. It's past you being nice to future you! (I got this from a writing tip that said you should always leave a sentence unfinished when taking a break, because then you can hop back in really easily because it's mid flow).

Really agree with the OP about exercise/well being. It's not a waste of time. For most (if not all) of these kinds of side projects, it's a marathon, not a sprint.