Something I have been wondering all these years I've been working on long-term projects is, how do others make relationships work with something that, almost by definition, consumes all of one's free time and energy?
Just today, we put our kids to kindergarten, went for a coffee and had a nice walk in an autumnish weather. It is 11AM now and I still haven't started working, but once I do, I probably won't finish sooner than at 9PM.
I guess you need to find a sweet spot between tension and relaxation. Too tense and you end up being burned out. Too relaxed and you quit because it won't be interesting or challenging enough.
Your mind needs a rest too to serve you (and your projects) well. So by taking a rest and forgetting the project for a while, you actually help the project as well!
Since you post this on a monday, I assume you don't work a regular job? I also finish working at ~7-8pm, so I can only work on my own projects after that (until ~1am or so). I do rest, on Saturdays, but when I do I'm too tired to socialize, and if someone asks me out I will say no. I'm not going to give up my projects, hence the dilemma.
As a freelancer I have a luxury to be a master of my time, with all the bad and good that comes with it. Last week I worked half Sunday so this Monday I have hours covered.
I also work on my project, sometimes whole day, or two, sometimes even a week.. it depends on my clients' requirements and how skillful I was in planning the time.
It took me some years to get there, however. And now with kids it gets even more challenging.
Regarding socializing, it is true, my circle is now rather small, but I take it as a temporary state.
In my experience, you can’t let truly long projects consume all your energy or else you’ll burn out on them and stop. The key for these is to put in a few hours consistently and allow yourself to use the rest of the time to relax and do other things.
That’s part of how the author can have 3 long-term projects at once— no single project is taking up all of his attention. You can make surprising progress if you set aside a single 3-4 hour session each week, and still have time for everything else.
I guess you need to find a sweet spot between tension and relaxation. Too tense and you end up being burned out. Too relaxed and you quit because it won't be interesting or challenging enough.
Your mind needs a rest too to serve you (and your projects) well. So by taking a rest and forgetting the project for a while, you actually help the project as well!