I have a feeling that you do side-projects because they provide you the autonomy and the ability to tinker that official projects and collaborative OSS don't. And it is part of this autonomy that allows you to up and leave anytime you don't feel like it, whereas you can't do that with say your office project. So why take away that distinct advantage that allows you to do these things in the first place. My only question is why are we self-commoditizing the only thing that is providing a sense of relief from what is already a measured activity ie., people(office) constantly telling us what to do, when to do, and what tools to use etc and how well we did in abiding by that.
I think it's different for me to build something small, and seeing how others use it is my biggest motivation.
Some of these side projects are apps that I built for one person only, and if I didn't finish them, I couldn't see the smile on the other person's face when they used their own personal app for the first time :-)
After a long struggle, I have managed to find a process that allows me to regularly finish my side projects instead of giving them up after a while. I have learned some lessons that I wanted to share and I hope that they will be helpful for others.