Great things are created "on the side"

Let's pretend that you hold a full time job, or you're a college student absolutely loaded with work daily. This is normal. You're like millions of others in the world...

...except, you have these ideas you want to realize, or this personal project you really, really want to finish.

You constantly face this dilemma: work and work and work on non-personal project matters, or allot time to work on those ideas you have. The easy answer is to go with the typical work society asks of you - finish your college studies, try for grad school, aim for a good career, try to get that internship, please your boss, stay late after work - the list goes on and on. While none of these are necessarily "easy," they certainly are the standard way to do things.

But let's face it. If you're going to realize those ideas of yours that you're truly passionate about, or even those that you simply think are "cool" (which in fact could be better than the ones you're passionate about) you must allot time - even a little - to your project(s). This really makes all the difference.

Now, they say that if you really want to do something, you'll be able to allot time for it. But in this busy world, remembering this saying often just isn't enough to drive you.

Instead, take this advice: great things have been created "on the side."
Instead of even considering the idea, "Okay, self, I'm going to work on Project X every day from eleven to twelve midnight no matter what," it's far easier and more productive to simply go about it unthinkingly. Planning and setting explicit timeframes puts an unnecessary burden on you, one that you just won't keep up with if you're a fulltime college student or you're working at a major company.

If you instead just work on your little project "on the side" while doing the typical things society asks of you, you'll find yourself creating something you truly value and find useful. Examples from history that were also created "on the side" include the creation of...

• Calculus as a helpful tool for Physics
• Ruby on Rails, the powerful and adept web framework used by Twitter and created by David Heinemeier Hansson as a side project
• The Internet, which was originally just for communication among a small group of people

(If you have other examples, comment and let me know!)

Bottom line: it's okay to work on a project "on the side" without designating strict deadlines and times to work. In fact, it might even be better.

Quick, last thing: working on a project "on the side" helps alleviate unneeded pressure you put on yourself if you really consider your ideas "big ideas." I personally am starting to see that it's easier to remove the weight you put on your ideas and instead go about creating them with a free and open spirit.

Read another interesting article about jumping on inspiration.