This post was written for a technical audience, but its key points can also be used in other areas.

There are many reasons why a programmer can start working on a third-party project. This is a good way to keep abreast of modern technologies, which are now at the peak of popularity in the industry. This can help you hone your programming skills. And it's fun! Well, or should be fun.
But what we used to call “life” can not only complicate your completion of the project, but even prevent you from starting to work on it. We often spend a lot of time sticking to a busy schedule, and it may seem impossible to use at least a minute for a personal project.
I started working on my first side project two years ago, and I am not an expert in this matter, so that does not mean. Two years later, I made several observations about the beginning of work on third-party projects, which I began, why I was able to finish some, and some did not. What I will try to describe does not claim to be innovative, nor to step-by-step tutorials, but is solely observations that may be useful.

Work on what you are interested in and what excites you

I did not want to write something that is incredibly obvious, but it is very important. A third-party project should be exciting for you to be interested in this. When you wake up on Saturday and start thinking about what to do today, how will you react to what you will do today on your project? If the reaction begins with the words “Well, I will try ...”, then you are far from a good start. And if you start with the words “I will do it ...” or “At last I have time for it ...”, then this sounds a little better.

Take breaks

Your project can be quite diverse. Maybe this is something funny. This may be what you have long wanted to work with. But this should not be boring. If you are working on your project and do not get pleasure from it, click “Save”, move away from the keyboard and go do something else. Play video games. Go shopping. Do what you used to do to relax and unwind. Do not go back to the project until you feel ready to do it again, let it take a day, or a week, or a month.
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Finish projects

The degree of importance of completing a project differs from person to person, as well as from project to project. Some projects are just experiments with new technologies. You may not even finish and do not worry. Otherwise it is useful to set the goal of “complete the project completely”. The desire to finish the project gives you more motivation to work on it, and also a nice bonus is that when you finish, you can show your work to someone else.
Working on a project in which you are interested (see clause 1) is very important in order to bring it to a conclusion. If your project is quite large, after a while, you will spend a lot of time working on it, and you can gradually get tired of it. When the novelty of your idea begins to decrease over time, leave at least a share of interest in it.

Work on one project

While you are working on your project, you can start to come up with ideas for the next, which may encourage you to work on it. It is perfectly. There are never too many ideas! Write them somewhere, but do not switch until you finish the current project. Attempting to work on two projects at the same time is a great way not to finish any of them. If you switch between projects, either you know exactly where you left off last time, or you acknowledge that you cannot finish any of them.
This, by the way, is a good opportunity to finish the project without bringing it to the end. This means that since you started it, something has already changed. This may not be technically feasible. Maybe you have learned that what you are developing is already implemented by someone. Or maybe for some reason, you just lost interest in it. Whatever it is, it is very important to adopt this and draw some experience from it.

Looking for time

Gaps in the working schedule are ideal in order to maintain the progress and motivation for your project. Make a ritual out of it. For example, for me, this is the first thing I do when I wake up at the weekend. I go to a nearby coffee shop for a couple of hours, sit down, write some code, and finish it before dinner. For me, it works because I am usually a little busy until noon. Moreover, I noticed that working in small periods of time (an hour or two) I am more effective than if I try to sit for three or four hours over something.

Enjoy!

If you cannot work with pleasure, then I see no reason to do it. Creating something new should be fun and exciting, and when you do it right, it can be the most wonderful feeling in the world.