# How to find time for a side project when you work full time By František Hlinka (Solo developer of Nanominute) · Published October 29, 2026 · https://www.nanominuteapp.com/blog/find-time-for-side-projects > I'm the solo developer of Nanominute, so I'm not a neutral party here. I built it because I wanted it for myself, I use it every day, and I'm now sharing it with other people. There are no ads, and I never sell your time tracking data. **Summary** - Balancing work, sleep, habits, exercise and friends is hard, and a side project needs time that is already spoken for. - Time tracking shows where your hours really go, so you can pick what to cut instead of guessing. - The uncomfortable truth from my 2025 data: about 416 hours spread over twelve things meant none of them got very far. The fix is fewer things, not just one. If you work full time and want more time for a side project, the answer starts with seeing where your time goes now. **Time tracking shows you the real hours**, and in my case it also showed an uncomfortable truth: I was doing too many things at once, so none of them moved forward. I know how hard balancing everything is, so here is how I think about it. ## Why is it so hard to find time for a side project? Because the same hours are fighting over everything: work, sleep, habits, exercise, friends, partner, errands. Anyone who likes doing a lot of things feels this. In my tracked weekdays, free time after sleep, work and daily overhead was only about [4 hours 53 minutes](https://www.nanominuteapp.com/blog/how-much-free-time-do-you-have), and that is before any of the fun things. ## How can time tracking help you find time? Tracking replaces a feeling ("I have no time") with a list of hours per activity. A week of data tells you what a side project would have to replace. You may discover an hour of unplanned scrolling, a long evening routine, or a commute you could shift. Start with a one-week [personal time audit](https://www.nanominuteapp.com/blog/personal-time-audit). You do not need anything fancy: a spreadsheet works, and I compared the options in [the tools I tried](https://www.nanominuteapp.com/blog/best-personal-time-tracking-apps). ## What is the uncomfortable truth about doing too many things? If you do too many things at once, you do not do any of them properly. In 2025 I tracked about 416 hours across twelve hobbies, projects and commitments (not counting exercise). That felt like a lot, until I saw how thin it was spread: *Chart: hours per activity in 2025 across twelve hobbies, projects and commitments, and the same hours in three things. The numbers are in the text of this article.* Volunteering took the most (138 hours), and my four side projects together got 116, so each got only a slice of that. Guitar got 51, D&D 35, photography 19. Spread over twelve things, nothing got the sustained attention that makes progress visible. The answer is not to do just one thing. You need some variety, and I would not give up mine. But one side project, volunteering and guitar would have had 176, 138 and 102 hours: enough to see real progress in each, instead of four side projects competing for the same evenings. I'd like to drop some of these things while keeping a bit of variety. I have not fully solved this, but I know the problem now, because I can see it. ## How do you protect time for a side project? Pick one or two projects, give them a regular block, and say no to the rest for a while. Here is what I take from my own data: 1. **Choose fewer things.** One or two side projects at a time, not four. Keep some variety around them, just not twelve things. 2. **Use a regular block.** My weekend side-project time was about 20 times my weekday time (1 hour 38 minutes a day versus 5 minutes). Weekday scraps barely moved anything, so I would rather protect one weekend block than hope for weekday gaps. 3. **Cut from the overhead first.** Shorten a routine, batch errands, move a commute. 4. **Track the project itself.** Seeing hours on the actual project keeps you honest about whether it is moving. 5. **Review monthly.** If a project gets 3 hours a month, it is not a priority. Decide whether to give it more or let it go. ## What should you track the side project as? Give it its own activity, and split it by project if you run more than one. Tracking my four projects separately is how I could see that each one was getting thin. ## Which tool should you use? A spreadsheet is fine for a first week. For long-term tracking I use [Nanominute](https://www.nanominuteapp.com/), which I built, so keep my bias in mind. It lets you start a timer for "side project" in a tap, so the log stays honest without friction. I use it every day, there are no ads, and I never sell your time tracking data. You can try it free for 2 weeks. Whatever you use, the goal is not a prettier chart. It is knowing, for once, where your hours go, and then putting more of them into the one thing you care about most. ## FAQ **How many hours a week do you need for a side project?** There is no magic number, but a regular block beats scattered minutes. In my 2025 data my four side projects got 5 minutes a day on weekdays and 1 hour 38 minutes a day on weekends, so the weekend block did almost all the work. **How do I find time for a side project with a full-time job?** Track your time for a week, find the hours that go to things you do not value, pick one or two things to focus on and protect a regular block for them. Doing fewer things at once matters more than finding extra hours. **Should I work on several side projects at once?** I would not. In 2025 I ran four side projects plus volunteering and hobbies, and the time fragmented too much for any of them to progress quickly. I plan to drop some. **What is time fragmentation?** Fragmentation means your available hours get divided over so many activities that each one gets too little to make real progress. Tracking shows it clearly because you can see the hours per activity.