This web world can be a hard one to work in, you as a designer can easily loose inspiration after the 10th blue website or 20th drop shadow rounded box and lets not get started on how demoralising the 30th gradient can be. When I started out it was all about personal projects, yes I studied software engineering and art but back then there were no web courses. The only way to learn these new languages was to work on personal projects and experiment – it was a great time when possibilities were explored and inspiration flowed.
Over the years work becomes a larger beast and your personal project time can easily go down the back of the sofa. I have found myself recently putting off too many personal projects, this was something I knew had to change if I was going to avoid the mental stagnation I felt creeping in.
Ground zero your blog
If as a designer or developer you aren’t maintaining some form of blog I to be frank would be puzzled. Not only is it a great publicity tool but it’s also your own playground. At the start this blog ran on my own cms and later blogging system once this whole blogging thing had a name. This was how I learned to write a cms and blogging engine. I moved onto word press after a while for many reasons, but the point though is through this blog I learnt how to code some significant things I’ve used over and over again in client work. Design limits are also raised in your own space so it’s essential to allow you the freedom to explore and play. I see your blog as ground zero or the first thing you should do as a personal project. This is your space online where you can have the freedom you often don’t have in client work or even on your portfolio website.
Would I miss 4 hours a week?
As part of my drive to get back into personal projects I’ve decided to put back 1/2 a day a week where I work on personal projects. I’ve been doing this for about a month now and turns out I didn’t miss that time at all. I’ve read a lot about ’4 day weeks’ and although I think being able to do that is quite a long way off (try a different universe), I found I could manage to grasp back 4 hours a week without sending my work schedule off. The problem I’ve been faced with whilst starting this has been ‘when’. I’ve become more and more aware that this time needs just like client work to be at a fixed point and you can’t just put it down for ‘when free’ – you do that you will never do it as it’s easy to never be free.
From small seeds grow large things but you’ve got to plant seeds
In this times where all you hear about is the ‘credit crunch’ and voices of financial doom, it’s nice to look at alternative revenues and just ‘do’. You never know from those personal projects could grow something. I don’t think though this should ever be the core motivation from personal work. The ‘gains’ you can get aren’t in personal work all about financial ones. Maybe you learn a new technique, maybe you do build a fun application.. whatever it is this should be done as exploration and with the emphasis on enjoyment rather than cold hard cash results.
I think the hardest thing is the ‘doing’ of personal work. It’s all too easy to see the hours and what client work you can cram into this. It’s harder to take some time and see no direct ‘money in the bank’ from it. Over the years as a freelancer you focus on project after project and it becomes very much the same story over and over again. After going back to personal projects I’m finding myself rejuvenated for want of a better word about the web. It’s all too easy to get into a rut designing or developing. By not limiting yourself you can explore and grow. I’ve always said the day I stop growing is the day I should be giving up and for a while I’d forgotten that.
