# How to Make Progress on a Side Project - Invert

DevFeed: [How to Make Progress on a Side Project - Invert](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/how-to-make-progress-on-a-side-project-invert-28327.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<http://fuzzyblog.io/blog/side_project/2019/10/31/how-to-make-progress-on-a-side-project-invert.html>)

Author: Fuzzygroup

Published: 2019-10-31T00:00:00Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Scott Johnson](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/scott-johnson.md>)

Topics: [Development](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/development.md>), [Code](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/code.md>), [RSpec](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/rspec.md>)

Tags: [code](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/code.md>), [developer](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/developer.md>), [how-to](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/how-to.md>), [productivity](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/productivity.md>), [project](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/project.md>), [rspec](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/rspec.md>), [side-project](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/side-project.md>), [tests](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/tests.md>)

## AI overview

A developer explains how doing a side project first thing on workdays helped increase productivity. The article estimates that 75 minutes of focused work per week could total about 75 hours in a year, enough to build something substantial.

## Source excerpt

Because side projects are as ridiculous as someone doing push ups on top of a set of dueling pianos; Picture taken at Pete's Dueling Piano Bar, Austin, TX; Recommended Great Googly Moogly! My current side project is almost 10K lines of code in total or at least 5k lines (and yes there are tests, rspec, I don't know why it says 0 lines of tests): rake stats +----------------------+--------+--------+---------+---------+-----+-------+ | Name | Lines | LOC | Classes | Methods | M/C | LOC/M | +----------------------+--------+--------+---------+---------+-----+-------+ | Controllers | 1161 | 767 | 23 | 95 | 4 | 6 | | Helpers | 267 | 207 | 0 | 36 | 0 | 3 | | Jobs | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | Models | 2151 | 1316 | 23 | 137 | 5 | 7 | | Mailers | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | Channels | 8 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | JavaScripts | 4351 | 3599 | 0 | 183 | 0 | 17 | | Libraries | 1304 | 811 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 113 | +----------------------+--------+--------+---------+---------+-----+-------+ | Total | 9248 | 6714 | 50 | 458 | 9 | 12 | +----------------------+--------+--------+---------+---------+-----+-------+ That's big for a side project and it is particularly big for something that hasn't actually launched yet. When I was building this, I made a deliberate decision about how I approached this side project which dramatically increased my productivity. My decision, right from day 1, was to Invert. Normally we think of a side project as something you do after work so what I did was to do my side project as my first thing every day I worked on it. Here's my thinking on this: A side project is something that a developer does for his or her or their self (pronoun, pronoun, pick a pronoun). Self comes before work. For serious developers, those that build side projects, a side project is literally self care. Thus do it first thing. What I have found is that if you wait until after the day is done, you are just plain tired. Often you have all the best intentions of working on something but you simpl