Thanks, it helps to see that I'm not the only one struggling.
I've been building a business solo over the past year, reached 80% in late spring, ready to a closed invite launch and... lost all motivation. Between the fear of seeing savings go down without anything to show for it, the utterly demoralising job market during which it took 6+ months to get one solid freelance opportunity, and the constant nag that I am wasting my time and should just find a job like a normal person... meant that I completely lost steam, just staying afloat with a good freelance client, shelving the business idea for months.
Only a couple weeks ago, after seeing that my financial situation isn't getting better, and I still am allergic to a regular job, I managed to overcome the massive inertia and got back riding the wave of launching a business. I adore the freedom of working for myself, the challenge, but until I start seeing good money coming in, I'll always believe I am wasting my time and following fanciful ideas instead of just going back to trying to win the interview lottery and working for someone else on something I don't care about. It's hard.
I can relate being allergic to day job: I have one and hate the lack of freedom that come with it (in addition to it not being interesting). Doing it has a few expected advantages such as a regular paycheck and healthcare. One unexpected advantage however is how it motivates me to work on my side project so I can change life eventually.
On a motivated day I can work as much a full day of work (7h), most of the time I'm spending a couple of hours on it. Everyday (mostly). I find it easier to be consistent by having a day job that firces me to wake up in the morning than when I have a full empty schedule.
Personally I am more of a sprinter, and currently my target is 4-5 hours of max intensity work in the morning, with free afternoons, 6 or 7 days a week. No distractions, no social media, no people around, avoiding browsing the internet for fun from waking up to 1pm.
Free afternoons feel like every day is a holiday that can be filled with whatever I fancy, though sometimes morning work motivates me so much I might do more work in the afternoon. I might need to pace myself, like that Hemingway quote in TFA.
It is incredible how productive one can be with just 20h of consistent work a week, with no bosses or bullshit meetings. I'm still working on the consistency part :)
I've been building a business solo over the past year, reached 80% in late spring, ready to a closed invite launch and... lost all motivation. Between the fear of seeing savings go down without anything to show for it, the utterly demoralising job market during which it took 6+ months to get one solid freelance opportunity, and the constant nag that I am wasting my time and should just find a job like a normal person... meant that I completely lost steam, just staying afloat with a good freelance client, shelving the business idea for months.
Only a couple weeks ago, after seeing that my financial situation isn't getting better, and I still am allergic to a regular job, I managed to overcome the massive inertia and got back riding the wave of launching a business. I adore the freedom of working for myself, the challenge, but until I start seeing good money coming in, I'll always believe I am wasting my time and following fanciful ideas instead of just going back to trying to win the interview lottery and working for someone else on something I don't care about. It's hard.