Sharath explains why side projects matter: they force you to learn skills beyond your specialty, give you something exciting outside a 9-to-5, and create space for personal growth. He suggests carving out 1-2 weekend hours or waking at 5 AM for focused work.
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Hey everybody, I am Sharath. Welcome to my channel Level Up with Sharath. So I am so stoked for my first video. I guess this is my first video because I think the last one was more of like an introduction to the channel. Uh, I'm pretty excited, and today let's talk about side projects and why people should take it more seriously. 9 to 5 is really good. I feel like, you know, people have jobs, people have businesses, and, you know, people who create, they have like a lot of stuff going on in their life. But I personally believe everybody should have a side gig. The reason is, I'll give you like 3 important reasons why people should really focus on side projects. I think number one, you, it helps you to basically switch multiple hats. So if you're a designer, and you're building a, I don't know, like a side project of curation of all design websites or resources, you will learn how to build, you will learn how to listen to customers, you will learn a lot of other things. And if you are, for example, like a programmer or developer and you basically build like this, you know, micro SaaS idea, you will learn how to sell, you will learn how to design, and you learn how to do marketing. So on and so forth. I feel there is so much that you can learn while using these side projects. Why are these side projects? So I personally learned so much. I'm a product guy by nature. And when I started my side project, Tools for Makers, in the first, I don't know, like 3 years ago, I don't know about anything, how to build, how to launch, how to scale, like, you know, how to talk to customers and whatnot. Like, no idea. But that really helped, that single simple project, Tools for Makers. It's a collection of multiple tools where people like me who are just getting started can use it. That's the basic idea. And I've learned how to build using no-code tools. I've learned how to write copy. I've learned how to design a landing page. I learned how to talk to people, like users who are like fundamentally what we're building for. So that's number one. Like it'll change, it'll help you to change multiple hats, which you'll almost, you can be like treated this way. You'll start as a specialist and you'll end up as a journalist. You basically know a lot of things. Number 2 reason is you'll have something to look forward to. Like again, no offense or none for 9 to 5 and the jobs you take. But I think you have to have something to look forward to, like, yeah, you know, this side project I, I want to work in, and it's exciting. I'm just bringing this idea to life. That really helps you motivate yourself to do, you know, multiple things. And, uh, to me, same thing, like, you know, I used to work at Fortune 500 companies, and that's when I started my side projects. And every kind of like every day, I just look forward to do these projects, you know, come in the evenings, open up my laptop, like, you know, find these resources or ideas, like write copy, iterate, and like learn from it. So it's so exciting. And in that way, you're basically like, you know, you're on top of the edge of your best self. So that's why you have to have side projects. You basically have something to look forward to. I think the last thing is it's kind of like, a good, I don't know, good tool for yourself to enjoy your solitude. So your alone time, you know, where you can spend with yourself and becoming kind of thinking on yourself how to become your best possible version. And it really helps building, writing. I think side projects, what I do, I really don't mean you have to build stuff. What I mean is you have to have a blog, that's a side project, you know. Or you— this YouTube channel, kind of like, you know, a lot of people, uh, record YouTube videos and video, audio content, right? Everything counts as a side project to me. And you have to have that something to look forward to. You have to have that passion towards, like— so that's why I feel it's really important. And how do you manage time? That's something we can talk about it later, but I wrote a whole big-ass thread about having a 9-to-5 job and writing, doing side projects on the side. But I think to be very precise about a couple of advices I can give to everybody who's listening, dedicate weekends. You don't have to dedicate every weekend. I'm not saying that, don't not have fun. But what I'm saying is more about, try and time yourself. Like take 1, 2 hours. On a Saturday or a Sunday and start, start small. That's, that's like the best advice I can give. And the other thing is, I used to do this, but I'm not doing anymore. I have to get back to that habit of waking up early in the morning. Like, it's the best thing. Like, you know, wake up at 5 AM, you have this 2-hour window before you kickstart your 9-to-5 job or anything. You have your, again, the solitude time for yourself. And you will do things in a very peaceful, calm way. So definitely, like, you know, that's how you basically manage a lot of things. But yeah, you know, that's it for this video. But I am very excited to kickstart things with this video. But yeah, thanks for tuning in. Appreciate, you know, any feedback if you have any for me. I'm just getting started. So this is completely new. And I'm learning a lot. So yeah, see you in the next video. Cheers!
