Personal projects are great - here's why

With ideas for projects you could try.

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Your day job isn’t the only place you can build up experience.

Personal projects - or just regular hobbies - can be great ways to wind down and have some fun outside of work.

But if they can also help you learn a new skill, or try something you aren’t getting the opportunity to do at work, all the better.

Here are some ideas:

1. Learn to code: or if you already know, why not try learning a new coding language? There are excellent resources out there, such as Codecademy.

2. Write: You can write short posts on social media sites - LinkedIn is good for work posts. You can also set up your own blog at WordPress.com, or a newsletter at Substack.

3. Start - or join - a community: Finding topic groups for your hobbies gives you a way to meet others who like what you like. Writer fan clubs, videogame communities, TV and movie fandoms, music groups, sports clubs and so on. Getting more involved can turn a hobby into more of a project, by offering to help out, contribute, moderate a community, or even run your own. Many groups have Discord servers that you can join, for instance.

4. Build something: Whether with tools or writing your own code, you could build a website or app of your own. It’s a good way to try out running your own product, and might even make you some money.

Start by looking at what you enjoy, what interests you, and what you’d like learn or do next.

Photo by Sixteen Miles Out on Unsplash

My personal projects

To give you some ideas, here are the projects I’m currently looking after.

• Switch Scores - A database of games and reviews for the Nintendo Switch. I coded the entire site and I keep it updated with new releases and reviews.

• GFD Music - I compose music and upload it to major streaming sites, including Spotify, Amazon, Apple Music, and Soundcloud. The link is to a simple website with the entire back catalogue, but it’s probably quicker to check out my Spotify artist page.

• Substack - You’re reading it!

These are three quite different projects that give me good ways to be creative - and hopefully, create things that others can enjoy.

Links to check out

Here are a few links I found interesting this week:

How to ace your Product Manager resume: 12 tips and templates - from The Product Compass with Pawel

How to Build a Flywheel: From Amazon to Zomato - from Product Growth

What’s the actual cost? - from Recovering

Thanks for reading - I’ll be back with another post on Thursday.

Ben