Software Side Hustler Tip: My “Hit Two Birds With One Stone” Secret — Excel both day job and side projects. Part 3: How to Apply? *

How to effectively apply E2E test automation to help your day-work and own side projects.

In this article series:

• Part 1: The Approach

• Part 2: Why It Works?

• Part 3: How to Apply? *

• Part 4: Advice

• Part 5: FAQ (upcoming)

As general advice to software side hustlers:

'Don’t Mix Your Side Projects With Your Day Job. Just Don’t.'

Beyond the obvious concerns like potential conflicts of interest or IP issues (as humorously depicted in the classic Silicon Valley TV show), trying to squeeze in time during your workday to write a few lines of code for your own app doesn’t necessarily save time. There are far more effective and ethical ways to boost your software development productivity. (Software engineering is not brick-laying; productivity is purely measured by time)

Let’s break down the time spent on your daily paid job:

• ~2 hours for commuting

• 8 hours of work, plus about a 1-hour lunch break in between

Your company compensates you for 8 hours of work, not for your commute or lunch. So, with those extra 3 hours (during the day), you can allocate some time to focus on your side project.

I'll cover how to effectively use your commute and lunchtime as a software hustler in a separate article. For now, let’s focus on maximizing your dedicated 8-hour workday. In reality, most software companies expect only about 6 hours of actual work, even though you're in the office for 8. The rest of the time often goes to pointless meetings, chatting with colleagues, bathroom breaks, coffee runs, browsing tech websites, and so on.

During those 6 hours of actual work time in the office, you can shift your usual coding routine to significantly boost your productivity for the job at the office while also developing core skills that will benefit your side hustle.

Next, I’ll share the two rules and four practices I’ve discovered along the way.

The Rules:

1. The No.1 priority is to keep your job (before your side hustle takes off).

So, do your day job tasks well, very well. That’s the precondition to any by-benefits-to-your-side-hustle activities.

After adopting this change (embracing E2E test automation) in 2006, just a couple of months later, my manager gave me feedback: 'Zhimin, you're at least 300% more productive, with higher quality.' He reached this conclusion based on the objectively completed user story points. I also mentored a few motivated colleagues, and also saw visible improvements in their productivity.