The other week, I found myself in a spot where everything I wanted to do with Cushion started to feel overwhelming because there’s just so much to do. I’ve been trying to be very strategic with planning and prioritization, but at the same time, I couldn’t help but feel a certain way about the work. Getting everything in order made it feel like a lot, and I’d lose steam when I’d try to get going. Then I talked to a friend who I usually catch up with about work, and he said, “Don’t forget to have fun.” He reminded me that I’m in one of the most ideal situations as a maker where I’m independent and I have not only one but two fun side projects that people are actually using and paying for. If there’s ever a time to be having fun, it’s now.

His simple reminder is exactly what I needed, and led me to pump the breaks and shift gears a bit. Whereas with real work, I’d often resort to side projects when I wasn’t having fun. Now that I’m on my own, there are still moments where I might hit a wall and find myself struggling to keep pushing in a single direction, but that’s where variety helps.

In this case, I’m on a break from freelance work, which typically provides the variety I need to have me itching to get back to my own projects on my off-days. Now, with only my own projects to work on, instead of this presumably magical situation where I could work full-speed-ahead forever and never run out of gas, I still reach a limit. Regardless of what I’m working on, I still need to give myself the time to “recharge my passion”. If I start feeling that certain way about a project, it’s time to take a step back, switch to something else, or take a break from work entirely—it seems obvious, but it’s honestly hard for me to do. Finding something else to work on is no problem at all considering how many projects I’ve started over the years, but I also need to remember that weekends exist for a reason.

When you’re independent, you have so much flexibility with your schedule, but you no longer have that clear 5pm or weekend cutoff. Ironically, it feels so much easier for me to recharge as a full-timer because of those clear boundaries. While I’m trying to be strategic with Cushion, I also need to be strategic with my work schedule—even if the work is my own.

I took my friend’s advice and put a pin in Cushion for the weekend. When I “returned to work” on Monday, I decided to spend that week on another project I have cooking. I found my passion climbing back to 100% and I had no problem focusing on a fun new feature that I couldn’t wait to share with everyone. Once I got the feature out the door, I found myself at a point where I could shift gears back to Cushion. Spending a week on something else made me feel creatively recharged and ready to get back to it. I still have a lot of to-do’s on my list, but the break made me realize that I also have a lot of time on my side. There’s no need to feel in a rush with your own projects. Just remember to check in with yourself and make sure you’re having fun.