Photo by Patrishe.

In his book, My Startup Life, Ben Casnocha offers a 30-day plan for becoming a better entrepreneur. I’m not going to rehash Ben’s plan – you’re better off reading the book than hearing about it from me. But I am going to elaborate on the task he assigns for Day 28:

Have multiple side projects going. Diversify your portfolio of interests and activities.

This begs the question: What is a side project?

I like to define them as projects that we usually aren’t paid for and are done in our non-work hours. Here are three examples:

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Photo by Jurvetson.

Please note: if you like this article, stay tuned: Kristen Fischer will be interviewing Ed tomorrow! — Skellie

I remember it like it was yesterday.

We were new parents and our newborn baby boy had a severe case of reflux. He was constantly crying and was waking up 6 to 8 times every night.

My wife had very little time for herself. She was exhausted. I was working long hours but did everything I could to help in the evenings and on weekends.

Around that time, my wife called one of her good friends to vent her frustrations.

She told her about how tired she was—and how she didn’t even have time to clean the house. She was on the verge of tears.

Then my wife’s friend said something I’ll never forget: “Why don’t you just hire a house cleaner? You’ll have one less thing to worry about.”

It was such a simple idea. But (I hate to admit this) we’d never thought of it! Continue Reading