That definitely works for me. I’ve tried to work on side projects after my daily job but I often got home drained and with zero will to code anything. Since then I started moving this time into my mornings, before work. It definitely feels short and like you’re on a time constrain more than the evenings, but I’ve made progress on my projects like this, bit by bit.

Same here. I believe this is due to will power depletion (plenty of studies conclude that will power is finite resource) and after our normal 9-5 drains away our will power, people have a heard time being self-motivated - very true for me at least.

Yeah, and if you use your will power before work, you run out of it earlier in the work day and you get less done at work.

Give more of my will power to myself or to someone else? Seems to be an easy answer.

It's also instrinsic motivation when you work on side projects. That is definitely harder to push after a full day at work.

At work, the motivating factors are different, and you have someone pushing you to get stuff done.

Sure, if the things you're doing before work require willpower to pursue. They don't have to be. And jriot's point in my sibling comment is in any case well made.

I do this and just front load my day to have the more demanding stuff in the morning with the less demanding in the afternoon. It works well for me and if anything I feel my productivity has increased.

The most productive I've ever been on side projects was when I had an hour long commute via public transport. It was a solid hour with few options for other activities and very little distractions. The ride home was a second hour but I was usually burnt out by then.