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IkigaiNiche
Limited hours punish fuzzy niches. IkigaiNiche maps where your passion, skill, demand, and reward overlap so every session moves a project worth finishing.
Explore IkigaiNiche →Free Tool · Planning
Side Project Time Budget Calculator
Plan around your real life. Enter your weeknight build sessions, minutes per session, and weekend hours to get an instant picture of what kind of project fits your roadmap window. Hours only compound when they're aimed at the right niche, pair this with IkigaiNiche before you commit the roadmap.
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Side Project Time Budget Calculator
For builders with jobs, kids, and a short evening window. Use this to plan around reality instead of fantasy.
How it works
The calculator multiplies your weeknight sessions by their duration, adds your weekend block, and gives you a weekly builder-hour figure. It then projects that across your roadmap window so you can size your project honestly.
- Enter how many weeknights you realistically build and for how long.
- Add your weekend hours, be honest, not optimistic.
- Set your roadmap length in weeks and read the total capacity.
Everything updates instantly in your browser. No server, no signup, no tracking.
Related tool
SaaS Idea Scorecard
Once you know your time budget, pressure-test whether your idea fits inside it.
Use the scorecard →Related tool
MVP Launch Checklist
When your roadmap window closes, use this to check if you are actually ready to ship.
Use the checklist →Frequently asked questions
How many hours do you need for a side project?
A realistic minimum is 8 to 12 focused builder hours per week to make visible progress on a side project. Below 6 hours per week, context-switching eats most of your sessions and momentum dies. Above 15 hours per week you can ship a small SaaS MVP in 6 to 10 weeks if the scope is honest.
How do I find time for a side project while working full time?
Pick four weeknights and one weekend block, and guard them like meetings. A 90-minute weeknight session plus a 3-to-4-hour weekend block gives you roughly 10 builder hours a week without burning out. The key is consistency across 6 to 12 weeks, not heroic 20-hour weekends that you can't repeat.
Is 5 hours a week enough for a side project?
Five hours a week is enough to maintain a simple project, not to launch one from scratch. At that pace, expect 4 to 6 months to ship a small MVP, and only if your scope is ruthlessly narrow. If you can't find more hours, shrink the product instead of stretching the timeline.
How do I estimate realistic builder hours as a solo founder?
Track one honest week before you plan. Count only sessions where you shipped code, copy, or a decision, not time spent reading Twitter or reorganizing Notion. That honest number, multiplied by your roadmap weeks, is your real time budget. Most solo founders overestimate by 40 to 60 percent.
What's the best weekly schedule for a side project?
Deep work on 3 to 4 weeknights after dinner for 60 to 90 minutes, plus one 3-hour weekend block on Saturday or Sunday morning. Keep the same slots every week so the habit compounds. This pattern produces around 7 to 10 builder hours weekly, which is enough to ship a focused MVP in a quarter.
How do I know if my side project timeline is realistic?
Take your honest weekly hours, multiply by the number of roadmap weeks, and compare that to the scope. If the scope needs 200 hours and you have 60, the timeline is fantasy, cut scope, don't extend time. Use the time budget calculator above to get the number, then pressure-test the idea with the SaaS Idea Scorecard.