DuckDoro · How to start · Start my side project

How to start the side project you have been planning for months

By the DuckDoro team · Updated August 9, 2026

Direct answer: Make the thing exist badly, today. Create the repo, the file, the doc, the account — whatever “it exists now” means for your project — and put one real piece of content in it. Not a plan. Not a name. A crappy version of the actual thing.
YOUR FIRST BITE — 2 MINUTES, NO DECISIONS
Create the file or repo and put one real, ugly piece of the actual thing in it. Not a plan document.

Start it now, with the duck

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🌫️ Fog — Planning feels like progress, so the first real step keeps receding.

Why this one in particular gets avoided

Side projects stall in planning because planning is genuinely enjoyable and produces the feeling of progress without any of the risk. Choosing the stack, the name, the domain, the perfect first feature — none of it can fail, which is precisely why it can continue forever.

The moment a real version exists it can be judged, including by you, and that is the actual threshold being avoided. It is worth knowing that: the resistance is not about time. People with no free evenings still ship things; people with free evenings still plan.

Then, in order

  1. Make it do exactly one thing, badly, end to end.
  2. Show it to one person, or just use it yourself once.
  3. Write down the single most annoying thing about it.
  4. Fix that one thing next session. Repeat.

What one 25-minute session gets you

One session is enough to make a bad version exist. A bad version that exists beats a perfect one that is still being planned, and it is the only thing that reliably makes the second session happen.

That is the whole method DuckDoro is built on: pick the thing you are avoiding, make it small enough to begin, and give it one calm session before the day fills up. If you want it as a daily habit rather than a one-off rescue, that is eating the frog — and DuckDoro keeps exactly one frog slot open every day.

Questions people ask

Why do I keep planning my side project instead of building it?

Because planning can't fail. A real version can be judged — that's the threshold being avoided, and it's why more planning never resolves it.

How small should the first version be?

Embarrassingly small. One thing, badly, end to end — small enough that finishing it is certain rather than aspirational.

How do I keep a side project going after the first session?

End each session by writing down the single most annoying thing about it. That becomes the next session's task, so you never restart from a blank decision.

Starting something else?

Start my thesisIt has no visible end, so no amount of starting feels like progress. Start my taxesYou don't know what the first step is, so every attempt to start bounces off. Start a job applicationThe result has an audience, so your brain protects you by keeping it unstarted. All the starting guidesEvery task we've written a first bite for.

The hard one, first.
Every day.

Three things a day, the one you're avoiding first, and a calm timer. No streaks, no notifications.

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