Anyway I can tell you how I manage right now.
First, I try to waste as less time as possible. I'm 20 minutes biking from work, and usually 15 minutes from anywhere else. Biking saves me a lot of commuting time, because I don't have to rely on public transportation.
I start working at 9, but I wake up at 6. So each morning I get a couple of hours to work on my project. This implies of course that I have to go to sleep early in the evening, so I usually go to bed at 10 to have the sufficient amount of sleep, which is crucial to stay productive.
I'm now in the proceeds to buy a house (with a mortgage). The main reasons to buy a house still apply, but I have some more: living in my own house will mean I will not have to deal with a landlord, and this will give me some more time. Moreover living alone (now I have flatmates), I will pay someone to clean the house instead of doing it myself. I value my time more than the money cleaners ask. Washing machine for clothes, dishwasher for dishes and I don't iron clothes at all (if you learn how to hang them it's almost useless). And there are the weekends, of course.
To avoid the burnout, I made up some rules: no work in the evenings, so when I go home from work and I'm tired I don't have the pressure on myself and I can spend those 2 hours after dinner relaxing. On friday I dance tango, on weekends I usually go to parties or out with friends. I go running for one hour every weekend. This gives me a quite satisfactory life, so I don't burn out.
Thanks for the reply! We have so many things in common right from the commute (I use a bike too) to the sleep schedule (I wake up at 5 though ;) But there's where it ends - Unlike you, I waste a lot of my time. It seems that you work only 1 or 2 hours on your side project- Is it all that's needed? (sorry for omitting your server app!)
To avoid the burnout, I made up some rules: no work in the evenings, so when I go home from work and I'm tired I don't have the pressure on myself and I can spend those 2 hours after dinner relaxing. On friday I dance tango, on weekends I usually go to parties or out with friends. I go running for one hour every weekend. This gives me a quite satisfactory life, so I don't burn out.
It seems that you work only 1 or 2 hours on your side project- Is it all that's needed?
Of course I would like to have more time to spend on this, but that's all I can afford for now. That's why I try to squeeze all the time I can out of my life.
There are also the weekends, do not forget it. Usually I manage to work at least one of the two days if I do not go on a trip, so there are a lot of hours in it too.
We put our deadline on april 2011 though. The technical part will be ready sooner probably, but there is a lot of work to do on the creative side too. Writing a comic is really difficult, my friend has a job too and it involves other people too (drawers, colorists, translators, etc.)
The risk of burnout is indeed there, a couple of months ago I posted an Ask HN on it: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1545774
Anyway I can tell you how I manage right now. First, I try to waste as less time as possible. I'm 20 minutes biking from work, and usually 15 minutes from anywhere else. Biking saves me a lot of commuting time, because I don't have to rely on public transportation.
I start working at 9, but I wake up at 6. So each morning I get a couple of hours to work on my project. This implies of course that I have to go to sleep early in the evening, so I usually go to bed at 10 to have the sufficient amount of sleep, which is crucial to stay productive.
I'm now in the proceeds to buy a house (with a mortgage). The main reasons to buy a house still apply, but I have some more: living in my own house will mean I will not have to deal with a landlord, and this will give me some more time. Moreover living alone (now I have flatmates), I will pay someone to clean the house instead of doing it myself. I value my time more than the money cleaners ask. Washing machine for clothes, dishwasher for dishes and I don't iron clothes at all (if you learn how to hang them it's almost useless). And there are the weekends, of course.
To avoid the burnout, I made up some rules: no work in the evenings, so when I go home from work and I'm tired I don't have the pressure on myself and I can spend those 2 hours after dinner relaxing. On friday I dance tango, on weekends I usually go to parties or out with friends. I go running for one hour every weekend. This gives me a quite satisfactory life, so I don't burn out.
I hope this helps.