When it comes to making headway on important projects, there is no substitute for putting in the hours. It requires extended periods of uninterrupted time. Unfo

When it comes to making headway on important projects, there is no substitute for putting in the hours. It requires extended periods of uninterrupted time. Unfortunately, you only have a few hours a day available to you in which your mind is firing on all cylinders. The answer, then, is to find a way to work on these projects in the course of your job. That's what I do, and my best guess is that that's what the people you've heard of do as well. Find some project that your employer really, really needs, get permission to open source it, and spend your most productive waking hours on it.