Here's a project I've worked on completely solo over many years (it gradually turned from a school project, to a hobby, to a solid low-maintenance income): http

Here's a project I've worked on completely solo over many years (it gradually turned from a school project, to a hobby, to a solid low-maintenance income): http://www.eMusicTheory.com http://www.eMusicTheory.com tl;dr: when I work on just that, it doesn't go well; I'm most productive when I have some collaborative work to do otherwise, with bursts on the solo project. And I'm a huge introvert, but all work and no social interaction makes Jack a dull boy. There was a chunk of time at the beginning where I got a grant to stay at my college over a summer time to work on it -- I lived in a dorm, had no close friends anywhere nearby, and those months were just plain weird. I'd end up sleeping from 9am to 3pm or so, getting up and eating some grapenuts, then going to work (alone, in a usually-empty building) again... but I also seemed to alternate between highly-focused work and highly-focused time wasting (like in drawn-out arguments on Slashdot; this was 1997). Sometimes I'd go a week without having a conversation with another human being at all. All in all, it wasn't a happy time, or a very productive one (in spite of the fact that I had nothing else to do). Fast-forward -- I got a job, married my college sweetheart, and worked on the site in spare time or on vacations. That worked pretty well. I could clear my head from problems I liked less on the real job by switching gears now & then. About 3 years ago I tried making it into my only thing again -- and didn't succeed at all. Admittedly I also had my first child in there, but still it's pretty obvious I didn't get much done -- only incrementally more than when it was my spare-time project. I sunk hours into researching new hosts (when my current one was fine), configuring my own mail server (when I could have just gone with Google Apps hosting) -- my prioritization was horrible, and even knowing that, I couldn't dredge up the motivation to fix how I spent my time. So it's back to spare time (unfortunately, I'm super-busy now, so it's not getting much love...), but I'll be pretty wary about taking it up again full-time unless I can get someone else to work with me. The simple fact of discussing progress with other people, of explaining how I'm prioritizing my work, makes me do things much better. There's another option -- if you have a mentor or friend who understands your work, and who can give you 5 minutes of time a day, or every few days... that might work wonders. Knowing they'll be asking "how's it going?" in 6 hours can motivate you to dig into something, just to have an answer. Knowing they'll be asking "why's this your top priority?" can make you stop & change course. Knowing they'll have had similar frustrations, similar roadblocks, and will offer a few good suggestions for how to proceed can ease your mind. Working well has a rhythm to it, of course, so if they can help you find your pace, you may not even notice if they're unavailable for a few weeks. HTH; good luck.