In my experience, it takes a while (more than 1.5 years) to start accumulating completed side projects. Some easy ways that helped me get the ball rolling: 1)

In my experience, it takes a while (more than 1.5 years) to start accumulating completed side projects. Some easy ways that helped me get the ball rolling: 1) doing a hackathon, 2) making an interesting personal website, 3) building CLIs/APIs to avoid the design/css part. But, it does get easier to complete side projects as you become more comfortable with your tools and your interests as a programmer.