My Ongoing Experiment With Personal Projects

Lately I’ve been noticing something I’m already doing, but not really thinking about.

I’ve been running a quiet set of self-experiments around self-leadership — not by declaring goals or optimizing routines, but by paying attention to what actually survives day-to-day life.

What keeps going when things are busy.
What keeps going when things slow down.
What doesn’t require motivation, permission, or coordination.

That’s where personal projects come in.

By personal projects, I mean activities over which I have complete control.

They’re:

self-directed
fun
durable
sustainable

They work when life is hectic.
They still work when life opens up a bit.

And the interesting part is this:
I already have references for this in my life — I just tend to take them for granted.

Sleep, for example. The duration changes, but it doesn’t disappear.
Eating.
Walking around my living area.
Brushing my teeth.
Feeding the cats.

These aren’t projects I announce or track. They’re just things I take care of.

Which made me realize something simple but important:

I already know how to maintain sustainable systems.

I just don’t usually label them that way.

So I started thinking about applying that same mindset to other areas — activities that are not shared projects with family, friends, coworkers, or an audience. Things that don’t require alignment or approval. Things that don’t turn into performance.

Personal projects.

They might be job-adjacent, or they might be completely personal. Either way, the ownership is clear.

Reading for general learning
Reading for fun
Reading fiction purely for enjoyment

Gardening
Cooking
Baking
Playing guitar, piano, or another instrument — not to perform, not to compete, just to play.

All of these have the same characteristics:

self-directed
daily (or easily daily)
for fun
not part of a contest
not part of a performance

They’re personal projects just for the sake of doing them.

That distinction matters to me.

Because the moment an activity turns into a challenge, a streak, a competition, or a proving ground, it becomes fragile. Miss a day and the whole thing collapses. Get injured, busy, or distracted, and suddenly you’re “off the wagon.”

These personal projects are different.

They’re resilient to life changes.
They don’t demand peak effort.
They don’t punish inconsistency.

They’re life-giving, not draining.

And maybe the most important realization for me is this:

I’m not trying to add something new.
I’m trying to recognize and protect what already works.

Personal projects — self-directed, durable, and done for their own sake — feel like a quiet foundation for self-leadership. Not dramatic. Not impressive.

Just sustainable.

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Aaron Rose is a software engineer and technology writer at tech-reader.blog and aaronrose.blog.