- Between a full-time job, family and sleep, there's little time left. My free time goes into projects - not because I have to, but because I love it.
- The drive isn't a career plan, it's a reflex: when I see that something can be done better, I want to build a solution.
- What comes out of it feeds directly back into my day job.
The Day
My day has the same 24 hours as everyone else's. Eight of them go to sleep, nine or more to work. In between is everything that comes with family life: having breakfast together, eating lunch and dinner together, going for an hour-long walk with my loved ones after work, reading to our little one and putting her to bed. After that, my wife and I deliberately spend time together - a show, a conversation, winding down the day. That's non-negotiable, and it shouldn't be.
What's left after that is project time. Usually two to four hours, depending on how the day went. There's no morning ritual that magically gives me three extra hours, no "deep work" block hidden somewhere between daycare and the office. There's only the decision about what I skip. Projects are my hobby. Others go to the gym, meet friends or tinker in the garage. I sit down at the laptop. On weekends, when our little one takes her nap. On holidays, when the afternoon is free. On vacation, when everyone's asleep in the evening. These hours are my project time - not a sacrifice, but what I voluntarily do with my free time.
My Drive
When I see that something is poorly done and I know it can be done better, the project is often finished in my head before I've written the first line of code. The architecture is set, the data model makes sense, the interface has a logic. And then it has to come out. Not because anyone's waiting for it, but because the thought keeps circling and won't stop. That's how it was 20 years ago, and it's no different today.
That's how 12db.de came about. In a niche topic that fascinated me, there was no learning platform that really worked well. So I built one - full-stack, alone, in a few weeks alongside my job. After three months it had over 300 active users, and a feature article about it has since been published in FUNKAMATEUR magazine. It wasn't a career move. It was an itch that doesn't stop until you scratch it.
What I've learned from that: I plan in days, not weeks. A project that will be finished "someday" will never be finished. At least not alongside a full-time job and a family that rightfully expects me to be present. So I build in sprints that fit my life - not the other way around. Better to create something concrete in three evenings than to polish a plan for months that never gets executed.
What It Brings
I've seen problems, built solutions for them and learned what I needed to know along the way. Then came the next problem, and the cycle started again.
My day job benefits from this every single day, and not in the abstract - very concretely. Automating processes that used to be manual. Better data flows between systems that weren't built to talk to each other. AI solutions that actually land in daily operations instead of gathering dust in a presentation. None of this was in my job description. But that's exactly where a large part of my work lies today. And much of it I learned on my own projects before I could apply it at work.
| Learned in projects | Applied at work |
|---|---|
| Full-stack development (Python, Flask, SQL) | Internal tools, automations and HR tech platform |
| Data modeling and API design | System integration between platforms |
| SEO and content architecture | Organic visibility without media budget |
| Server setup, deployment, monitoring | Self-sufficient operations instead of agency dependency |
| AI integration (LLMs, prompt engineering) | AI-driven workflows in daily operations |
Your resume shows where you've been. Your projects show who you are.
