Decide Whether to Start a Side Project Right Now

The side project has been on the list for several months and you are not sure whether not starting it is a reasonable judgement or avoidance. This examines four questions without softening: what it would actually displace in your week, whether the motivation is about the project or escaping something else, what the minimum viable start looks like, and what specifically is lost by waiting. Ends with a named recommendation.

Help someone decide whether to start a specific side project now, wait for a better time, or not pursue it at all, by examining four questions honestly.

1. Time reality: what would starting this project actually displace in the current week? Not "I"ll find the time" but "this time currently goes to X and I am willing to redirect it."
2. Motivation durability: is the drive to start this project about the project itself, or about dissatisfaction with something else that the project feels like an escape from?
3. Minimum viable start: what is the smallest meaningful step that would tell you whether this is worth pursuing, and can that step happen in the next seven days?
4. The cost of not starting: what specifically is lost by waiting another three months, and is that cost real or used as pressure that does not reflect actual urgency?

End with a named recommendation: start now, start with a defined minimum viable step, wait until a specific condition is met, or do not start this one.

[Describe the side project, what you are hoping it becomes, and what your current week looks like in terms of available time and energy]