Nice post!

I usually reserve Sunday evenings for time to work on my projects. I find having a set time quite helpful, and I'm usually rested enough on sunday evening to be able to concerntrate (Also friends and family usually don't expect you to do things with them on Sunday evenings, unlike friday or saturday nights)

Although - Sometimes I am really just not in the mood. But when this happens I force myself to do *at least* some non-zero amount of work.

This might be something small like fix *one* bug or create a single graphic, or mockup a screen, or maybe setup the IDE to intergrate with source control, or upgrade the programs that I use to their latest versions so I no longer get nag screens.

I'm not much of a deadlines person for personal projects. And only a couple of the various online contests have interested me enough to enter. (Although I plan on doing the 7 day roguelike at some stage)

Bit of a long response, but hopefully there was something helpful in there.