Self-indulgence or all business?

I'm curious as to how much time, if any at all, some of the members here throw into projects which could only be described as self-indulgent, rather than spending that time on alternative projects which could either generate income or help develop their business?

Several of my larger projects could definitely be considered self indulgent as they don't really make any business sense in a traditional light; and I have a whole horde of other ideas both in my head and in development that would also be self-indulgent - mainly website created purely to satisfy my desire to run a website about something i'm interested in, with no thought given to monetization etc.

Personally I think its important to indulge your interests in this line of work; but to do so in moderation; otherwise i'd imagine things could become extremely boring - and hey, if I wanted a boring job, i'd go back into commercial finance

 

I battle this every day. How much of what I do can I REALLY count as research or investment in the future, and how much is really play.

Everytime a site starts to make money, I try to move it(at least mentally) out of the play category and into real business. Trouble is some will likely never pay for the time I invested in them.

 

the return on investment part is a very vital factor, well you need to ensure whatever you do would be worth in future, large projects definately give boost to your confidence levels.