1. Focus on learning; earning should come secondary
2. If it doesn't add anything to your resume, it's probably not worth picking up
3. Do not re-invent the wheel. Explore third parties and libraries thoroughly. Use them as much as you can.
4. If you stuck at a problem for more than 2-3 hours: post on stackoverflow
5. Plan, create deadlines, and focus as if an executive chose you.
Lazy = failure!

You might want to iterate over 3rd point?
Do you really want to use 3rd parties libraries in your code as much as you can or just copy bunch of lines or code and get ride of dependency?

@gowtham-sai no copying those codes is actually a wrong thing to do since then you end up maintaining that code. Whereas in using them as is, there are always people out there maintaining that code for you if it's a good open-source library.

This is just for side projects, right?

Also, several points potentially collide.

For example, if you want to focus on learning and want to add to your resume, wouldn't it often be a good idea to get to the bottom of things and code stuff yourself instead of using a precanned third party lib that just does everything for you?

It's a side project, so ... what's the reason for choosing a 3rd party lib? Lazyness? Contradicts #5.

Depending on the nature of the issue, throwing the towel after two hours and asking others to find a solution for you on StackOverflow kinda also violates #5.

Weird set of rules. But hey, if it works for you...

@mksana you probably do not want to learn all trivial things. Instead you want to learn how to use things wisely, and get work done in a sophisticated way. You can get understanding of technologies with third parties too for #2.

And reason for using SO after a few hours is that you don't want to spend much time trying to crack things you probably won't, and then posting for help after 12 hours. It's better to understand trade-off between time invested vs. outcome, especially when it's a side project.

And as for lazyness it meant just don't get derailed and unfocused watching TV and eating chips. Once you leave you probably wont pick it up again.

@MohitC

When you put it like that, I tend to agree.