Here are two ways of looking at getting on with activites that are not one’s paid work, but that require sustained effort over weeks or months to succeed. They seem to be in conflict.

1. You should spend your free time doing what you want to do. Don’t put reading a research paper or writing a computer programming on your todo list, because then it’s a chore and you’ll procrastinate on doing it.
2. You should take your projects seriously. Settle down to work on them, or you’ll just be flitting over the surface and not getting as much out of them as you could.

Not sure how to balance these competing demands.