I'm a fan of buiding side projects and have created many since I started learning programming. I began with C language projects, building simple-based applications

and now I'm focusing on web app.

Over the years, I have built many projects, though most were never finished or published. Some projects I shared on GitHub were fortunate enough to receive support

from people who noticed and starred my repositories. However, I often go into roadblock with the project and losing motivation to complete them. I realized that spending excessive

time researching solutions for my projects was consuming too much energy and causing me to abandon them.

With ChatGPT's arrival, I somehow found my way back to the side project journey. I could quickly find useful insights and solutions for my projects, though I grew tired of constantly copying code and asking ChatGPT for suggestions and improvements.

Two months ago, I started using Cursor, and it significantly boosted my ability to build a side project quickly. Now I understand the power of AI-assisted coding.

My first project with Cursor was called VibeGoal app that helps you personalize your goals and send reminders at your preferred times. What did I learn? I learnt

how to send up the email for sending and receiving and working with ChatGPT api. This inspired me with a lot ideas.

I stuck with with Next.js since I can easily deploy it on Vercel, making it simple to publish and share projects with others on the internet.

I was suprised by how quickly I could build side projects, spending just a couple of hours solving puzzles rather than getting stuck on issues and spending most of my time googling solutions.

After completing this project, I revisited my old projects. One project I had abandoned a year ago was a paystub generator. For this project, I switched to Github Copilot since I didn't want Cursor to rewrite the entire codebase.

I wanted preserve my understanding of the original project structure. Github Copilot proved to be the perfect choice for experimentation and learning.

Copilot feels like a programming buddy. Since I built this project from scratch and understood its logic, Gopilot enhanced my understanding and helped me deliver

The transformation has been remarkable. What used to take me weeks of research and debugging now takes hours. AI tools haven't replaced my programming skills—they've amplified them. I'm no longer stuck in endless research loops or abandoned projects. Instead, I'm shipping functional applications and learning faster than ever before.

This is just the beginning. With AI as my coding companion, I'm excited to tackle more ambitious projects and turn ideas into reality at a pace I never thought possible.

[1] vibegoal.app

[2] simplepaystub.com