A new kind of date night

Typical date nights don’t suit everyone

We wanted to spend time together making an effort to do something special. So we created a weekly date night, and took it in turns to organise something. We had some nice evenings out, drinking cocktails, eating steak, but it felt like quite a lot of time to devote each month to consuming and spending - more than was necessary or particularly enjoyable tbh.

It’s hard to make time for personal projects and goals

In a parallel conversation, we had a challenge about building stuff together amidst the hustle and bustle of living. More recently, we'd kick off a project and then we'd both lose the energy to drive it forwards, like wherecanikite.com. The idea was exciting, but not quite exciting enough to focus on after a busy day at work, or not enough to say no to dinner with a friend.

Hack night is the new date night

And so a new idea was born, the hack night. A time to focus on a project to build or improve something. The general structure is that we decide a goal, work on it on a set night each week, and then once complete we celebrate with a more typical date night.

Once you know that one night a week you're going to get together and focus on that cool project again, lots of motivation seems to fall into place. From preparing stuff beforehand, to coming with an open and excited mindset on the night. And for me personally, being prepared for a late dinner because I'm not very good at working after dinner!

It feels like real quality time together, versus our pleasant but fairly empty date nights previously. Understandably that's just how we work and what we like doing together, it definitely itsn't for everyone. A hack night just feels more us: a chance to be creative together.

So far hack nights have proved fruitful, we've even made this blog thanks to our very first hack project!