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ABOUT
I write Small Hours from a kitchen table in Lisbon.
I’m Ines Varga. By day I design packaging for small food brands: labels, boxes, the paper bag your bread comes in. By night, after dinner and before bed, I make things for myself and write about it.
Small Hours started as a note to eleven friends in November 2025. It goes out every Thursday morning to a few thousand people who also make things after work.
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WHY
Why I write this
Most advice about side projects assumes you have whole free days. I don’t, and most people I know don’t either. What we have is an evening, sometimes two, and the stubborn wish to make something that is ours.
Small Hours is my notebook for that wish: what fits in ninety minutes, what helps a project finish, and the people who keep making things around full-time jobs. I write it so the next Tuesday is a little easier, for me and for you.
SINCE
CADENCE
READERS
BASED IN
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READERS
Kind words
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The only email I open the minute it lands.
Tomasz Wierzba
Illustrator
Reader since 2025
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Practical without being another productivity list.
Ana Lucía Prado
Nurse and weekend printmaker
Reader since 2025
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Issue 43 made me finally ship my side project.
Jun Okafor
Backend developer
Reader since 2026
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Short enough for the tram, good enough to forward.
Mireille Danso
Teacher
Reader since 2025
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I've read every one since issue 9.
Pavel Rusnák
Architect
Reader since 2025
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Kind, specific and never preachy.
Hanna Lindqvist
Translator
Reader since 2026
Write back
Reply to any issue, or write to the address below. I answer most notes within a week.