Professionally being a graphic designer can be bit unglamorous, I spend a lot of my days designing flyers, booklets and posters for very dull clients. Don't get me wrong I love my work, I'm just saying that it's not always exciting.
So to inject a bit of extra creativity in to my day I try to make work that I want to make when I can fine the time. While I really enjoy taking an hour our to create experiments, it is also a very good way to expand your skill base and would recommend doing personal work to anyone in a creative industry (or not) to hone your skills and to satisfy you creatively!