Ask HN: How to find time to learn after full-time job?

He was a data analyst who was tasked with this daily report. He automated it and hid the automation, so for two years he did pretty much nothing until his degree was finished.

I have two full time (albeit remote) jobs and two part time admin/data processing jobs. ChatGPT and Copilot let me do far more work in the same amount of time but officially are not permitted, so I just sit on the work for days to ensure that I only produce at the same rate as everyone else. The two admin/data processing jobs are also nearly fully automated. I introduce random defects to the work product to keep expectations from rising.

I work fewer than 25 hours a week net now. Leaves lots of time for reading.

Figure out how to improve your productivity, but make sure your employer doesn't benefit from it. You can keep that improvement for yourself.

Starting a new job is demanding, just give it time: in a few months things will look more ordinary/boring and then you will have more mental energy after work :)

This falls under the generic umbrella of taking care of yourself. Take breaks, eat and sleep well, exercise... These all help with energy levels and mood.

Another one that was very helpful for me is to find a hobby you really enjoy outside of the field of your work. For years all I did for hobby and work was programming. It got me really far, really quickly in my career but I burnt out hard one year. Even though I thought I was enjoying myself the whole time. So I picked up music, drawing, reading (non-tech)... All helped me disconnect and get better. Doing things a little bit every day will see surprising gains.

In general though, I don't have the energy for it, especially throwing a wife, kids, pets, house upkeep, etc into the mix. Life gets in the way, and that's okay, because that's sort of the point - your life is supposed to come first.

It’s so easy to see when it’s someone else. But us tech folk have our own demons. Yes, there are exceptional people, but there’s also millions of happy mediums that have hobbies and enjoy learning stuff that they find the time to do.

Hacker News is everything every tech person could possibly be interested in and more. Read a while, find the stuff you enjoy. The rest, let it pass. Don’t hold yourself to the HN influencer standard.

As a test, think of how many times you see the same persons blog on here detailing something extremely intricate and interesting. There’s a few regulars but most are one off or once a year posts.

Magically, I have hours per week to read books.

Be kinder to yourself. You're two months into a new job, it takes time to adjust to that. It's also pretty common to work harder earlier in a job to develop a reputation as a hard worker. Reputations like that can stick for years, even as your hours at the desk go down.

There are times in life when it's easier to do things you want, and times when it feels like it takes everything you have just to keep everything from falling apart. Don't try to overextend yourself when you're at your limits, recognize the limit and give yourself easy goals. Spend 5 minutes a day on something instead of lying to yourself and trying to do an hour. Do one hour a week instead of one a day. When you have more time or the work you're doing is motivating, it will get easier to continue doing it more and more.

Most importantly: don't feel like you NEED to do any of that stuff. Do it if you want to and it interests you. It's a lot easier to motivate yourself to do something you find fun, than something you don't really enjoy but feel like you "should".

when you are just starting your career, you're not just working, you're learning how to work (ideally through mentorships, but typically through just building experience in your field)

over time, you'll find yourself building up skills and being able to finish 8 hours of work in 7 hours, then after some more time it only takes 6, and eventually half of your work day becomes reading articles and 'learning'

it's not an on-off switch, but a steady progression towards supplanting your busy work with 'smart' work, good luck :)

1. Start a job, and be swamped with learning it, getting better at it. No time (or reason) to focus on anything else.

2. Job learning is done, you are cruising at your work, if not coasting, and you enjoy some time living a decent balance.

3. You get bored, but can do your job just fine at 50%, so you then spend a couple hours a day learning something new.

4. You've learned something new and can start looking for a new job. (Maybe externally, maybe a promotion or lateral move at your current gig.)

That cycle takes a couple years to play out. You are a couple months into it. Give it time.

Some ideas:

* Make sure you're getting good nutrition, exercise, and sleep. You need your machine working well near-term, and long-term.

* Is your office job sedentary? Are you alternating with standing desk, moving around? Is the office job draining because you're using your brain, or because you're not using your brain, or because you're unhappy, or because you're stressed?

* Is all your time at the office job productive? Can you reduce the time it takes to do the work, change what the work is, or reduce the time spent on non-work things?

* Can you get rid of your commute? Or at least switch it from driving or hectic hopping between buses/subways, to transit where you can focus and read a bit?

* Are you getting frequent good interaction with friends & family? It should be energizing, mood-boosting, and supportive.

* Can your office job accommodate some of the learning you want to do? (Especially work-related: learn a new tech skill, get a part-time MBA, etc. Or do they do tuition-reimbursement and schedule flexibility during the day for taking college classes?)

* Relaxing has value, but are there "relaxing" time sinks that aren't worthwhile, and you'd be happier and better off spending much of that time more productively. Maybe it's too much video games, or too much video streaming, or too much social media (including HN).

* Don't over-stress yourself. Powering through stress has long-term costs.

Then I get some consuming interest and I find I have the energy to work on it outside work for a few months or a year.

When I was in this situation, I found learning or doing side-project work in the morning, before leaving for work, to be a substantially better approach. I'd get up at 5AM and work until 7AM. It made me excited to go to bed and felt like I was giving the best hours of my day to myself.

You just have to build up the habits for yourself, and over time, you'll be surprised how effective it is. I'm still early in the book, but this is all from the first few pages I've gotten through.

Edit more personal anecdote:

I still remember my first job, I'd work work work, and when I'd get home I wouldn't do anything other than spend time with my girlfriend (now wife) or watch movies / shows just to de-thaw from the work. Now I unplug after working. I think once you get used to the routine at work, you go back to normal speed.

When I hear about people doing something like a Rust project for fun outside of work I assume they either have zero social life or are very young.

Get a job that lets you learn at work. I don't really need to learn much at home because I learn so much at work.

Don't socialise. Seriously. Whether this is a good idea or not is up to you. But you merely asked how to find time to learn.