Hopefully this isn’t too meta for this community. It’s been about a year since I finished school and have been working. I’m struggling to find the right balance between hobbies, personal projects, and also trying to get better/ higher paying job. I find that after a day of solving issues, banging my head into the wall wondering what previous owners of the codebase have done and dealing with business users makes me desperately want to have control over my own work. Whenever I get home though even though I might be excited to code something I just never seem to find the mental energy to do anything. After the gym and cooking a dinner I simply am so wiped I can’t do anything. Instead of making software, or doing music, I just end up watching tv, heck I’m usually too dead to even play video games. I desperately am also trying to avoid the “productivity pit” that is shoved in our faces everywhere but I really don’t want to let my skills atrophy or prevent me from being able to hop to a higher paying job in an industry I’m more interested in if I’m lucky eventually. How the heck do you all manage it?
You should work less. There are times where this is necessary. But constantly overworking has bad consequences, it can for example kill your most precious relationships quickly, and is very bad for your health in the long run. In the end, you work to live, not the other way around. And Godfather will not applaude you and give you a thumbs up if you come to heaven’s reception desk and have never done anything else than worked in your life.