Doing low paid work, for many hours will make it hard to be motivated. When you are tired and scraping by it's hard to find the energy for things like self imp

Doing low paid work, for many hours will make it hard to be motivated. When you are tired and scraping by it's hard to find the energy for things like self improvement. When your concentrating on getting food on the table + getting enough sleep. The times I've had the most time for self improvement have been when there's been a combination of time off + money. I've found, after a job finishes (e.g. company folds), or just between contracts, you need a while to decompress. But then after a while you get a lot more energy for stuff. WRT programming projects - it takes mental effort, I can't do a huge amount of it outside of hours when I'm working 5 days a week. When I take a break for a month or two I have energy for any project I like.