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There's certainly a few hours you can grab for something; I'm sure the extra sleep young children need contributed to our survival as a species, or else few chi

by gwd 4y ago

There's certainly a few hours you can grab for something; I'm sure the extra sleep young children need contributed to our survival as a species, or else few children would have survived to adulthood. :-) I've got a side project I've been trying to work on, but there's just so much else that needs to be done: You've got to keep connections with family and friends, you've got to do your laundry and your taxes and your shopping, you've got to figure out what to do about schooling, and so on. And I can't tell you how many times I've managed to block of 3-4 hours on a Sunday afternoon / evening to do some proper hacking, only to have my son fall ill and have to spend that time getting him medicine or trying to help him fall asleep. All that to say, it certainly is possible to have "side projects" other than your child, but as OP said, you really have to adjust your expectations down. :-)

Al-Khwarizmi 4y ago
Since I'm a parent, I'm getting really good at time management. When the kid was 1 it was impossible to do anything, but now that he's 3, I do get at least some time almost everyday for hobbies/projects (not a lot, as you mention, but at least some). Some things I do: - I insist on getting some exercise done everyday (basically, walking the famous 10000 steps). Apart from the general benefits of exercise, not being in awful shape helps having more energy and therefore getting more things done. It's difficult to find time specifically for this so what I do is if I have a remote meeting where I'm not going to talk a lot (and most days I have one), I do the meeting while walking outside, connecting to it from my smartphone. - While commuting to work by bus I do some Anki (I'm learning Chinese with it). - I'm aware this is not within reach of everyone, but we hired someone to do a good chunk of the housework. When deciding if you should do this, consider that you are basically buying free time for yourself. How much is free time worth to you? For me, now that I have very little, it's worth a lot. - Having only a little time to do something is no longer an excuse. If I have 15 minutes, I read a book for 15 minutes, no longer saying "I'll save it for when I have more uninterrupted time".

by gwd 4y ago

Al-Khwarizmi 4y ago

Since I'm a parent, I'm getting really good at time management. When the kid was 1 it was impossible to do anything, but now that he's 3, I do get at least some time almost everyday for hobbies/projects (not a lot, as you mention, but at least some). Some things I do: - I insist on getting some exercise done everyday (basically, walking the famous 10000 steps). Apart from the general benefits of exercise, not being in awful shape helps having more energy and therefore getting more things done. It's difficult to find time specifically for this so what I do is if I have a remote meeting where I'm not going to talk a lot (and most days I have one), I do the meeting while walking outside, connecting to it from my smartphone. - While commuting to work by bus I do some Anki (I'm learning Chinese with it). - I'm aware this is not within reach of everyone, but we hired someone to do a good chunk of the housework. When deciding if you should do this, consider that you are basically buying free time for yourself. How much is free time worth to you? For me, now that I have very little, it's worth a lot. - Having only a little time to do something is no longer an excuse. If I have 15 minutes, I read a book for 15 minutes, no longer saying "I'll save it for when I have more uninterrupted time".