Well outside of work and more as spare time working on side projects or simply as a hobby, I think it depends on one's energy and if other things in life are ge

Well outside of work and more as spare time working on side projects or simply as a hobby, I think it depends on one's energy and if other things in life are getting in the way. When we're young, and a full time job not the most pressing thing on one's mind, such exploratory activities are generally spontaneous, we were a bundle of energy and enthusiasm and sheer determination to get the less than best coding or idea in general to work ... it wasn't uncommon for the young enthusiastic programmer to find their day fades into night and back into dawn and it's hardly been noticed ... days soon becoming weeks. When we get older, we've often got other life issues, commitments, bills to pay and as such many of us unconsciously self impose a structured order to the day, spare time being more to get over the day, to relax and not to tax the brain too much - and often we're so stuck in our thinking, the rigid structure remains even if one has found themselves out of work. However (not that I had much luck back in the day) I've seen over the years a couple of people push themselves to practice taking the time to pick something and spend the day working on it until it was just something they'd do, and did so without concerning themselves what else they had to do or were meant to be doing, they just ploughed right in.