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Hi, first off, I have kind of the same problem and I am also strugglig with no spare time, even though I have only 1 kid and she is 1.5 years old. If you are an employee than it's expected that you learn on the job and hours booked on education will be seen by the company as an investment that pays off in the future and it's also far cheaper than trainings, so your manager should be glad that you do that - especially if there are no urgent tasks to be done. On the other hand, if you are self-employed / working as a contractor like I am, than you need another strategy, because anything beyond quickly looking up stuff (like any real learning on the job - videos, tutorials, etc) are a no-go as you are booked to perform. Usually if you are useful for your clients your stream of todos is neverending anyway and there is no time to lookup stuff. What works for me is that I don't work for clients on friday - for a lot of companies it's a short day anyway and they won't miss you that much. I deliberately pass on those billable hours, because I've found that education pays more in the future and is more fun as well. So friday is usually the day when I get my learning done. Just a word of warning - you need to protect this day against your own laziness and your family as well. So put your headphones on and hack away. Breaks are okay of course, but if you treat it like spare time, everyone else will do the same and you won't get anything done. Of course you can also work during naptime and in the late evening, but I've found that I am pretty exhausted then and I am not that productive or willing to pick up new stuff - so I usually do lighter work / light reading / watching videos in the evening and leave the tough new technology for fridays. I've priorized what I find valuable in life and that makes making decisions easier. For me it's health, family, education, friends, other hobbies. For the time being, I've basically dropped every hobby that is not for my health or my professional education. Take care,
Martin |