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Comment by raunak | Hacker News Reader

This rings so true for me. Doing an 8-hour a day internship for the first time this summer (college freshman), and even with it being remote and at home, I struggle to find the time to balance 2h at the gym, meals, walks w/ family/dog, and most importantly, Leetcode and working on independent skills. There’s never enough time in the day and I don’t know how I can fix it.

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I'm a developer with 5 YOE, and it doesn't really end. But honestly, unless you're definitely trying to get into the MANGA (formerly FAANG) world, I would focus much more on just building something to show to potential employers. I think that's more likely to make an impression on any arbitrary company, because almost every company I've ever interviewed with has not really cared about algorithmic problem solving skills. Most companies want to see your ability to produce software. Plus actually building something, imo, is much more emotionally satisfactory.

Thanks for the advice. Pretty much exactly what I’m trying to do. To be quite honest, I don’t do more than 1h of leetcode per week - been trying to spend much more time working on a startup with a friend. But even that is so hard. After a 10-5 workday, and being 9-10 by the time I’m done with everything else, I’m dead tired and it’s hard to work up motivation even when it’s something I love to do (write code where I determine what I’m writing).

Are you me? currently go to gym 630 then work 8 to 6 then eat and like 3 hours till sleep

Any suggestions?

Can you switch to remote working? No commute saved me a lot of time and energy.

Try shopping and meal prepping on the weekends.

Try to go to bed at the same time every day. Eventually it becomes a habit.

Yep work remote it’s just startup life unfortunately

My advice would be to congratulate yourself on fitting much more productive stuff into a day than almost anyone else I’ve ever seen (sustainably). Don’t stress, and if you want to try to fit something else in, use a vacation day.

This. "I'm highly productive all but 3 hours every weekday and get a good night's sleep 9-6, help". WTF. This whole thread is crazy to me. "I barely have any downtime during the week" yes! That's adulthood (well, it was high school, too, but there was that sweet, sweet break of college that I didn't appreciate enough when I had it...) and it's the reason sane countries mandate 4+ weeks of paid vacation per year. Work weeks are a grind (throw kids in the mix and tell me how much time you have left then!) and weekends are barely enough to almost recover and take care of all the important things you were neglecting during the week. Multiple entire weeks off per year are required to have actual leisure and something like full recovery from the grind.

Then don't. You are already spending 40 hours a week learning. That's called full-time for a reason.

vanviegen actually has a great point. You're already spending full-time learning. In my case, I'm not learning anything at my daily job anymore. Realitically, I'm more often teaching.

You only have to work from 10-5, seven hours including lunch?

> been trying to spend much more time working on a startup with a friend.

Jesus, an evenings-and-weekends startup plus a full time job and leetcode and 2hrs(!!!) at the gym per day?

One thing you're going to need to accept is that there isn't enough time for everything you want to do. In a day. In a life. Consider dropping some of this stuff. My god, you don't even have kids eating 20+ hours a week like lots of people do!

Days are never going to get longer, and your life is only getting shorter. Maybe you operate like this for a little while at the start, but you're going to have to prune at some point. You can't fit a gallon of water in a thimble.

The problem with me is that technically I can find time for everything I want to do. But as soon as I start to get into a strict routine, things start to feel monotonous and I eventually go back to my old ways.

You have a bucket that can hold 5 liter and you ask how can you fit 10 liter in it.

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