How to Do What You Love When You Are Working Full Time

We all have 24 hours in a day. And when you were working full-time, you spend most of the hours working and often have little time or energy to do the things you love.

I’m not talking about watching Netflix movies, eating popcorn, and sitting on the couch by things that you love here. Since you’re here reading this article, I am assuming you’re into doing things like photography, writing, singing, dancing, or any things that you can do to make your life better.

They are things that have the potential to create a side income or full-time income for you.

Before I decided to get serious in photography, I was working full-time in a factory. I needed an escape from my day-to-day work routine, tried doing photography and fell in love with it.

Factory

But doing photography when working full time was tough!

I barely have enough time to study photography. And when it comes to actual practice, I barely have enough energy.

I’ve been there.

In this short article, I’ll share with you 2 tips that you can use to create more time and energy to do what you love, even when you’re working full time.

You can use these tips with any hobby you like. It doesn’t even have to be photography.

Make a Schedule

The first tip is to schedule time to do your hobby. By scheduling, I mean going through your calendar, finding empty time-slots, and putting the thing you want to do there.

Pick a time where you’re least likely to be distracted by something else. And yes, watching Netflix and Social Media is a distraction, so make the sacrifice.

Make a Schedule

We are easily distracted by things in our lives, so when you create a schedule to do the things you love, you’ll be more likely to do them.

When I was working full time in the factory, I had to commute, and the traffic was usually terrible from 5 to 6 pm. It usually takes me around 20 minutes to go from the factory to my home with normal traffic. But in rush hours, it can take me 1 hour or more! That’s 40 minutes of lost time!

So, I decided to not participate in the traffic jam and used the time to learn photography.

I bought some photography books and scheduled a time to read those books every day, after work hour, for 1 hour at the factory’s common room. There was usually nobody there after work, so I can use that space all by myself to learn about things that I love and skip getting stuck in traffic.

But it will be hard to do this scheduling thing over and over again all by yourself, so here comes the second tip!

Join a Local Community or Group

The second tip is to join a local community or group that has the same interest as you. When you join a local community or group that shares the same interest as you, you’ll have much more motivation to do the things you love.

Strong Photography Community

On the plus side, you’ll be able to expand your connection. Use online forums, meetups, craigslists, or Facebook to see where the local people who share the same interests as you hang out and join them! Or even better, take courses at a local community college.

When working full-time, I took weekend photography classes to meet people, make friends, and practice photography. We experimented shooting different things and even often make photography trips together. It was a lot of fun! Make sure you pick a class with a knowledgeable, supportive, and encouraging teacher when you take the class.

By joining your local community that shares your interest, you’re basically creating your very own fun environment. And this will give you the motivation and energy to do the things that you love.

If you find it hard to join offline classes, you can start by joining our courses here. We are 100% online-based, so you can access the course anytime and meet with different people with the same interest as you.

I hope you’ll be able to do find the time and energy to do the thing that you love and get better at it even when you are working full-time.