helo, this is my first post :). I have always wanted to make one of these lol. Anyway to the matter of fact, I wanted to ask y'all how do you deal with so much stuff that we have in our daily lives, I'm talking about school, work, chores, hobbies. How do you all make time for it?

For example, I got myself a job in November (just got a raise ^-^), but it leaves me with so little time to spend on music or art, add to that, I am also studying, and it becomes near impossible to have time for my hobbies. I know im probably overcomitting, so quitting my job has become a constant thought just for the sake of still having time to make art.

time management.

the obvious things first: I use my calendar to put in all the todos, instead of having Todo lists. better to add a bit of buffer time everywhere too to make sure I can finish a task I scheduled instead of overlapping appointments and tasks etc.
usually I sit down on the weekend and plan my upcoming week that way. then I already see how much I can realistically pull off.
and I can prioritize things and see if a project is doable or not. after a while you also get better at estimating the time something takes you.

but yea. using ur calendar (app) for everything is what I do and it works.

on top of that I *do* have lists with all my ideas, kinda sorted by priority and estimated amount of work. some kind of to-do list I guess. but I only vaguely assign time to it, like "gonna do this in this quarter of the year" etc. to have a rough idea of what I want to work at.
usually no more than 2-3 bigger projects per quarter. that way I can already successfully limit myself so I don't get overwhelmed and still have something to focus on in order to get things done next to work, and other real life obligations I have.

but in the end, if you realize that no matter how well u try to manage ur time, you still don't have enough for something u really want to do.. yea, get rid of something that you think is holding u back from it. (in a reasonable way of course. don't get rid of your job to work on music, if you need the money from it lol)

oh and discipline is also important. I used to watch videos and movies, sometimes several hours per day. that's obviously something you have to force urself to do less and instead create instead of consume

I tend to take my interests/pursuits in seasons (not necessary tied to world seasons), picking one up and putting most if not all of the other ones down, knowing that at some point ill switch over to the other one another time.
Feeling like you need to have the space to fit in everything all at once is imo an unnecessary burden and will only annoy you with how unacheivable it is, while giving your interests a turn and the others a break helps also to appreciate those interests all the more with their absence, to savour when its their turn to come around

I don't. I'm slacking all the time and struggle to do anything. It's exhausting.
I wish, I had more time in my day, but I don't know if that would even help at all.

At the same time, without a place to be during the day, like work, I can't function either. I would just stay in bed the whole day.

for work i try to write out goals for the day when i notice i've been procrastinating too heavily

for attending specific events, i find it is useful to decide i'm going to attend X event every week, and then i don't have to waste energy deciding whether i go or not because I'm committed

for everything as a whole, i just don't put pressure on any outcome in life because it's all a dream

procrastinate and play video games

i do everything at the last minutes and somehow i handle it
(do not listen to me, this is the worst suggestion)

sometimes i use to listen audio books while sleeping (seriously) - not having time shouldnt be an excuse for not doing things - just consistently keep writing and updating a list of things to do for whatever free time you can find

thats the neat part, i don't

spend all your free time jacking off

how do y'all stay off your phones? I keep succumbing to the addiction box.

With all due respect to planners and calendar people, time management is something that never worked out for me.

In my case what worked out was to remind myself that I dont need 3 hours free in the day to make music, if I just have a couple of minutes to do it today, I will use them. I try to make a habit of the things that are important to me. So when it finally comes the day when I actually have several hours to spend, I will feel less tempted to spend them on videogames or going to the bar, or whatever, and I will be actually excited to spend them in that habit I made for myself 5 minutes everyday, but this time with plenty of time to work on something sick.

Another thing that worked out for me is to set a big project that involves my music, and wonder how I can work on that project while I am in work. Do I have death hours in my work? Do i have access to a computer? I start to make questions and come up with solutions... yeah, you will underperform, but is performing 100% in my day job higher priority than my music? Or I just need to job to survive?

Blessings, hope you find smt that works for you c:

Yes! this is kinda what I've been trying to do actually!
I always think to myself, "Oh, this is gonna take forever", and then I put it off and never do it. But if I just tell myself, "I'm gonna do this for 10 minutes", I'm usually a lot more successful, because my brain can wrap itself around the shorter timescale.

I'm also still figuring out how to juggle hobbies with a busy day job, but two things I've found helpful for making creative projects happen are:

1) having deadlines (thanks, BotB!)
2) focusing on finishing one project at a time, and prioritizing according to those deadlines

When I had more free time I might jump around between several different ideas, but now I have a big long-term priority list in my head ("first I need to finish this STAFFcirc thing, which needs to happen by this date, and then I'll do this remix, which I said I would do by this date, and then...") and avoid moving on to the next thing on the list until the current thing is done.

(Incidentally, this is why I'm not a fan of extensions on battles, though I do use them: not knowing for sure when a deadline will be messes up my prioritizing.)

Pretty much what lasertooth sed regarding keeping a running mental order board. I have eough projects to be working all the time, which in a way makes it easier to arrange yourself but obviously gets confusing and results in piles of stuff too... I tend to be jack of all trades and master of none to a catostrophic extent and sometimes I definitely wish I just had like, my one thing.

I feel that oftentimes when people talk about this (esp. in "self-care" or "work/life balance" contexts which is savagely ironic) they're subtly implying that there's a correct mix you can find which will result in everything being "just so..." not too stressed from work, not too stressed from school, somehow finding all this time for what you actually like... but it just ain't that way. Even after beind clawed back again and again over the centuries, the 40 hour week at least takes up your best hours, and that's if it's not something that makes you too apathetic to do more on the weekend. School has this way of sneakily taking up unlimited amounts of time depending on the kind of student you are. Even with relatively pleasant/well-aligned obligations, if you are someone with big ambitions that don't really have to do with work, or scholarship, or business, that can be a life of pain to some extent

Which is not to say I believe in the "rise and grind bro" way of seeing things. Not at all. I think you can get away with burning it at both ends for a while depending on who you are, but I can't do that indefinitely. Many people are lucky enough to be careerists working on their "life's work" all day. I might just be too flighty for that. Throughout college and for years after I had to give up on some interests that are really important to me, and now they're kind of having the opportunity to flood back, which has made me a lot less patient (previously I might work on one thing throughout the "cracks" of the week and get some satisfaction, but if you have 5 projects that never go anywhere...) So now ironically more time has made time budgeting a PITA.

I guess my all-around advice would be to learn to live really cheaply and keep a budget... I know it's almost taboo to say that and trust me, I get why, but if you can hold on to college level living standards for a while and not chase what the people around you will start to think is necessary, that will at least lessen the pressure on you at work and maybe even let you have some leisure time you're not "supposed" to have. And making chiptune is free

@meowcats I suggest trying a dumbphone for a while. It makes people annoying or anxious with me sometimes not having a micro idiot box but it still has just simply never been a problem with school or work or anything

I can't handle everything, so I just let things crash and burn sometimes and fix them later. I do not recommend this strategy.

Thanks Lagmage, this thread has some helpful ideas!

I have a serious procrastination problem that's unfortunately been enabled by teachers who grade too leniently (every essay i wrote this year was written the day it was due and got an undeserved A). I've started to account for my procrastination when planning things though. For instance, if I have an assignment that is due on Sunday, I'll intentionally wait till Sunday to do it, because I know that if I try to do it on Saturday I'll struggle to focus most the day and accomplish minimal. So... that time on Saturday would simply be more productive spent making chiptune. Although, I try not to use that method for important/useful classes that I'm actually interested in. Self-discipline is one of my struggles, and part of the reason I never developed a good practice routine for any musical instrument.

One thing that's worked for me lately is doing work in a public space (usually my college library) and not allowing myself to wear headphones. The things I get distracted by most (listening to music, making music, watching youtube) all require audio, so removing that option helps me stay focused. ^{_{but it doesn't stop me from posting in obscure chip-related internet forums >:)}}

Stupe's dumbphone idea would probably be pretty effective. I recently made an Instagram account (go follow me @prestune_music lol) since it's kind of a necessity for interacting with my local music scene, but that certainly hasn't made my phone any less distracting.

I just remind myself that my lifespan is longer than i expect it to be and try my best not to worry.

@10000meowcats i simply dont use phones (almost 20 years ago last time i used)

That's the neat thing, I don't.