Maintaining the balance between work and chess

How do people manage the time between work life and chess? Work has to be done for survival, and minimum 8-10 hours, then coming home, when do you'll get the time to concentrate on the chess?
Right now i am not working, but will be starting in a week's time, and i am scared that i won't be able to devote much time to chess like what i am doing right now. How do you guys manage?

I would manage by using up night time hours for chess if I was an employee. Being a business owner, I trade off income for time :p

Bah, generally this is just chess against TV. At evening you generally watch tv, instead of that just play chess.

Like HangingKing says. If you are a TV adict then things comes difficult but if not then its no problem doing an hour or more a day chess training or study.

Best is to start every day at the same hour, like 8 or 9 pm. That way your body and brain get used to the routine so even when feeling tired from work the hour(s) spend on study or training would still be fruitfull.

I used to get up two hours early to study during the quiet hours, but then kids, career, travel, etc., forced me to "retire" until I actually did retire. Now I have all the time for chess I want....

* dreams of retirement *

BorgQueen wrote:* dreams of retirement *

Just another word for old

It's the 'no work' thing that interests me :-Þ

I am enjoy this thing..

I work a solid 40-50 hours/week. It would seem to an outsider that I would not have any additional time for study but the reverse is actually the case.

My fiance is a nurse and works graveyard shift at her hospital. This allows me to have anywhere from 15-20 hours a week for study. I understand that I'm in a rare situation but I'm loving it at the moment :]

Hi Kingsmasher.
I managed to find 1-2 hours each day during my working life to practice guitar. Some of the advice musicians get on this issue (how to consistently find time for practice) might be helpful:
- try to practice at the same time each day
- try to have a place where you practice, with your stuff set out ready and comfortable, etc
- commit to doing five minutes practice a day no matter what. (This is the best piece of advice ever....on very few occasions will you only do 5 minutes,more often once you have started you will keep going, but it gets you over the "activation hurdle" of getting started)
- if you do only have a short period of time available, work on one thing in depth...don't try to cover everything in the session
- go easy on alcohol and other addictive substances...they rob your time along with other problems too.
- don't beat up on yourself!! This is your hobby, your relaxation. You are supposed to enjoy it, and it is an important "antidote" to the stresses of work, etc. If music (or chess in your case) becomes a chore, you have lost the plot. So what if it takes you a bit longer to learn something... you are doing this for fun right? So enjoy the journey (it's better to travel than arrive anyway)

VG

Good advice there VG :-)