Zero free time after full time job

[soronemus]

I just graduated college with a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering. For the last five years I have spent a huge amount of my free time on WoW. My day would consist of 4-5 hours of class, 0-2 hours of work, and wowing 10+ hours a day. I had grown to accept this as normal and I was happy.


Recently I have landed a full time job as an engineer. It is a good job. The people I work with are amazing. The pay is amazing. I work 42.5 hours a week, and only have to commute 15 minutes to work. Things seem like they should be good, but I am finding that I have very little free time to spend on world of warcraft, so little so that it seems like it is not even worth getting on.


Below is a breakdown of my schedule:


I wake up at 5:30
work from 7-3:30
work out from 3:45-5
from ~5:30-9:00 is my "me" time, which seems to be just devoured by my talkative father in-law and my wife.
I have to be in bed by 9 in order to fall asleep by 9:30 to get my 8 hours of sleep. Which is necessary because of how hard being on a computer makes falling asleep naturally.


Realistically, I can choose to play world of warcraft for three hours a night and be a recluse, avoiding getting drawn into conversations with my father in-law and my wife, or I can play for one, maybe two hours a night and have a healthy relationship with both of them, obviously the required choice for my overall happiness. Both of these numbers seem so small... Considering I was raiding 16 hours a week at one point, that's four hours per night mon-thursday. A couple hours seems like enough time to do some friggin dailies which I hate, or cap a toon on conquest if you're lucky.


I'm looking for input from people who have gone through the same thing, should I swap hobbies? Swap to a different video game? No matter what I do 1-2 hours a night doesn't seem like enough time to get anything done or get any enjoyment out of said activity. I know that I must seem like a complete social shut-in, and I might get a lot of responses to the effect of "Get a life! Learn to talk to people! Grow up!" but if anyone responds like that what the hell are you doing on mmo-champion lol.

[Blueobelisk]

Uhhhhh. I can't really decide what hobby you should do or if you should be spending time with your family or not...but I know I don't have time for WoW anymore. Plain and simple.

[Tinykong]

I cut back to 6 1/2 hours of sleep a long time ago, and have been enjoying it ever since. More free time, but I have to make sure I go to sleep and get up the same time every day, one day of sleeping in screws up the whole thing.

[Spectral]

... and wowing 10+ hours a day. I had grown to accept this as normal...

It's not. That's pathological behavior that isn't conducive to functioning as an adult.

I know that I must seem like a complete social shut-in, and I might get a lot of responses to the effect of "Get a life! Learn to talk to people! Grow up!" but if anyone responds like that what the hell are you doing on mmo-champion lol.

This is the only reasonable answer. Get a life, learn to talk to people, grow up. An hour or two for gaming per day is plenty.

I'm on MMO-Champion because I just got home from work and I'm killing some time and eating dinner before I go for a run.

[Symphonic]

I stopped playing WoW after I got married because it's true, you don't have time to play it anymore. Some couples make it work, each having their own "free time", but I don't see a marriage lasting too long like that unless you both play together. I valued things that she wants to do more and it wasn't in World of Warcraft. She does like the 3DS, and we occasionally play those together. But most often than not, we have our hands full with a baby, getting dinner done, and perhaps watching a movie together once our baby is asleep.

I would talk to her and say that you need two times a week that allow you to play longer to raid, otherwise I would just quit.

[Deleted]

Learn to manage your time better, you don't work longer than most people in full time employment which means you need to look at your routines and schedules. The reality is now that you are a working man with a family, it happens to most people which is why hardcore raiding guilds tend to be made up of the jobless, insomniacs or the single, often a combination of two or more.

[Spraxle]

A) 8 hours of sleep is the same as 6 hours or even 5 hours if you take a sleep in day on the weekends
B) Does your father in-law live with you? I'm confused why you have to spend so much time with him...
C) If you answered yes to B then you need to find your father in-law a hobby of his own.
D) Only you can prevent forest fires.
E) You have to learn to manage what you do and when you do it.
F) Maybe cut your WoWing down like 2 nights a week and one of those be a longer shift on the weekend.

[SL1200]

I couldn't imagine trying to play wow when I was still married. My wife wouldn't have allowed me the time. If you think it's bad now wait until the kids start arriving.

[Lyese]

Your body functions better with hours of sleep in multiples of 3, since REM cycles are "usually" 3 hours long. Hence why TinyKong there chooses that sleep pattern, and, like he says, must maintain that sleep schedule as sleeping in an extra hour or so destroys you. Waking up in the middle of a REM cycle has you feeling groggy and not quite awake, which explains why sometimes getting 3 hours of sleep has you "feel" more rested than sleeping for 10 hours.

[Austilias]

Welcome to adulthood.

Realistically, you won't experience the sort of lifestyle you were used to until retirement.

[kippi]

A) 8 hours of sleep is the same as 6 hours or even 5 hours if you take a sleep in day on the weekends
B) Does your father in-law live with you? I'm confused why you have to spend so much time with him...
C) If you answered yes to B then you need to find your father in-law a hobby of his own.
D) Only you can prevent forest fires.
E) You have to learn to manage what you do and when you do it.
F) Maybe cut your WoWing down like 2 nights a week and one of those be a longer shift on the weekend.

I'm with this guy, put your step dad in a home and enjoy your life, you really don't have to restructure anything as you could accomplish anything with 2-3 hours of play a night, or less.

Unless you are looking for people to tell you to quit? Then yeah, you should quit because you played WoW in the interim while getting to this point in your life so I wouldn't fuck it up for epics and trolls.

[Tulune]

You're lucky you have a morning shift, to be honest. Try working a nine hour a day second shift job, then you'll see how much free time you actually have.

[Gandrake]

MMO's require too much time to play at a competitive level, have a job and have a life.

I'd just quit.

I mean, personally, I could make it work for a few months... But I'd be fucking miserable. It's not a question of whether you can or can't, but if you will really enjoy said lifestyle.

[Reeve]

I just graduated college with a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering. For the last five years I have spent a huge amount of my free time on WoW. My day would consist of 4-5 hours of class, 0-2 hours of work, and wowing 10+ hours a day. I had grown to accept this as normal and I was happy.


Recently I have landed a full time job as an engineer. It is a good job. The people I work with are amazing. The pay is amazing. I work 42.5 hours a week, and only have to commute 15 minutes to work. Things seem like they should be good, but I am finding that I have very little free time to spend on world of warcraft, so little so that it seems like it is not even worth getting on.


Below is a breakdown of my schedule:


I wake up at 5:30
work from 7-3:30
work out from 3:45-5
from ~5:30-9:00 is my "me" time, which seems to be just devoured by my talkative father in-law and my wife.
I have to be in bed by 9 in order to fall asleep by 9:30 to get my 8 hours of sleep. Which is necessary because of how hard being on a computer makes falling asleep naturally.


Realistically, I can choose to play world of warcraft for three hours a night and be a recluse, avoiding getting drawn into conversations with my father in-law and my wife, or I can play for one, maybe two hours a night and have a healthy relationship with both of them, obviously the required choice for my overall happiness. Both of these numbers seem so small... Considering I was raiding 16 hours a week at one point, that's four hours per night mon-thursday. A couple hours seems like enough time to do some friggin dailies which I hate, or cap a toon on conquest if you're lucky.


I'm looking for input from people who have gone through the same thing, should I swap hobbies? Swap to a different video game? No matter what I do 1-2 hours a night doesn't seem like enough time to get anything done or get any enjoyment out of said activity. I know that I must seem like a complete social shut-in, and I might get a lot of responses to the effect of "Get a life! Learn to talk to people! Grow up!" but if anyone responds like that what the hell are you doing on mmo-champion lol.

I chose to cut WoW out of my life. I have enough going on that I can't afford to make the sort of commitment that playing WoW requires if you want to raid more than LFR. And let's face it, unless you're going to raid competitively, WoW doesn't really have that much to offer.

You're lucky to be able to only work from 7-3:30, btw.

[superstarz]

I just graduated college with a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering. For the last five years I have spent a huge amount of my free time on WoW. My day would consist of 4-5 hours of class, 0-2 hours of work, and wowing 10+ hours a day. I had grown to accept this as normal and I was happy.


Recently I have landed a full time job as an engineer. It is a good job. The people I work with are amazing. The pay is amazing. I work 42.5 hours a week, and only have to commute 15 minutes to work. Things seem like they should be good, but I am finding that I have very little free time to spend on world of warcraft, so little so that it seems like it is not even worth getting on.


Below is a breakdown of my schedule:


I wake up at 5:30
work from 7-3:30
work out from 3:45-5
from ~5:30-9:00 is my "me" time, which seems to be just devoured by my talkative father in-law and my wife.
I have to be in bed by 9 in order to fall asleep by 9:30 to get my 8 hours of sleep. Which is necessary because of how hard being on a computer makes falling asleep naturally.


Realistically, I can choose to play world of warcraft for three hours a night and be a recluse, avoiding getting drawn into conversations with my father in-law and my wife, or I can play for one, maybe two hours a night and have a healthy relationship with both of them, obviously the required choice for my overall happiness. Both of these numbers seem so small... Considering I was raiding 16 hours a week at one point, that's four hours per night mon-thursday. A couple hours seems like enough time to do some friggin dailies which I hate, or cap a toon on conquest if you're lucky.


I'm looking for input from people who have gone through the same thing, should I swap hobbies? Swap to a different video game? No matter what I do 1-2 hours a night doesn't seem like enough time to get anything done or get any enjoyment out of said activity. I know that I must seem like a complete social shut-in, and I might get a lot of responses to the effect of "Get a life! Learn to talk to people! Grow up!" but if anyone responds like that what the hell are you doing on mmo-champion lol.

You make wow sound like a job that you have to constantly be on all the time or you fall behind.
Oh wait

[Reeve]

Learn to manage your time better, you don't work longer than most people in full time employment which means you need to look at your routines and schedules. The reality is now that you are a working man with a family, it happens to most people which is why hardcore raiding guilds tend to be made up of the jobless, insomniacs or the single, often a combination of two or more.

Sometimes also the childless whose wives/husbands share their hobby. I had a few of those in my old guild.

[Rukentuts]

I chose to cut WoW out of my life. I have enough going on that I can't afford to make the sort of commitment that playing WoW requires if you want to raid more than LFR. And let's face it, unless you're going to raid competitively, WoW doesn't really have that much to offer.

I cut it out after a combination of guild death, graduation, and employment attainment. I tried going back a couple times, I just can't. I'm much happier with my life now than any point during my WoW days.

[Reeve]

I cut it out after a combination of guild death, graduation, and employment attainment. I tried going back a couple times, I just can't. I'm much happier with my life now than any point during my WoW days.

Yeah, same here. I enjoyed raiding, but I don't feel the urge to go back to it at all.

[Spectral]

I tried going back a couple times, I just can't. I'm much happier with my life now than any point during my WoW days.

Have you tried casual PvP? I run 2s or 3s with some old buddies from back home, doesn't take much time commitment and none of us mind if someone has to say, "hey, not on tonight". You can play like two hours on a Tuesday and fuck around in BGs on Sunday morning and still be geared and have fun.

[HammondQ]

Play at a competitive level in real life. Warcraft is the thing that has to fall to the periphery.

I have a full time career now, and a fiancee, and I have reconnected with a few good friends. Back when I was unemployed and had nothing but free time the highlight of my Warcraft career was a realm 1st Algalon kill.

It's almost impossible for most people including myself to balance an elite level of WOW play with getting the most out of the world off screen.

Don't worry about getting the mount off Garrosh. Go rent/buy a motorcycle or a maxi scooter and spend the weekend touring local wineries with your wife. If you're coastal you should attend one of the local seafood festivals.