I'm in a similar situation as you. Graduated, got a job and now my work commitments take up a huge portion of my M-F and afterwards it leaves me mentally drained and tiring. Poker is yet another mental activity and if I play too much right after work, it feels like I never get a real break.

To combat this, I've been significantly reducing my poker play time and selecting my opponents more carefully. Although this does reduce my overall volume, I find fishy/spewy opponents easier to play when I'm not at my 100% mental capacity. Also, I think having a balance of exercise, good diet, meditation, and social interaction will help tremendously. I'm still working on these four, but I think once I can achieve the above even given the short few hours I have after work, I will feel much better.

My two cents, and you aren't alone :(

ps. My ultimate goal: save enough money (work + poker), create a passive income source (investments, small business) and spend the rest of my days doing things that absolutely excite me.

Ya I feel the very same way as you do, just away too mentally drained after work to play.

I think I already have a decent balance of social interaction & physical exercise as I play team sports 3 times a week although diet and meditation could def do with being better!

Thanks for your reply and I hope you achieve your ultimate goal! ;-)

Working Full-Time on a desk looking to a computer and then making a short/medium session at home looking again to a computer makes us feel a piece of garbage at the end of the day. :) 

My routine is very similiar as yours. I wake up a 7.30am and get home at  18pm. I try to begin a session at 19.30pm till 22pm because normally I have to make another pending tasks. I also play tennis 2 hours a week (1hour per day).

I made a schedule where I don't play nothing 1 day a week, but  I take it to study poker (maybe 2-4 hours) watching videos, reading hands and review some of my own hands. (btw I try to see 1 video per day here at RIO, also I read a poker book before bedtime). I have lucky too to access RIO from my work so this helps me a lot. On saturday and Sunday I try to play all morning or afternoon so that way I can compensate all the week.

It takes a lot of sacrifice to reconcile work with poker, but if you have passion for the game, you will do whatever it takes to study/gamble and to encourage yourself to move up levels.

I begun to play rush sng on full tilt (1,10$ on demand), than I moved to STT turbo and than Hyper-turbo 6max. Now I play NL10 and NL25 ZOOM and I think this is the best variant for me and for my routine, so make intentions to stick with it for a long time. Also I try to take shots on MTT on sunday, but not too late because monday is again workday :/

hope this helps you somehow. If you can either advice me I would appreciate :)

I also work 45 hrs/week with a full time engineering job on top of poker.

My best advice is to set reasonable monthly goals and work around a flexible schedule.

Some days you just won't have the energy to grind after a stressful day at work. Or your friends might call you out for drinks or to play a pick up game of sports. Don't bail on them! You will regret it deeply. This is how you stay balanced.

Any day where I can put in an hour of poker after working 8 hours at my desk job I consider a success. Anything more is gravy. Days where I am too tired or tilted, I will replace playing with watching some videos or checking forums for strategy.

Weekends is when I get most of my grinding done. I try to have at least 1 day on the weekend where I can get a solid 4-5 hour session locked in.

Some weekdays where work was particularly light and I still have lots of energy after work, I will put in a solid 2-3 hours and feel good about it.

Again the key is to set reasonable goals and not feel guilty when you see other people playing 60k+ hands per month and then realize you only played 20-30k.

And to answer your other question about whether it's decent money or not - the answer is obviously yes. Over the course of a year, 1 hour here or there adds up. 20-30 hours per month may not seem like that much. But over the course of a year that's 300+/- hours of grinding. And even if you're only making $20/hr or whatever that's still a solid $6k in your pocket that's tax-free because it's not your full time job. That's like adding closer to $9-10k on top of your base salary.

It's actually not tax free, and technically you're supposed to pay on every winning session and not be able to deduct the losing ones I believe.  In fact if you're making decent side income from poker (enough that you're clearly leaving a pretty obvious paper trail) I'd consult a CPA and make sure you're not a) going to end up with an audit or b) paying or not paying taxes you should.

Thanks for the replies guys, I will take all  of your advice into consideration. Glad to hear I'm not alone on this. Gl at the tables! ;-)

Just don't overdo any one area of your life and you'll be fine. You have your entire life to play poker, there is no rush. Fish will always be swimming! :)

For the majority, playing poker part-time is a decent way to make some extra income. Sounds like you have a full schedule with work and all, so maybe try playing on the weekends and devoting your free time to that. Better because after a full day's work, it's normal to feel tired and even less motivated to do the things we actually wanna do just because our energy level really isn't at it's peak. For me, I work full-time Monday through Friday but I'll also do some poker study here and there throughout the work week as well. My weekends I have off from work, so I usually dedicate time to playing more hours either live or online, mostly live, and try to make a profit on those days. It all comes down to how you go about scheduling things and what's best for you, but playing when your energy level is good is key.