9-5ers, how do you live and work?
Edit: Thank you all so much for your advice! For those of you who said a two hour commute is brutal... I honestly thought I was being unreasonable for feeling apprehensive about it because I live an hour away from a city, and I know a ton of people who commute an hour to and from work. (I have always been in awe of those people. How do they do it?) I'm glad to know that it's reasonable to feel like the commute is intimidating, but everyone's advice will be super helpful in getting used to this transition.
Unrelated, I'm a bit surprised that some people got upset with the "baby adult" thing haha. I'll try to be more serious next time I post in this subreddit. For the less facetious context: I just recently turned 23 (last month!) and graduated from college. Although I've been an adult for five years now, I think that life as a college student is very different from life after graduation. That's why I consider myself new to adulting. It's my first life, after all. I'm sure there are plenty of people younger than me who have much more experience, but that's why I'm here asking for advice. I'd like to learn from people who know more than me, while I continue to grow myself.
Anyway, in summary: I'm planning on doing my best with what I have, and I'm very lucky to have what I do. I'm excited to start this job. I'll be going through the comments later when I have time. Thanks again for the advice!
Original Post:
Baby adult here (23 y/o). I'm getting ready to transition into a 9-5 office job that is an hour there and back without traffic. Calculating the time I have is a tad intimidating, to say the least. It's looking like:
- 8 hours for work
- 2 hours for commute
- 2-3 hours for eating/cooking/showering
- 8-9 hours for sleep
Unfortunately, I have Problems, and I'm not blessed with the ability to be fully functional on <6 hours of sleep. In fact, I'm learning that 8 hours sometimes isn't enough, especially when I'm waking up early (I'm not a morning person.) So my ideal sleep would be 9 hours.
All this adds up to around 21 hours, leaving 3 hours behind to do me things. I know I'm so privileged to be able to say this, but I'm not used to only having 3 hours to myself. My current job is online, so I'm usually free to stay up pretty late and wake up later too. I have a ton of time. I can't imagine feeling fulfilled with only 3 hours, not to mention when I have chores and other things I might need to do.
So I'm wondering: What do you guys do to feel fulfilled? How do you fight off burnout (I struggle with that a lot)? Does anyone else feel like me, and feel like 3 hours is not enough?
Any other tips for surviving the 9-5 (including the early waking times and commutes) would be appreciated!