I love gaming…I love YouTube…I  love un-boxing, interviews, gaming impressions, podcasts, and just plain rambling on into a microphone. Despite all of this, I have a full time job, which unfortunately get’s in the way of a lot of the things I love.

The Struggle Is Real

I work during the day doing video editing, graphic design, transcribing videos, and designing websites, just to name a few. While I came into my current job with some previous knowledge, I’ve gained a massive amount of knowledge in the last 2 years through self learning.

It’s to the point to where I’m a valued asset with the company I work for, this however comes with a massive trade off. I often find myself coming home “burnt out”. The last thing I want to do is edit even more videos and record more voice overs. I usually just want to pop some popcorn and binge on my friends YouTube content and let my mind relax. Usually by the time I’m fully decompressed, I’m ready for bed. Then the cycle repeats the next day.

Keep It Separated

It really all came down the having the proper mindset. It took some time, but I eventually was able to mentally separate my day job, and my at personal work . I also had to remember that both were separate, but equally important. During the day, I do the things that I have to do at work, and in the evenings I do the things I want to do. One helps to build the skills, the other helps to practice and flex those skills in a relevant way that will positively affect my career path.

Project: Accountability

At my day job, I’m always regularly having projects come my way. This was something I was lacking in my personal projects. I had plenty of them that I wanted to do, but no way to keep myself accountable to starting, and completing them. I started giving myself deadlines, like I had at work. The larger the project, the more time I would give myself to complete it. I soon found myself completing more projects, without compromising the quality of my content.

Watch Or Be Watched?

One of my challenges was making the transition from a YouTube viewer, to a YouTube content creator. After getting home, one of my favorite things to do was to watch the videos of my friends. Instead of saying to myself “Let’s watch something!” I now say to myself “Let’s make something!”. It comes down to a matter of a simple choice, either watch, or be watched. It’s time to be watched!

These are just a few ways I’ve learned to keep my personal projects and my day job separated, so I don’t lose motivation once it’s time to clock out of the corporate office and into the home office. I hope they are helpful to you, and you can apply them in your daily live, so the grind doesn’t feel so…grindy.