That's why one of my personal focus right now is to slowly reduce the amount of hours I spend at work, in order to have more time for various projects outside of it. This may change if I ever hit something interesting at work, but so far, all of the things I ever done for money felt like utter bullshit. Funnily, I entered the workforce strongly believing the "work in what you love" mantra, but through years of being unable to find it in the space of available jobs I got completely cured of that belief.

For me this is the reason why I became a freelancer right out of college. While in hindsight I might have benefitted from some proper 'employee' experience in my field, the risk that I would've just stayed in that mode make me happy that I didn't make that choice.

As a freelancer living well below my means, I have the freedom to be as busy or relaxed as I want (within certain boundaries). Unlike an employee, it is up to me to be productive, improve my skills, handle my finances... or just do nothing all day. And unlike many other freelancers who don't live well below their means (or can't, it should be said), I don't often run into the problem that I have to accept a huge workload for long periods of time so that I can pay the bills in fallow periods.

Freelancing is not for everyone, and not every freelancer is as lucky as I am. But considering that many people could reach my 'level' of income by intensely studying and practicing for a few months, I'm often frustrated by how many people around me remain stuck in full-time jobs they truly hate, especially when these are low-paying jobs.