The other day, while scrolling through Reddit, a question struck me:
“How do you find the motivation to upskill after working hours?”
Curious, I started digging into conversations about how people juggle upskilling with other responsibilities—and I was surprised.
There were over a dozen threads in different subreddits asking the same thing:
“How do you commit to upskilling?”
“How are you upskilling yourself?”
“How do you upskill during work?”
“How do you upskill despite having a full-time job?”
It sounds like many of us are struggling to balance work and learning.
Work is just one part of life. There’s family, friends, community, and upskilling; often, it feels like an “extra job” we have to squeeze in.
But here’s the hard truth: with AI reshaping industries, if you don’t prioritize upskilling, you’ll get left behind. No excuses.
I believe most of us already know the answer to this question. We just delay action or wait for someone else to spell it out for us.
So I did some digging, curated the best advice I found, and simplified it here for you:
Review your why
Remind yourself why you initially wanted to upskill.
You could easily say, “I won’t bother. What’s the point?”
But if you’re reading this, you already know deep down that upskilling matters—especially now.
Ask yourself:
Is it for a promotion or a raise?
Are you building a career moat?
Are you planning a career shift while staying in your current job?
Or do you want to learn, out of curiosity or passion?
Your why is your anchor.
Discipline > motivation
Motivation may spark the journey, but discipline sustains it.
We often chase motivation, thinking it’ll magically make things easier. But real progress comes from building discipline—the habit of showing up, even when you don’t feel like it.
How do you build discipline? Focus on two things:
Creating momentum
Scheduling based on your energy and availability
Create momentum with the 2-minute rule
Open your laptop or book and commit to learning for just two minutes.
Chances are, once you start, you won’t stop at two.
That’s how momentum works—it grows with action.
Schedule what works for you
I saw endless debates on Reddit about the “best” learning schedule.
(It even reflects on the title of this Substack issue.)
But here’s the truth: the best schedule is the one you’ll actually stick to.
Before work or after work
Morning, afternoon, evening—or even midnight
Once a week, every weekday, or weekends only
Whatever fits your life, commit to it.
Want an extra boost of accountability? Set a time-bound goal:
For example, “I’ll block 3 hours every Saturday and Sunday to learn X for the next 10 weekends.”
That’s 60 hours of focused learning. Afterward, check in with yourself.
Did it work? If not, tweak it.
How to upskill without overthinking
With thousands of courses, resources, and AI tools out there, it’s easy to fall into analysis paralysis.
Instead, ask yourself:
What’s my learning style?
Visual? Read and watch.
Auditory? Listen to podcasts.
Do I prefer self-study or learning with others?
Use Notebook LM to build your own AI study assistant.
Try YouLearn.ai to create quizzes and tests based on your material.
Alternatively, you can ask ChatGPT to assist you in creating a curriculum or lesson plan.
Upskilling while working a full-time job isn’t rocket science.
Most of the time, we need a simple, honest system—and the will to follow through.
So here it is.
Stop scrolling.
Start acting.
Happy upskilling,