How I Built a Learning Habit While Working Full-Time
The Video Game Framework That Changed Everything
Welcome to A Simple Framework: a newsletter for people who want to turn their time and effort into real outcomes. I share practical strategies and mental models to help you learn faster, stay consistent, and build leverage in your career.
Who has the energy to wake up early, open a book, and study before a long day on the job?
Certainly not me. At least, not back then.
In 2022, my mornings were pure chaos: rolling out of bed at the last minute. Barely awake, signing on for work, then counting the hours until I could sign off.
After work, I’d crash on the couch and play video games late into the night. And the next day, the cycle would repeat.
A small shift changed everything: a better job, a 40% pay rise, and a calmer day routine.
But the thing that helped me achieve this wasn’t discipline.
I looked at progress the way video games are designed: rewarding, trackable, and hard to quit.
This story is about how I went from a broke gamer to a cloud engineer.
I first shared this story last year, and it reached over 90,000 readers. This version goes deeper.
Hopefully, what I share will help you too.
Level 1: Build Your Main Quest
Video games typically have a main quest or goal. A storyline that drives the player forward.
This study habit was built around a goal that mattered to me.
Not a vague goal like learning to code. But something with real stakes:
Becoming a cloud engineer by the end of the year.
Creating projects I can show at interviews.
Building an online presence.
That’s what a main quest can look like.
Then I broke it into side quests:
Smaller sub-goals or milestones that helped me level up:
Learning to write scripts.
Building a program and deploying it in the cloud.
Understanding how to navigate a terminal.
And so on…
Each side quest rewarded me with a new skill in my stack and a hit of dopamine that kept me engaged.
Level 2: Don’t Ignore Your Triggers
Video games are designed to elicit an emotional response.
Getting beat up by an NPC.
Losing all your gold coins.
Falling off the edge.
Not completing a challenge on time.
If you’ve played games, you know the feeling. You fail, get frustrated, and want to quit.
But you don’t. Because deep down, you know you can beat it. You want to beat it.
That’s not motivation you’re feeling. It’s emotional design.
Your buttons are being pushed.
The game made the problem just painful enough that you had to solve it.
The real world has these triggers, too. But they don’t flash red when it happens. And they’re different for everyone.
For me, it was sharing a house with 5 strangers.
I couldn’t cook freely because the kitchen was overcrowded in the evenings.
I couldn’t invite my date over without constant interruptions.
It pushed my buttons.
So I did the only thing I could:
I learned new skills.
Because new skills led to a better job.
A better job meant more income.
And more income meant my own apartment.
Level 3: Craft Your Focus Bubble
Before things started to improve, I had just moved to a new town.
I didn’t know anyone.
Some would have found the experience isolating. But I saw it as an opportunity to reflect on my past and think about the future.
It was a rare opportunity to pursue my goals without any distractions.
Boredom became my greatest asset. Without distractions, I could finally think clearly.
I used this time to create a personal focus bubble by going to bed early, waking up early, and building a habit of going to the gym, then studying for 30-60 minutes when I arrived home. Just enough time before my work shift began.
That routine didn’t last forever. But it lasted long enough.
I’m not telling you to move out of town or build a rigid morning routine.
Like I said, it was a rare opportunity and I wanted to take advantage of it.
But you can engineer your own version of boredom.
You can create space for deep work, even in a noisy world.
Could you sleep an hour early and wake up sooner?
Is your commute quiet enough to study or reflect?
Can you spend your lunch break alone, even once a week?
I’m not saying it’s easy. But if you pay attention, you might notice opportunities you’ve been missing for years.
Level 4: Make Progress Automatic
After work, the couch will always be more tempting than your textbook.
That’s not a flaw. It’s just how most people’s brain works.
It wants comfort, not challenge. TikTok, not TypeScript.
So what’s the alternative? Rely on systems over your own knack for discipline.
Discipline relies on how you feel in the moment. Systems rely on what you have already decided ahead of time.
It’s a pre-written instruction that lets you operate even when your brain resists.
It’s why people can work jobs they hate every day, but struggle to work on their goals. The system is already in place: show up, do the work, get paid.
It’s also why so many lottery winners lose everything.
They had the outcome, but no system to support it. No framework for investing. Just vibes and spending sprees.
A key part of my system was building a simple time-blocking habit.
It worked like this:
Wake up at 6:00
Shower by 6:30
Gym by 7:00
Home by 8:00
Study for 30–60 minutes
Log in to work by 9:00
My mornings were time-blocked.
No internal conflicts. No relying on willpower. I followed instructions like a video game character.
I wasn’t constantly negotiating with myself. The decision was made by a smarter version of me the day before.
That’s what systems do. They separate decision-making from execution.
Even if you don’t feel like studying, you still sit in the chair.
Even if your brain resists, you give it one rule: “Don’t get up until the timer goes off.”
Eventually, you’ll get bored. And once boredom kicks in, you’ll probably start studying.
And if you don’t? You’re still building the habit just by showing up.
If you want to try this:
Pick a fixed time to study.
Pre-decide what you’ll work on (avoid ‘in-the-moment’ thinking).
Use a calendar or habit tracker to stay accountable.
Level 5: Measure Your Progress
In video games, we know when we’re improving. It’s baked into the experience.
You level up, gain skills, and see your stats rise.
Real life doesn’t show progress that clearly. So, I tracked every skill I learned.
It got me through the days I felt deflated. That felt like I was making no progress. That felt like everything I was learning escaped my brain as soon as it entered.
I used Notion to log what I learned and compared it against the ‘requirements’ and ‘nice-to-have’ parts of job descriptions.
APIs
Version Control
Infrastructure as Code
The list goes on…
Every box I filled reminded me I was getting closer to my goal.
It made progress feel real.
When recruiters started calling, I didn’t have to second-guess if I was ready. I knew what I was capable of.
Deconstructing my goals, measuring progress, and blocking out time saved me months of slowness, frustration, and feeling stuck.
Grab my Notion template if you want an easy way to do the same. Click here. It’s free.