If You Have Enough Time For This, You Have Enough Time for a Bootcamp

Twenty hours a week. That’s what one of our bootcamps typically demands. Abstracted across a whole week, that’s some seconds above 2 hours and 51 minutes per day. It’s a real commitment — we’re not going to pretend it isn’t. But if you have enough time for the following, you have enough time for a bootcamp.

Watching TV

According to Nielsen, the average US adult spends nearly 32 hours watching TV a week. And that’s just during the warmer months — when it’s less pleasant to spend time outdoors, that figure increases to 34 hours per week.

We don’t know your habits, but if you’re within the range of that estimate, you can potentially make enough time to study at a bootcamp without even entirely cutting out those shows that we know are so binge-worthy.

Scrolling through social media

Doomscrolling. We’ve all done it while ignoring that little voice in the back of our head that keeps asking us to put down our phones and please do something. If you were to listen to that voice and decide to stop scrolling (both on your phone and your computer), you’d save a total of 16 hours and 48 minutes per week according to Search Engine Journal.

To be fair, that’s not the 20 hours you’d need to dedicate to a bootcamp. But just like with the following category, if you cut down on this time, you can free up hours so you can build to something new — like your next favorite career.

Playing video games

According to this survey, around a fifth of Gen Z, Gen X, and Baby Boomer respondents game for over 13 hours a week. And for millennials, that was even higher — over a quarter of millennials surveyed said they spent over half a day gaming per week.

And just like we said in the last entry, yeah, it’s not 20 hours, but it is a significant amount of time that you can reallocate to fueling a new, fulfilling, and rewarding career.

Some quick math

Just for fun, we’ll build a hypothetical reality right now. Let’s say you fit all the average stats, but even though you loved a good video game when you were younger, you don’t play all that much anymore. That means you can’t save that 13 hours. Still, you need to relax somehow, so let’s say you choose to cut your TV time only in half — to 16 hours a week. That’ll give you time to watch a movie a day (and two on Sundays). If you then choose to reduce your social media time by a quarter, you’ll be beyond the 20 hour mark with 12 minutes to spare.

Why it’s worth it

Listen, we know it’s a bummer to give up on these things. But the time spent improving your skills and your knowledge has an 87% chance of paying off_{Why TripleTen Grads Have an 87% Chance of Getting Hired}. In fact, Jeremy Rivera_{Balancing College, Work, Family, and a Part-Time Bootcamp to Find Tech Success: Jeremy Rivera’s TripleTen Story} followed this strategy.

I managed to fit the bootcamp in the time I would’ve spent binging Netflix or being out every weekend

Jeremy Rivera TripleTen grad

Guess what: he landed a rewarding career in tech. Why not you?

And who knows — by switching to a career in tech, you might win back even more free time in which you can game, scroll, or watch the latest show. AC Slamet_{A Producer Switches to Tech to Find Time for Life: AC Slamet’s TripleTen Story} did. Again: why not you?

Want more practical advice?

We’ve got you covered. Our interactive checklist can help you prepare for a rewarding career pivot that sticks. Download the Get-Hired-in-Tech Checklist today.