How to Balance Full Time Work - and Life - with Competitive Magic
Preface: I actually first drafted this article in February of 2023, prior to catching the ultrarunning bug that summer.
My days of competitive MTG are behind me (for now at least) but if I made another push, this is how I’d go about it - and what I recommend for anyone working full time and trying to compete. Hope you find this valuable.
2/4/2023
Someone recently tweeted asking how players balance playing competitive Magic with a full time job. It’s a common challenge so many of us face - and something that can feel even more daunting and challenging when you’re trying to break through and qualify for your first Pro Tour.
Earning the opportunity to compete at the highest levels requires an immense investment of time and energy. And when you’re working full time, the challenge is to find the time outside of your working day for Magic - and to maximize it so that you’re working towards your goals.
Sounds easy enough, and truth be told, it is and it isn’t. But let’s get honest with ourselves first:
No matter how busy you are, you always have enough time
I’m a firm believer that the statement “I didn’t have enough time to [ ]” is a lie. If you wake up, you have the gift of time. How you spend it is a choice. It’s better to say, “I didn’t make time for [ ] because I had other priorities.” My amazing wife - she doesn’t ask much of me, so now when I don’t get around to doing something she asked me to do (likely because I spent too much time on Arena), I’ll just be straight up with her and spare her from my excuses. “I didn’t do it - honestly, I just didn’t make time for it.” Be honest with yourself and others.
The bottom line: time is always there, and you’re responsible for how you decide to use it.
Identify & prioritize the non-negotiables
Making time begins to get a bit trickier when you have other non-negotiable obligations outside of work, (e.g., spouse, kids, home, school). These are areas of life that Magic always takes a backseat to. Depending on how much time those areas require of you, then pursuing competitive Magic may not be realistic for you right now.
Quick sidebar - one of the most important lessons I’ve learned over the past 6+ years of playing competitive Magic is that pursuing competitive Magic isn’t an all-the-time thing. You can always step away from the game and come back to it when you have the bandwidth for it. In fact, doing so is a healthy practice for maintaining a good relationship with the game.
All that said, it’s totally feasible to weave Magic into a life with a full-time job and other non-negotiables, as long as you properly prioritize those non-negotiable areas of life and always make Magic less important than them.
For me, physical fitness is also a non-negotiable, and I highly, highly recommend that it be one of yours. Whether you like to lift weights, run, cycle, yoga, walk, hike - whatever it may be, having some regular exercise routine does wonders for cultivating confidence and positivity, and for reducing stress. That’s a discussion for another time though, so we’ll stay on track here.
Embrace weekly planning - and stick to it
When you have a full time job and other non-negotiables, you absolutely have to plan out your week and actually allocate specific hours for Magic. Don’t go into each day winging it and plan on getting Magic reps in when you have downtime. Know exactly what time you will wake up and exactly what time you’ll go to bed everyday. Jot down the hours when you’ll work, the hours spent with family, and then write down the hours you’ll dedicate to Magic. If you have other activities, such as date night, hangs with friends, fitness/gym stuff, then be sure to allocate time for those things too.
Do your best to stick with your schedule, but be flexible. Sometimes you have a rough week at work and end up having to cut a playtesting sesh. Maybe you get sick, or your partner comes down with something and you need to give them some extra TLC. Schedules are just guidelines, so don’t stress if something important comes up that forces you to make a change.
Communicate, communicate, communicate
If you have a partner, then communicating your plan with them is mandatory. At the beginning of each week, pitch your plan to your partner and make sure it works with their schedule. Adjust as necessary. In doing so, you demonstrate that your relationship is the priority, but you also communicate just how important it is for you to have time for Magic.
If something comes up during the week that causes your plans to change, be sure to let your partner know ASAP so that they can adjust their plans. For example, if I tell my wife that I’m going to a friend’s house for EDH on Wednesday night, or that I’m planning on playing FNM, she’ll typically make plans to fill the time I’m gone.
I’ve definitely made the mistake of not communicating changes in plans, and it’s brutally inconsiderate - especially if your spouse was considerate enough to plan their schedule around yours. Don’t make my mistake!
Hobbies: be ready to deprioritize/sacrifice others for MTG
Though I’m not talking about making sacrifices in the game, Priest of Forgotten Gods illustrates a good analogy here. Think about it - you sacrifice two other creatures in order to swing the game into your favor and inch closer to a win. To improve as a competitive Magic player, you need to make sacrifices in other areas of life in order to make the time necessary for achieving your Magic goals.
If there’s something negotiable in your life that doesn’t contribute to you pursuing your Magic goals, you need to decide just where it fits into your life, and whether or not it’s important that you keep making time for it. If it’s not important than Magic, then either allocate less time for it, or put it on hold while you pursue your MTG goals.
When I really started getting serious about Magic, a lot of my hobbies gradually fell to the wayside. I stopped homebrewing and stuck my guitars in the closet. Skipped gym sessions weren’t something I’d stress about, because I prioritized Magic so much at the time. More often than not I’d sacrifice sleep too (more on why you SHOULDN’T do that in just a bit).
Simply put, after factoring in the non-negotiables of life, I made as much time as possible to commit to Magic. Over time I reaped the rewards and experienced some major improvements in my gameplay.
Set your intention
No matter what, Magic should always be fun. It’s a game, not work (at least not for a majority of us).
That said though, if improving at competitive Magic is a goal of yours, then you should always approach every session with intention.
Playing to practice means you play with the intention of making the best play possible, every time. You’re being deliberate in your deck and sideboarding decisions, deliberate in your gameplay, and you’re thinking through every single action before you make it. You’re taking mental and written notes, and winning is not the priority. Improving at Magic is.
What’s great about setting this intention is that you can bring it to a variety of scenarios. Maybe you’re testing with a friend online or in person, or you’re just jamming matches online. I’m a huge fan of bringing that “practice” approach to FNM and tournaments, too. If your goal is to improve at Magic, you really can’t lose. You either improve, or you don’t.
And if you can take the feeling of losing out of the game, you’re also keeping the game as fun as it’s meant to be - while improving along the way.
Carefree Magic is has its place, too
Theoretically, you could set the intention of playing to improve at Magic every time you sit down, but doing so you run the risk of losing your enjoyment for the game over the long-term. You may even begin to regress as a player.
Say it’s been an extra busy few weeks at work, and you’ve been doing formal playtesting three nights a week and playing at least a league a day. One night you find yourself making more mistakes as usual, and then it happens again the next night, likely because you’re going from one mentally exhausting activity (work) to another every day. If you’re like most of us, you’re probably not getting enough sleep during the week. Stress from work carries over into your gameplay, and you’ve forced yourself into this position of only playing Magic in order to make the best plays and improve as a player. Before you know it you shut the laptop with a resounding “***K this game.”
Doesn’t feel great. And it’s definitely NOT the way playing Magic is supposed to feel.
I’m a firm believer that making some time for “carefree Magic” is absolutely mandatory when you’re preparing for an event or primarily focusing on improvement. Magic is a game - it’s meant to be enjoyed. Though achievements in Magic can provide a tremendous sense of fulfillment that you don’t experience in other areas of life, you don’t want to turn your passion for Magic into a second full time job.
However you get your casual game on, whether that’s drafts, EDH, prereleases, Brawl, FNM - be sure to dedicate some time for it every now and then so that you can kick back and jam the game you love without being super invested in the outcome of your in-game decisions. Playing “carefree Magic” every now and then can be a real breath of fresh air to the competitive player who works 40+ hours. And of course, exposing yourself to different formats will help you keep your approach to the game fresh and honest.
Just remember that casual magic comprises a slice of the pie when it comes to how much total time you budget for Magic. Just stay disciplined enough to stay within the time you allot for it. If that’s three hours a week, then you probably only have enough time for FNM or EDH night with friends - not both. Carefree magic comprises a slice of the pie when it comes to how much total time you budget for Magic
Drafts, prereleases, EDH, Brawl on Arena, and for a lot of folks, FNM, are all great opportunities to kick back and jam some games play Magic without being super invested in the outcome of your in-game decisions. Exposing yourself to different formats can do wonders for your approach
Sure, you may still approach these types of games always aiming to make the best play, but there’s real value in being able to play Magic from time to time in situations in which you’re not as concerned with or invested in the outcome of your plays.
If you’re primarily a competitive MTG player, then having these types of play environments where you can set the sole intention of “playing to have fun” is a great way to maintain balance in your relationship with the game. Because we’re creatures of habit,
Putting yourself through too much stress from practice will definitely hurt your relationship with the game, and will also exhaust your ability to expend energy and focus in other areas of life, so you need to find and maintain a balance between casual and formal play, and of course, balance that total time into the bigger picture of your day-to-day.
Balance isn’t simple - but it’s doable
I confess - I’m someone who struggles with balance a good bit. It’s so easy to get caught up in something you enjoy so much, that you find yourself thinking about it nearly all of the time. It’s the happy thought you think before you go to sleep, and it’s the fire that wakes you up in the morning. It’s the thing you spend the workday wishing you were doing.
I know from experience that that kind of enthusiasm for something can create blinders in your life. If you let it, your extracurricular passion will cause you to block out people and damage relationships. It can cause you to procrastinate on obligations and disregard responsibilities.
If you’re like me and you struggle with balance, it can be helpful to take some time everyday to reflect on what matters the most in your life, and why it does.
Better yet - take some time every morning and just think about what matters the most in the day ahead. Or do it once a week at the beginning of the week. “What are the most important things I need to address/people I want to spend time with this week, and how does Magic fit in around it all?”
It’s a great way to remind yourself that Magic isn’t worthy of basing your life around. Losing relationships, losing your job, losing your home, losing your healthiness, failing in school - none of these things are worth the cost of prioritizing Magic - or any pursuit - over all other things.
It’s easier to fall out of balance than it is to maintain it - but I promise that the quality of life you’ll enjoy - today and tomorrow - is more than worth the extra effort.
