I am working 8-16 o'clock so everything else is spare-time.
I never spent time on chess during work hours.
some weeks I have managed to go to 4 chess tournaments
I come home from work and eat some fast and drive to a tournament.
right now I have a break from otb chess and only use chess.com. 5 years I have hurried up all the time to go to a tournament.
I don't usually play tournaments as to use up my whole weekend and then go back to work on the Monday is too gruelling. I play in two leagues in Scotland, the Ayrshire League and the Glasgow League. This means playing midweek after work but you get used to it. I only play about 15-20 OTB matches a year but it's quite enough.
Right now I'm a professional leech and coffee-shop denizen. Pretty good work if you can get it!
I'm retired - love chess .com - been to a few OTB tournaments - Got my "pawn" kicked. But I'll go back for more.
But it's odd, how there are so many adults out there, in the 1800-2400 range, who can go to so many tournaments when clearly chess alone isn't enough to support their livlihood at that level. Does everyone just not work on the weekends? o_O.
Well most chess tournaments are on weekends and most people work weekdays, and for the longer tournaments people can take there holidays. I pick truck parts for a living
I work in the engineered lumber industry and have weekends off, but work anywhere from 48 to 60 hours a week but still manage to make it to about 8 - 10 OTB tourn. a year.
Well most chess tournaments are on weekends and most people work weekdays, and for the longer tournaments people can take there holidays. I pick truck parts for a living
unfortunately it isn't so in my area. tournaments are held on the day the club that helds the tournament is usually playing.
one club is usually having club evening on monday therefore all tournaments are monday.
in my area the tournaments I was part of were
monday, tueday, thursday, friday.
a blitz tournament on saturday.
a team match on sunday.
I one week I had to participate in all tournaments.
If you join a tournament "you are in for a penny and in for a pound."
therefore there is no excuse not to come even if it may be too much.
I am retired. Ever since I quit working my plate is always full.
I don't have enough free time to do the things I want to do.
I write, I bowl, I take college classes, I teach kids chess once a week, I just started bocce ball, I read mystery fiction, I'm playing ten chess games, I eat out breakfast, lunch and supper. I go to the library daily for several hours, I go to the movies "Spiderman" is Friday, I take my grandchildren.
DENVER
I dont have a living:yet.
And for the titled players, how hard is it to earn a living?
what do people who watch 3h tv/day do for a living?
I would think conflicts between jobs and chess would be just a little more common though. I hope I'm wrong :).
I just got a degree in music and haven't found a job yet.
Play chess tournament a once or twice a month so even though you have a less amount of time to practice a day, you can still have a lot of days to practice. Use your practice to the most efficient way to improve your skill.
join a tournament and you find the find the time. you usually find time for what you schedule. you may need to rush but if you have prioritized it you will do it.
like I said "if you are in for a penny - you are in for a pound."
Luckily most non-professional chess leagues and tournaments are planned on the assumption that people need to have jobs and therefore are unlikely to be available to play chess during standard working hours 
It's more difficult though if you work shifts, long hours or awkward hours. People in that position just have to fit in chess when they can. But if you work standard office hours it's not really your working life that suffers from playing chess, rather it's the rest of your life...
I'm amazed by the number of adults I see who can consistently go to so many chess tounraments around where I live and not have a conflict with work. I'm currently quite young, just got my first job a few months ago, and am already running into some conflicts with my boss not giving me as much time off as I'd like for chess, etc.
When I'm older, I'm thinking about being self-employed, but for now I need the stability a "real" job provides.
How do you all balance work and OTB chess?