tldr - turn your research rabbit hole into a solution to someone elses problem - its a win win for everyone  most of my days revolve around work work work im always on call and always thinking about it when im not - apparently i even talk about it in my sleep i often go down research rabbit holes and feel like ive wasted my day but when i come across something of interest i bookmark it in some form and sometimes even remember to look at it again later - this is when i usually end up learning something even if just one little fact if i learn at least one thing of interest every day even every other day i feel like im at least doing ok i also try to help at least one person with a smallmedium problem every day the easy ones dont count because theyre usually too easy i have a service job so thats usually pretty attainable ive learned to help people with a lot of those smallmedium problems as a result of going down plenty of those rabbit holesbecause the subject interested me even if just a little bit its a manageable cycle and a win win for everyone