I've always toyed with the idea of studying Computer Science since I taught myself how to code.
Hell of a lot more difficult now when I need to work and don't really have the same amount of time to dedicate to studying. Hell of a lot easier when you're younger, your whole life basically revolves around the education, and any job you have generally fits around your school life rather than the other way round.
Yeah it was really a surprise to me when I realized that my energy declined to the point that I couldn't work on my side projects for the down days. Then I counted how many days I have for the rest of my life (up to 75) and this dreaded me a lot.
And it got worse after my son was born a few years ago. I would count the number of weeks available, not the days, because there has been whole weeks that I couldn't do anything. After all those are two full-time jobs.
As for your CS education, I'd recommend getting into some side projects and explore from there. If you go to a school, it's going to take too many courses.
I'm in my late 40s and I've found that my desire for working on side projects after work is affected by how engaged I am mentally at work. When I'm building new features/products from scratch and I'm having to figure out architecture and learn more about whatever language I'm coding in, I get more amped to do side projects at home. When I'm bored and just bug fixing and dealing with more mundane things, I have no desire to do any more coding after work. Something about being more engaged gets my brain in a state that I can keep going for the rest of the day until I need to pull myself away from the computer because it's 2am and I should have been asleep hours ago. I should note that I don't have children so the only "obligation" I have is to spend time with my partner and eat dinner, which I enjoy doing, of course. She usually starts getting ready for bed around 10pm and that's when I start coding. I do have some bad sleep patterns though, doesn't matter if I'm coding or not, which is probably not healthy. I have that revenge nighttime procrastination thing real bad.
Have you considered doing your side projects before work?
It takes me one call in the morning, of me saying for the hundreth time in the past 8 months that the integration is still missing data, to get me off the rails for the day. I know at 10AM that I won't touch anything else after work.
Been contemplating starting early and dedicating "the best hours" to myself.
That absolutely works for me! I play multiple instruments and have found that the early morning is the best time mentally for me to devote uninterrupted time to practice and playing. I’m also fortunate enough to have a basement with another floor between my cacophony and my sleeping family
That was something I have considered for a while, but then figured out it is unrealistic because I have a kid. But original replier probably can do if he/she doesn't have one.
I realized that frustration from work usually spills over to other parts of my life, not surprising as work is usually the first big thing we do during a day. I'm exactly like you -- when I have a lot of frustration from work, then I wouldn't want to work on side projects. It has nothing to do with how many hours I have.
I also have some bad sleep patterns as I only sleep about 5-6 hours every night most of the time.
I think, it might be useful to learn some mental skills to compartment one's mental state. If I could somehow put that frustration from work into a separate space without it spilling all over the ship, it would definitely help a lot. But so far I don't know how to do it -- plus I have a kid so I can't chill down after work until late night.
Plugging Georgia Tech's online masters program - I did it over the course of 4 years while working - can take 1 class a semester - and it's very cheap for a high quality masters
The only way I've been able to get things done is to first allocate time for the things I want to study right when I wake up, then do as much as I can to learn them. The only requirement is to try to understand the material. Putting deadlines and/or milestones in the beginning can sometimes discourage people from starting.
Any time there's a question of "what are the expected value of the max eigenvalue for a random matrix from such and such a distribution" I can answer it in 5 minutes with matlab and ChatGPT (and I know I can answer it). Making a animated GIF with successive approximation of a function by Fourier transform, no problem. Integrating by parts with hyperbolic functions in it? so slow, I'm googling the quadratic formula while the kids are yelling out the integration steps in real time.
Hell of a lot more difficult now when I need to work and don't really have the same amount of time to dedicate to studying. Hell of a lot easier when you're younger, your whole life basically revolves around the education, and any job you have generally fits around your school life rather than the other way round.