How important is routine for a productive life?

I think the answer to this one might be subjective, but I'm interested in how people manage their time in a day-to-day manner. I'm not sure if most people would like to accomplish more each day but I certainly would. To be honest I completely begrudge every minute spent at work because it could be time spent doing things I like, and selling my time to pay the bills seems like a pretty wasteful thing to do with my life (but that's another post entirely!)

The thing is, I used to be a shift worker which came with a lot of negatives like not seeing friends or visiting The Paddock regularly. I tended to work short shifts though: about 6 hours usually from very early in the morning or from after lunch through to evening which always left me with half a day to do my own thing.

Now I'm working full time hours I get half as much done at home - I'm too tired to get stuck into anything tricky like sewing after the 10-hour round trip to work and back. The dogs are lucky to get a trip to the park in the dark! So that leaves my weekends which I tend to fill with socialisation with friends and family, trips to The Paddock or Rest & Relaxation if I haven't had any for a while. I miss my half-day time slots to sew something or otherwise set time aside for a task.

I kept thinking once I had settled into a new routine at work I would get back to making things but that all seems to have ground to a halt. How do other people manage to do the things they want AND have a job, be a parent etc.? Do you make routine work for you?