Here’s how an Olympic swimmer with a 9-to-5 engineering job schedules his day

Around the office, astatine his Atlanta-based engineering job, Nic Fink's coworkers telephone him "The Fish."

It's an apt nickname for the 30-year-old who moonlights arsenic a swimmer connected the U.S. nationalist squad and has competed astatine Olympic tournaments.

"I thought my swimming vocation was going to beryllium sunsetting astir a twelvemonth and a fractional ago," helium tells CNBC Make It.

That was aft helium placed 5th successful the 200-meter breaststroke astatine the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. It is besides portion of the crushed why, successful 2021, helium acceptable retired to get his master's grade successful electrical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

But Fink precocious won the 100-meter breaststroke astatine the U.S. Championships, astonishing himself by mounting a idiosyncratic champion astatine an property erstwhile the mean aquatics vocation might commencement to upwind down.

"Turns out, I was wrong, and I was capable to proceed to propulsion myself past what I thought I was susceptible of," helium says.

And yet, Fink is besides committed to continuing his engineering career. His dedication to some means that helium volition proceed to pb a treble life: partially successful the pool, partially astatine the office.

That juggling enactment has go rather acquainted to Fink, who balanced a rigorous swimming docket with his world studies for astir of his life. But for the mean 9-to-5 worker, adding successful a nonrecreational aquatics grooming docket mightiness look astir intolerable — astatine least, without barreling toward burnout.

Fink is managing to beryllium palmy astatine some pursuits portion besides enjoying beingness extracurricular of each. Here are 2 tips helium keeps successful caput to marque it happen:

Fink typically starts his time astatine 5:30 a.m. to marque it to his two-hour greeting aquatics training. He eats his meal — which helium prepares the Sunday earlier for astir of the week — astatine the Georgia Tech pool earlier heading consecutive to the office.

Some days he'll marque definite to beryllium the past 1 to permission the bureau since helium often arrives somewhat aft everyone else. Other days, helium has day aquatics signifier arsenic well, truthful helium leaves enactment astir 1:30 p.m. and goes straight backmost to the excavation wherever immoderate different Olympians besides train.

He usually gets location astir 5:30 p.m., eats dinner, relaxes with his wife, pro swimmer and Olympic gold-medalist Melanie Margalis, and gets to furniture astatine astir 9:30 p.m.

It's ne'er casual to juggle aggregate commitments, particularly erstwhile they each necessitate your afloat absorption successful the moment. But Fink's busy, yet effective, docket proves that it is imaginable to prosecute aggregate passions astatine once.

"There is clip for everything. It whitethorn not look similar it and it whitethorn not beryllium easy, but determination is clip for everything," Fink says.

As helium ping-pongs from the excavation to the bureau backmost to the pool, Fink relies connected to-do lists and strict scheduling to support himself organized. He is honorable with his coaches, his co-workers and his bosses astir wherever helium needs to beryllium and erstwhile truthful that helium tin conscionable each his commitments.

Surprisingly, contempt the changeless back-and-forth, Fink says helium manages to compartmentalize the assorted demands of his day.

"After a truly hard workout successful the morning, I spell to enactment and I'm like, 'I'll conscionable deliberation astir enactment and not deliberation astir practice, not deliberation astir day training,'" Fink says.

But, helium tin inactive lone compression truthful overmuch into each day. Fink makes definite that everyone helium works with understands, portion helium whitethorn not beryllium capable to enactment longer hours, arsenic helium puts it: "When you bash spot me, you're going to get 100%." The information that his employers and colleagues person been supportive is besides portion of what's made Fink's divided docket palmy to this point.

"It helps to person an knowing institution and acceptable of co-workers," helium says.

Flexibility astatine the workplace is conscionable portion of wherefore Fink has been capable to debar burning retired truthful far. It's besides a substance of focusing connected 1 task astatine a clip and mounting reasonable expectations with his coaches and bosses. That way, helium maintains momentum and passion wrong some careers without feeling drained by demands that mightiness regularly propulsion him successful aggregate directions astatine once.

Figuring retired however to negociate 2 careers simultaneously came with increasing pains, says Fink.

"The archetypal fewer weeks, I was thinking, 'I don't cognize however I'm going to bash this. I don't cognize if I tin equilibrium it all,'" helium recalls.

Developing the routines and habits that tin enactment some an Olympic swimmer and an early-career technologist did not travel immediately. Fink says it was "the hardest part."

However, by sticking to his schedule, helium says implicit time, "It started becoming 2nd nature."

It has been conscionable implicit 4 months since Fink officially started his dual-career regular and truthful far, helium says it is going well: His co-workers and bosses look to person a bully content of his enactment ethic and of course, he's inactive mounting idiosyncratic records successful the pool.

For now, Fink says he's not yet acceptable to discontinue his aquatics cap. His triumph astatine the U.S. Championships qualified him for the World Championships, which instrumentality spot in Japan aboriginal this month. But arsenic helium continues to bid and compete, helium besides knows determination is an extremity successful sight.

"Swimming is not thing that you tin bash forever," Fink says. And he'd alternatively permission the nonrecreational swimming satellite by prime than beryllium forced retired by injury.

As for engineering, helium knows he's inactive learning the ropes and getting his vocation disconnected the ground: "I'm not successful immoderate unreserved to conquer the satellite of engineering conscionable yet."

He adds, "But, erstwhile swimming is over, I'm going to person a full batch of competitory substance successful maine that volition request to beryllium redirected somewhere."

DON'T MISS: Want to beryllium smarter and much palmy with your money, enactment & life? Sign up for our caller newsletter!