How can you have 1000+ hours in a single game, work on a personal project for 10 months, spend 4 years writing a novel?
The key is to actually not care about the time spent, but rather what you do with it. If you’re counting how long it’s been, it’s gonna be a grind, but if you’re really focused in your goals, time flies and you get what you wanted.
Also, as others have mentioned, having multiple interests to jump back and forth to goes a long way in preventing burnout.