I have been doing Flooring work for the past 24 years. I am reaching the "End of that Career" as my body doesn't want to keep up with my will to work. I get as much time off as I want....but still must work to pay bills, and buy chips. 😀 Sometimes I work 6 days a week and sometimes 1 or 2. It just depends upon the demand. We got so much rain in Jan/Feb....I only worked 8 or 9 days. (Nobody was shopping for flooring with 20 inches of rain in the forecast.)
It gives me plenty of time for researching and keeps the day interesting.
I do go to as many antiques shops, fairies, coin shops thrift shop as my wife will allow. And if I have the day off(and she is working) I will try to venture out of my normal area to make contacts.
Some vendors wait for me to show up and then pull out their chips, tokens etc. Sometimes I don't even look through them...I just say ..."How much?" And buy them all. I get stuck with some junk sometimes...,but I also find hidden gems.
I spend at least 20 hours a week (average) hunting for chips, looking through research notes(trying to connect the dots) or looking at new reasearch projects.