I have a wonderful fiancee and a son who is 2 years old today! Having a family means there is a lot less time available for studying. I can’t do those cram sessions for 8 hours straight. I have a strategy for finding time and it might be useful to others.
I usually go up at 6 am in the morning but from now on I will go up one hour earlier to be able to study. I commute to work, so I have 30 minutes on the train when I’m going to work and 30 minutes when I go home from work. That is one additional hour so that means 2 hours. I am basically going to give up on TV from now on unless it’s something very special. I will try to study 1-2 hours after my son goes to sleep. So my plan is to study 3-4 hours per day. I think studying for the CCIE might take about 2000 hours. That means I am on a 2 year plan from now on and if I can do it faster, great, but I am not going to rush through this.
One other thing I try to do is listen to podcasts etc on my phone when I am riding my bike or talking a walk.
So there is time available to do studying, it is all about how much you can sacrifice to do the studying. Family always comes first though, it’s not worth sacrificing family for a certification.