Methodologies for the daily worker

I'm 25 now. In college I had time for all different inductions, practices, etc. and managed a couple of lucids. I have been working full time now for a few years and have always wanted to continue, but a job is making it quite difficult.

First off, my mind type makes dream recall extremely difficult. I have to spend a week of constant dream focus to even start remembering one dream per night. Any WILD induction method is out of the question because I get up early by alarm and can't afford to interrupt sleep. I'm an engineer and work in a serious field, so I can't be tired at work. Being so engaged at work also makes constant reality checking difficult, uncomfortable, and hard to take seriously for myself (since I never dream about work, of course I'm awake).

How should I steer my efforts? I know I can do it. But I think my type of brain is not geared for this, so keeping the subject at the center of my life seems to be the only way... It's tiresome.

Steer your efforts towards DEILD. Yes, DEILD is a WILD technique, but it will not interrupt your sleep or make you more tired at work because a DEILD attempt only takes a minute or two of your time at most after waking up (not counting the lucid dream). Also, DEILD does not require any day work or remembering dreams.

What DEILD does require is the abilities to identify the moment of waking up while immediately remembering to DEILD, and to enter back into a dream while remaining self-aware. The identifying the moment of waking and remembering to DEILD part is mostly a matter of being motivated to do this. The entering back into a dream while remaining self-aware part is mostly a matter of finding something to focus on that will allow you to stay asleep and remain self-aware long enough to enter a lucid dream (a minute or two at most.)

DEILD is a fast technique and does not require any day work or remembering dreams, so it is the ideal technique for your situation.

I 2nd dolphin's advice. By the way, charles3 here on the forums started DEILDing simply because he was very focused on recalling his dreams (my understanding at least). He seemed to be very focused on noticing the micro-awakenings we have, but usually miss, for purposes of his dream recall. As he was recalling his dreams he would fairly frequently find himself re-entering a dream and becoming lucid in some/many of these situations. You might want to PM him or reply in one of his threads. He is a fairly new member on DV who has gotten off to a great start. https://www.dreamviews.com/members/charles3/