Set goals for yourself, both short-term and long-term. Ensure that they are goals within reasonable acquisition. Then take steps to realize those goals. If getting a quality education is on your mind, then you must devote at least 1/3 of your time pursuing that. For example, if you wake up at 8:00 a.m. and go to sleep at around 11 pm, then from around 8:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. you would spend time reading and contemplating materials relevant to your courses. Take a break for lunch or simply recess from your work. Resume at around 12 pm 'til about 2:30 pm and that's 1/3 of your day.
Organizing your life around a schedule is not just about being structured or orderly, it's about knowing what you want and taking control of your life to get what you want. So if you've already decided to study for a length of time, then do it and don't let anything or anyone stop you from doing so because you've already made plans to do it and your plans are more important than theirs (within reason, ofc).
With that said, you should make an effort to explore within your community during your free time to see what options are available to you. Life is all about the people you know and your relationships with those people. Successful people influence others to be successful, so find someone you know (within reason) that you think is successful and learn from them. You'd be surprised at how far you will go by simply emulating habits* of successful people.
*That's harder than it sounds, I know. But anything worth having is worth having, not because it is easy, but because it is hard.