when I'm on sims I do the testing cheats enabled shiz, then I do family funds, then I set needs to static, so that they don't need to eat/sleep/pee/wash etc. it works because you can set them working on their skills constantly and then they go to work/school, come home, homework and then skills.
it's even better when you have night life, my sim doesn't come home until like 5am LMAO then works on skills, reads the paper and goes to work at 1pm (;