It's completely understandable, man. Gotta make a living somehow, and congratulations for graduating, btw. Good to know you already got a job 'cause depending on where you live, it can be a hit or miss or something sure to happen.
About the VN itself, if you think that chapter by chapter is not working then, based on the games that I've played, the "safest" route would be a day system (which falls on the route by route system). This one is used by big games like My New Family and Sisterly Lust (yea, call me a weirdo just 'cause I play incest games) and it works out fine.
The big problem with this plan is that people might end up complaining either that days are too short OR the update itself is short depending on how many days you add, but my personal approach would be ignoring this type of feedback since it's based on how much you can do, people will have to understand. And if you go with this plan, I'd say that 2 days per update would be more than enough for now, given that they have substance and good progress to the plot.