Work Life Balance for Passionate Developers - Full Stack Toronto 2015 Edition

‘Work-life balance’ is touted in job postings everywhere - but what does it really mean? If you’re a passionate developer that’s excited about the technology you work with every day, you probably spend a fair bit of time outside of the office doing something that looks a lot like what you do at work. Even if you’re excited about your work, it’s important to find ways to rest, recharge and disconnect periodically. After spending 6 years building a team of passionate developers, I’ve learned that everyone approaches work-life balance differently, with vastly different results.

Transcript

1. Work/Life Balance For
   Passionate Developers
   Presented by Joshua Warren
   

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2. OR:
   

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3. Put That Laptop Down
   And Get Some Sleep!
   

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5. About Me
   

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6. PHP Developer
   Working with PHP on the web
   since 1999
   

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7. Founder & CEO
   Founded Creatuity in 2008
   PHP Development Firm
   Focus on the Magento platform
   I was inspired, in large part, by never wanting to
   work in a traditional office thanks to the movie
   ‘Office Space’.
   

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8. Frequent Conference Presenter
   Occasional Open Source Contributor
   Over-Tweeter
   

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9. Hardware Hacker
   Avid Sci-Fi Reader
   Aspiring Author
   

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10. What Work/Life Balance
    Looks Like To Me
    

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13. Work/Life Balance Looks
    Different to Everyone
    

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14. Work Looks Different
    
    Life Looks Different
    

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15. Apply These Principles to Your
    Unique Work/Life Situation
    

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16. JoshuaWarren.com
    @JoshuaSWarren
    

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17. IMPORTANT!
    lanyrd.com/sdhttz
    Download slides
    Stay in touch - give me feedback
    

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18. What’s That?
    Work/Life Balance
    

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19. –Wikipedia
    A concept including proper prioritizing
    between "work" and "lifestyle"
    

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20. –Wikipedia
    “Lifestyle” includes health, pleasure,
    leisure, family & spiritual development/
    meditation
    

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21. Work/Life Balance
    Used to be simple
    Work 8 hours making widgets, then go home
    The widgets didn’t follow you home
    

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23. Work/Life Balance Today
    Work 8+ hours
    Spend an hour driving home
    Check your work email on your smartphone
    Finish up “one last bit” of work after dinner
    

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25. Think of when you were packing to attend Full Stack
    Toronto
    

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29. We have a limited amount of room and have to
    choose carefully what we pack.
    

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30. If we aren’t mindful of what we pack - others will
    make those decisions for us.
    

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31. Most of us are trying to pack entirely too much - we’re
    spending too much of our life focused on work.
    

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32. –Every Overworked Developer
    That’s OK, though, because I love what I do!
    

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33. Work/Life Integration
    “If people enjoy what they do, there’s no need to draw
    strict lines.” —Fortune Magazine
    Not a bad concept, but…
    

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34. Work/Life Integration
    Work/Life Integration, especially when abused by
    employers, destroys personal boundaries
    Healthy personal boundaries are critical to self-
    worth, happiness & fulfillment
    

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35. The best attempts at work/life integration use
    technology to allow employees to alter their work to
    better accommodate their personal life.
    

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36. The worst attempts at work/life integration use
    technology and peer pressure to take advantage of
    passionate, driven employees.
    

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37. Cui Bono
    Evaluate a company’s work/life initiatives by
    asking a simple question - cui bono - “to whose
    benefit?”
    

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38. Or: It’s about to get real…
    The Personal Case For
    Work/Life Balance
    

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39. 2,000 Saturdays
    

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40. #fstoconf15
    The average American in their mid-30’s has
    2,000 Saturdays left in their life. Don’t
    waste them.
    

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41. 2,000 sounds like a lot - but think about how
    fast each weekend disappears.
    

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42. Also, that assumes you reach the average.
    

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43. Every year, our community loses friends
    and colleagues well before their time
    

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44. Work is important, but life is precious,
    and it’s entirely too short.
    

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45. Inspired by Merlin Mann’s post How
    Many Saturdays Do You Get and the
    followup discussion on his podcast,
    Back to Work
    

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46. Merlin’s calculation was that he had
    only about 300 Saturdays left that his
    young daughter would want to spend
    with him.
    

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48. Importance of Personal Time
    Develop and maintain healthy relationships
    Personal growth & development
    Happiness & fulfillment
    

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49. Importance of Personal Time
    Improve your health
    Lower stress levels
    

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51. Or: A slightly less depressing, more business-y segment
    The Business Case for
    Work/Life Balance
    

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52. #fstoconf15
    Tech executives - you’re not running a factory.
    Stop treating your employees like factory
    workers.
    

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53. Studies have linked personal downtime to increases
    in creativity, memory, learning and problem solving.
    

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54. Hiring millennials? 40% of them will leave if
    you don’t have a good work/life balance
    policy. — Washington Post
    

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55. In other words - do you want high performing
    employees who are creative, solve problems and
    help your business grow?
    Give your employees downtime!
    

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56. Or: Stop Working Your Employees To Death
    Implement Work/Life Balance at
    Work
    

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57. #fstoconf15
    Work/life balance is not a perk.
    It’s an attitude of respect for each
    employee’s life and need for rest.
    

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58. Healthy work/life balance requires a culture where
    employees feel safe disconnecting from work.
    

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59. Create clear boundaries and expectations between
    working and non-working times.
    

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60. Flexible hours and working from home are great,
    but create a clear boundary that signals to manager
    and employee when the employee is working.
    

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61. Flexible hours and remote work are not an excuse
    or justification for overworking employees.
    

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62. As an employee - ask for these boundaries if you’re
    not receiving them.
    

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64. As a manager - make sure to respect your
    employee’s boundaries - and your own. Lead by
    example.
    

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65. Popular Options
    Telecommuting
    20+ PTO days
    Compressed workweek
    Flexible schedules
    

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66. These options are great, but implemented on their
    own without a cultural change, they are often
    underutilized.
    

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67. For example - instead of “flexible schedules”,
    set “core hours”.
    

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68. Corporate employees of Darden Restaurants have
    core hours from 9:00AM - 3:30PM
    

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69. Old culture: all employees must be in the same
    office at the same time, or they aren’t getting work
    done
    

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71. New culture: it’s important for employees to be
    able to collaborate, but their productivity won’t
    suffer if they don’t have the exact same hours.
    

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72. Or: Rediscover Those People and/or Pets Living In Your
    Home
    Implement Work/Life Balance at
    Home
    

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73. Set boundaries.
    Determine what you and your family are
    comfortable with, and stick to it.
    

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74. For some people, that means work stays at work.
    

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75. For others, it means getting that last hour of work in
    after the kids have gone to bed.
    

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76. Experiment with small changes.
    I banned laptops from my bedroom and discovered
    that one change greatly improved my sleep.
    

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77. I tried Flux - https:/
    /justgetflux.com/
    I even wore these $6 glasses:
    

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78. For me - it wasn’t just the impact of staring at a
    bright screen. Using a laptop in bed prevented me
    from relaxing my mind.
    

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79. #fstoconf15
    Know yourself. Take time to set
    priorities to help you guide your
    own personal balance between
    work and life.
    

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80. Track all of your time for a week - including time
    spent at home.
    

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81. Try Using the Print-At-Home Emergent Task Timer
    

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83. Does your time spent at home match up with your
    priorities? If not, rearrange until it does.
    

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84. Treat your personal time the same way you treat
    your work time.
    

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85. Would you walk out of a meeting at work for a minor
    issue at home?
    Then don’t give up your personal time for a minor
    issue at work!
    

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86. Focus on your health
    

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87. Get better sleep - FitBit
    Improve your nutrition - MyFitnessPal
    Get some sort of exercise - FitBit + MyFitnessPal
    

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88. Even minor improvements to your health will have a
    noticeable impact on your work/life balance and
    your enjoyment of life
    

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89. Or: gl hf
    Work/Life Balance For Remote
    Workers
    

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90. Remote workers tend to have the very best or very
    worst work/life balance.
    

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92. Again - it all comes down to boundaries.
    

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93. Set clear boundaries with everyone involved - both
    your family and your coworkers.
    

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94. Ensure your family respects your work time -
    establish a clear signal when you are ‘at work’.
    

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95. Ensure your work respects your family time -
    establish clear rules and expectations of when you
    will and won’t be reachable.
    

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96. Find a support group - A coffee shop, a coworking
    space, a makerspace.
    

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97. You need an in-person outlet for work-related
    stress other than your family.
    

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99. Or: gl hf dd
    Work/Life Balance For
    Passionate Developers
    

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100. Example: You’re a full-time PHP developer who
     spends all day working with a custom app in Laravel
     

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101. Coming home and working on a personal project in
     Laravel - is it work?
     

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102. Personal projects closely related to what you do at
     work aren’t necessarily bad.
     

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103. The key is balance.
     

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104. Don’t spend all of your personal time on a project
     that closely mirrors what you do at work.
     

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105. Split your personal time between projects similar to
     your work and completely unrelated projects.
     

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106. Start small - if you usually work with Symfony at
     work, learn Laravel at home.
     

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107. Then, find hobbies in unrelated areas.
     

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108. Spending your downtime learning a new hobby or
     skill will boost your creativity.
     

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109. If you’re a software developer, buy an Arduino and
     start tinkering with circuits.
     

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110. Combine your interests and your work with new
     hobbies as well.
     

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111. For example - I enjoy speaking with developers and
     trying new beers.
     I use every trip I take - for work or pleasure - to
     connect with local user groups and get their
     recommendation for a good local beer.
     

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112. Work/life balance is hard. Especially for those of us
     passionate about our work.
     

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113. It’s an important topic, and important to get it right
     - those 2,000 Saturdays will pass by in a blink.
     

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114. Set aside time for yourself, for your family and for
     downtime.
     

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115. Stop and think about how you’re spending your
     time, and what boundaries you have in place.
     

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116. #fstoconf15
     Define one boundary between your work
     and your life and starting Monday,
     respect that boundary.
     

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117. After a week, try the Emergent Task Timer and see if
     your reality matches up with your priorities and
     boundaries.
     

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118. Keep In Touch!
     lanyrd.com/sdhttz
     @JoshuaSWarren
     JoshuaWarren.com
     

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