Droidcon SF '19: Your Strengths Include: Work/Life Balance

As developers, many of us are fortunate to be passionate about our work. However, “passion” often ends up being coded language for “working extra hours”! Things like personal projects, maintaining a portfolio website, or even keeping up-to-date on new libraries and best practices takes time and effort that we might prefer to spend in other areas.
In the end, we all only have 24 hours in a day, 168 hours in a week. Between our family, career, health, and happiness, what should we prioritize?

We’ll discuss tips for setting boundaries while maintaining career progression, all the while emphasizing making intentional, empowered decisions about your happiness.

Work+life balance? Why not both!

Transcript

1. Parth Padgaonkar YOUR STRENGTHS INCLUDE: WORK/LIFE BALANCE Android @ Front
2. Quick Audience Poll
5. Work/Life Balance
6. Work/Life Balance – First second sentence on Wikipedia for Work/Life Balance “The state of equilibrium in which the demands of personal, professional, and family life are equal”
7. “…in which the demands of personal, professional, and family life are equal”
8. “…in which the demands of personal, professional, and family life are equal”
9. Agenda I. Be mean to Apple
10. Agenda I. Be mean to Apple. ✔
11. Agenda II. Self-Assessment III. Making Choices, Building Balance IV. Q&A V. Text your manager and ask for a 1:1 I. Be mean to Apple. ✔
12. – Parth Padgaonkar
 roughly 3 seconds ago “I am not a doctor” Disclaimer
13. Self Assessment https:/ /flic.kr/p/aqetdN
14. tiny.cc/dcsf-wlb This wheel should represent reality, not aspiration!
15. Balance Wheel Analysis
16. Balance Wheel Analysis • How does your Life Balance Wheel compare to your calendar? (i.e. reflect your reality) • Are you happy where your time was allocated? • What areas might you want to reprioritize/deprioritize?
17. Making 
 Choices Building 
 Balance Making Choices,
 Building Balance
18. The Shoulders of Giants Me Android Friends
19. Building Balance Choose Your Own Adventure #care Components
20. You Work Community Building #Care for
21. #Care + Work
22. #Care + work • “standard” work hours 
 (e.g. 9a-5p) • Time for professional development ✅ • Smarter deliverable planning
23. #Care + work • “standard” work hours 
 (e.g. 9a-5p) • Time for professional development ✅ • Smarter deliverable planning I never had explicit pressure to work extra hours but it was definitely implied, in terms of hard deadlines to ship and no willingness to flex on requirements. If the job was going to get done, I was going to be working 50-60 hour weeks, and that’s that. ❝
24. #Care + You
25. #Care + you • sleep • non-work hobbies • gym/fitness • volunteering • vacation/travel • health issues
26. #Care + you I have routines that I stick to that are important for [personal balance]. Some of it is “me“ time, like running in the mornings, walking to/from work (~25min), watching some TV shows I like, cooking my own lunches and dinners. • sleep • non-work hobbies • gym/fitness • volunteering • vacation/travel • health issues ❝
27. #Care + Community
28. #Care + community • children/childcare • caring for a family member • spending time with friends • community/religious groups
29. #Care + community Prioritizing proximity to my family used to be a thing I barely thought about, but it’s become my top priority in order to make sure I don’t end up having a twice-a-year relationship with the people I care the most about. • children/childcare • caring for a family member • spending time with friends • community/religious groups ❝
30. (Arch) Components 
 of Work/Life Balance
31. Balance Takes
32. Balance Takes Balance
33. Balance Takes Intention Balance
34. Balance Takes Consistency Intention Balance
35. Balance Takes Balance
36. Unless I’m working on something I feel is directly for my personal benefit, I don’t write work code after hours; my laptop stays closed and out of reach.” Balance Takes Balance ❝
37. Balance Takes Balance My problem was that I enjoyed working too much, and allowed it to monopolize my free time. 
 Burnout happened because work became stressful and draining, and that meant suddenly the main thing in my life was stressful.” ❝
38. Balance Takes Balance • Diversify your happiness • Balance is a trend-line, not an (x,y) point • Pressure needs balance, too!
39. Balance Takes Consistency
40. I’ve found myself unapologetically just taking time for my wellbeing, when I need it.” Balance Takes Consistency ❝
41. Balance Takes Consistency There is almost nothing that will come in the way of me and my exercise/hobbies/sleep schedule. 
 I feel no guilt for pursuing them.” ❝
42. Balance Takes Consistency • Build consistency at work • Build consistency with yourself
43. Balance Takes Intention
44. Balance Takes Intention I don’t have the best WLB, but I’ve found a point where my career is thriving, but I’m heading home enough that I’m still happy, healthy, and feel fulfilled by my hobbies and life. 
 
 Sometimes I think staying late at work can be exactly the right call — if it’s buying you a future you want” ❝
45. Balance Takes Intention • Choose your job intentionally • Allocate your time intentionally • Make your own change
46. You are more important than your code
47. • 11 Ways to Tell if a Company Values Work-Life Balance
 —Before You Take the Job
 bit.ly/2JnShZv • Being Glue
 bit.ly/2wuQxHr • San Francisco Gender Equality Principles Indicator
 bit.ly/2FNvdSZ • You Don’t Have to Know It All
 bit.ly/2Yv8qm6 • The SW Dev’s Guide to WLB
 bit.ly/2XDlki4 • Front Culture Book
 bit.ly/2D2ZrPU • Wait But Why — The Tail End
 t.co/8thkpyuCyZ Resources
48. Work Happier
 (and we’re hiring @ frontapp.com/jobs) @ParthDroid