Stopping for a breath No images? Click here I still have some consultant power available both from myself and my colleagues. If your team needs more hands-on Elixir development we can help with a small diverse team of friendly and capable developers. Whether you need just one of us or several reach out and we can talk. Recently publishedDoes it really matter if I call it a function or method? (video) Still think it's interesting. My editor went wild as well :P Need to hire Elixir devs?Upcoming, EU-timezone senior Elixir developer --- If you are a tech lead or CTO looking to hire Elixir developers. Reach out, I can help. Taking the timeI've been stressed a bit recently. This came to a head with getting sick. Whether that was exposure to preschool kids, family, poor management of a sensitive stomach or actually primarily stress I don't actually know. But it put me down for a full day, had me at well below half mast the day after. I'm generally quite good at being sick. I typically have no issue calling force majeure and laying down in a couch feeling sorry for myself, sleeping and indulging. This is harder with kids and my wife took care of us all like a damn champ for that first day. But even before coming down with fever I'd felt like I was running behind on a client project. I felt like I had things to prove because an estimate was slipping. Even though I'm well aware that's what estimates do. There was some external pressure but I wasn't taking it in stride, it was compacting me and I was struggling against it. I was getting sour with the project overall while at the same time I was considering if I could reschedule my week to make more time for it. In reality I have 50% of full-time allocated to that project and that's what I'm paid for. The time is fixed, the output will flow from that. And I'm not alone working on it. I'm simply not happy with people being dissatisfied with the velocity even when I can't control the velocity. I can affect it but not control it. I ran into this somewhat typical internet meme chart about burnout. It got to me. It was useful to me. Reposted here in case it goes away. No idea what the basis for this is, but I found it helpful. When I started Underjord part of the premise was to work at a pace I enjoyed and doing things that I enjoyed. There are certainly times when there are struggles, pressures and such in work but they should never dominate my week. I don't feel I'm at serious risk of burnout. On that chart I can feel that I've started to feel 1 through 4 and started to poke on 5. "You change your values to focus on work more". Hell no. That's not what I want to be doing. I had a day and a half of non-client work ahead of me. Half a day of client meetings I post-poned because my throat was still way too bad to run a meeting. My half-day of recruitment client calls and a potential live-stream I cancelled to spend the day wrangling children so my wife could clean up the house. I cancelled my entire friday (today) except for writing this. My favorite precious creative day of writing, recording and such. I'm going to spend it with my family, taking it relatively easy. Improving the family baseline. Reminding myself I can take this time off precisely whenever I need to, want to or feel like. And then two days of weekend. I think I'll return monday with a bit more patience all in all. And I'll keep an eye on it. Not my first rodeo. Now not everyone has the luxury of only working 50% with a direct client/employer. Very much understood. But almost everyone reading this has some leverage with their company in case you are feeling that you need a break, a reset, two days with family or a day to go off into the woods and sit on a log. Just say that you need it. Or take time off if there's a mechanism you can use. It is okay to cause some disruption for your own benefit. If you recognize yourself anywhere above 5 on that chart it sounds like you need to talk to someone quick, get out of work, make major changes. I don't know a one-size solution. I know things don't improve if you don't change them. Me, I've been a bit stressed recently and it was starting to show. I think I'm addressing it. I hope you do the same if you're feeling that. Thanks for the read. Now I'll go downstairs to a happily shrieking baby and a wild two-year-old. If you reach out to me by replying or at lars@underjord.io I'll answer eventually. I'm also on Twitter as @lawik and check it too often. I appreciate your time. I hope you appreciate yours. |