Work life balance

Welcome to day one of my series of short, actionable tips for your career! And before I really get starting sharing some ideas and advice, I thought I would start with a note on work/life balance.

It’s worth taking time to make an explicit decision on how important your career is to you right now and how much of your spare time you’re willing to invest in it.

It’s true that for almost everything the best way to improve is through practice. So, if you want to write better code then writing more code will help. If you want to be a better writer than doing more writing will help (that’s what I’m doing right now!).

But it’s also true that you can only work at your best when you’re well rested, slept well (or, if like me you have young children, as well as you can!), and have the headspace to learn and develop.

You can also have a great career without doing anything work related in your free time. In fact, it’s probably more effective to manage your work time better to allow you to grow while also delivering for your employer.

However you decide to balance work and life, make sure it is a conscious decision.

This is #1 in my 2023 series of short, actionable tips for your career. You can view the entire series at https://andrew-jones.com/categories/career/