Hey Friends! Long time no chat. When I started this blog (if you can call it that), I wanted to share more about what I find useful with managing my ‘experience’ in the information technology field. What I found is that this resonates with a few of you very deeply. This has allowed me the privilege of speaking with some of you about your personal struggles and success with managing expectations, and what it means to succeed or fail. All of this while trying to balance your family, your work, and your passions.

I wrote all that to let you know, I’ve been distracted by those interactions – neglecting the blog – and I need to do better. Which is why I’m here today. One thing that has been a constant over the last few months are ways that I manage my balance between work and everything else. I figured, I’d share some of those with you – all of which you’ve probably heard – but giving you the context on why they help me. In a hope that my perspective somehow helps you. Since it seems like we will all be challenged with the current work situation for a while, I figured this is a great time to do it.

“Don’t spend so much time working that you forget to live..”

That quote comes from some cheesy wall decoration in my parents kitchen, and it is probably stolen from somewhere else before that, so it’s not mine. I’m not sure if that’s the exact quote, but that’s what I remember. In this crazy field we are all in, it can almost be like a drug. We are all addicts, that need to be first. We need to find the best solution, we need to obsess. We need to work harder and then make it seem like it was easier. It’s absolutely nuts.

There is nothing wrong with loving your work and doing what you enjoy. We’ve all heard the saying, “if you love what you do you’ll never work a day in your life.” What can be troublesome though, is prioritizing it over people and experiences that are happening around you. Life won’t let you hit pause so you can finish what you’re doing and come back, so if you’re not there, you missed out.

This is even more true for younger in career folks – I was there once. When I got hired at my current company, I was 10-15 years younger than everyone else I worked with. It fostered an unhealthy obsession with working in a manner that tried to put me on the same playing field as others. It probably made me better in the long run, but what it also did is distracted me from the experience. These people I worked with were awesome not wholly because of how smart they were, but the 10-15 years they’d been around doing this stuff. I should’ve asked more questions, observed more, and harvested the experience versus brute forcing solutions.

So – The question I get asked a lot is ‘Matt, how do you find time to do all of the stuff you do?’ – To be clear, to me, it doesn’t feel or seem like a lot. If anything, at times I feel like I could do a ton more. If you’ve read any of my posts you know – perception is reality. I think I’ve found a way of working that allows me to be available, responsive, and produce tangible outputs. So, let me share with you a few things that I do to make sure I stay productive, and my family remembers who I am 🙂 –

Out of Office Time – I work in a geo-distributed team, spanning roughly [GMT+3 -> GMT-8] – So yes, thats an 11 hour swing. Some of my colleagues and peers, I see working their lives around meetings and work schedules. With that big of a swing, there will always be a 4am meeting or an 11pm one. I’ve seen colleagues attend a daily meeting at 3AM their time, this is unhealthy. The key here is setting the expectation that you will not be there. The business doesn’t need you to run, and if it does, they can change meetings to when you’re available or at least closer to the time you’re normally awake. There will always be urgent emergency type things, be flexible, but they’re not the norm. My schedule is blocked from 6PM – 6AM everyday and flagged as ‘Out of Office’. Do it. Honor it like any other meeting. People will get away with whatever you allow them, don’t allow them to require your presence at 3AM on a reoccurring basis.

Communicate with your family – One thing that erodes our family life is unexpected and missed commitments. That’s not cool, and you should empower your family to hold you accountable. How do I do that? Simple, I have a Dakboard – it displays our family schedule (and basically sparks a conversation anytime someone comes to our house). Not only is it incredibly handy, but it allows me to add events to our family calendar so everyone knows what’s happening. I have an 7PM CVP Review, I add a meeting to our personal calendar informing everyone I have to work late. That late meeting may drive dinner plans and other activities that can be done without me. Your family depends on you more than just the couple (or tens) of dollars you bring in. Things always happen, stuff will always be unexpected, do your best to communicate everything in advance and allow them to hold you accountable. (My wife reads most of my posts, ‘Hi Babe”, so she might have a different perspective).

Routines and predictable schedules – All of my coworkers have things they like doing outside of work. That means while I value my balance and schedule, I should make sure I share some of the burden. I don’t want to just say, “Sorry you’re in GMT+2, but I’m only meeting during my work hours so that means you’re working outside of yours..”, thats not really fair right? So you need to find a way to work with people that works for everyone. For me, I start around 5 – 6 AM, which gives me substantial overlap time with most of my co-workers. I’ve balanced that with a few things that I really value, like leaving for an hour to drop-off/pick-up my kids from school, or to take them to get a ‘kid coffee’ when I pick them up. My job is flexible enough where I can do that, and I better serve my employer by maximizing the collaboration with those not co-located in my time zone. My family is usually fast asleep that early in the morning, so it’s usually a ‘triple W.’ Sure, some days I don’t get up until the last minute, and run them to school in my PJ’s, but such is life.

Task Management – You need to find a way to manage your tasks that works. For me, Kanban is the most effective. I use Microsoft Planner to schedule, plan, track status, and decline incoming work items. For me its really useful to get a picture of what’s needed today, tomorrow, and next week (while not losing track). Also with an app on my phone (add stuff randomly when I’m thinking about it), the ability to add attachments (like a link to the file I need to update), it allows me to stay focused without diving into my email or communications tools to dig up what I need to do. Every day when I start work, I clean up my email/communications, and convert things to tasks. If I can provide a quick concise answer, it gets it immediately (hint if you work with me :)). If I can’t decide if it needs my action, or it if it requires a longer thoughtful response, they stay in my inbox. Depending on the urgency or sender, I might convert an email to a “respond to Ted” to a task, but most of the time, I have dedicated time allotted to do these responses (or when I need a distraction).

Focus Time – This is the key, I schedule this a few days in advance with my Kanban tool above. I schedule about 2 – 4 hours a day (it’s done automatically for me via my email suite, 14 days in advance), and this is when I knock out my tasks. First I go through what’s due for that day in my planner, then see if there is anything I can pull forward from the rest of the week, and then cleanup that email inbox with those ‘thoughtful’ responses. This is the only time during the day I won’t leave my desk. I leave my desk, I get sidetracked, so I want to stay focused. Any other time I take frequent breaks, walk upstairs see what my youngest is doing, walk down to get the mail, anything other than work to let me focus when I’m at my desk.

To wrap this up, It took me a long time to figure out what works and there are probably more little things that I’m missing. I still am making adjustments (on a daily basis in fact) to make sure I’m in a good spot with how I operate. At a recent conference, I recommended a book called Surviving IT by Paul Cunningham. One or two of you reached out and said it was an awesome perspective, much of what I do was somehow influenced by that book. It’s an easy read, and one I recommend.

Remember, no one can see your calendar. I’m lucky enough to work in an environment that demands life/work balance, but if you don’t – be liberal with your calendar. Mark off time to take a break in the middle of the day, decline meetings because you have a conflict (which might be personal in nature), take control of your time.

Time is really the only thing you truly have…

Until next time –

MC