I gotta be honest with you one of the hardest things for me and software development has always been
letting go of work when I get home.
I think there's just something about the type of work that we do and how focused we have to be
that makes it really difficult for us to just put it aside and get back to our life when the workday is through.
Hi, I'm Jayme, and at Healthy Software Developer
I want to help you have a long career where you don't get burned out
you don't get pushed around by people that don't really understand software development
and you can just make sure you have a really healthy career. In the many years that I've been writing code
it's really frustrating that while I'm at work. I try to give it my all. You know sitting at the computer
we often get these problems thrown at us, and we try to work through them over and over and over again
and, you've probably been in the situation
I have many times where you'll be trying to solve a problem
and you've been reading all these things online you've been doing all these searches
you've been trying everything and you go over to a co-worker and you're like "hey
can you come look at this for me for a little bit?". And they come take a look at it and while you're going through
showing them the problem - it works! And
you know there's just something about when you just keep working on the same problem and
pressing against trying to solve it over and over and over again that I think
we don't give ourselves enough of a break at least
I certainly don't and so
one of the things I just wanted to talk about today that we can maybe talk about in the comments too is
there's something about
technical work and especially
programming and software development that I think the way that we engage our mind so much throughout the work day
when we go home,
man at least the first probably 5 to 10 years that I did this, I would often
get out of the car come into my house and immediately
just try to find something
totally other than you know anything technical to try to get my mind off
it I'd try to play a video game, I'd try to play some music -
just anything to try to get my mind off work
and it would never last. You know within probably a couple hours, I'd find myself
sort of subconsciously just thinking about
whatever problem I'm in the middle of solving at work. And
You may have had this happen to you, too
I actually have had many times when I've been trying to solve a problem
and I'll be working on it for weeks and weeks and weeks
and you know my first job when I was younger was really working in a pizza place and
something about when you can do a job where you come in in the morning
and you start flipping burgers or making pizzas or whatever that is and at the end of the day, you're done. There's there's no like
special pizza that you're building that takes you two
weeks where you know the the work that we do in software development the problems that we try to solve they're
ongoing problems that can take us days weeks months years to solve.
And so I think I'd like to hear just things you've maybe tried that have helped you with this I still struggle with this myself.
You know some of the things I've done
are you know I did do yoga for a while which was really hard for me being a guy
and you know all my own personal hang-ups about it.
You know I looked at yoga is kind of like something that you do that's like super
just out of my comfort zone at least for myself where I was and when I first started trying to do it and
my wife you know she's been doing yoga for many years, but I
found when I was doing yoga more often, and I and I really need to get back into doing it probably again
she actually teaches a little bit now
that would really help kind of bring me bring myself to like a present moment when I'm just thinking about
that moment where I'm doing yoga
and I'm not thinking about you know past things that have happened at work or maybe in my life
I'm not thinking about the future. And
I think when I would come home from work and just try to throw myself into you know a video game or
watching YouTube videos, or you know just something I could do that would sort of distract me
it would focus me on something
but it would it was just a short-term really escape and it didn't really help me really let go of the workday.
And so you know I've had situations where I've woken up in the middle of the night
and all of a sudden, I'll open my eyes
and I'll think I have a solution to something I've been trying to solve with my code
and if I've got you know the code on my computer at home which often times I do with whatever
I'm working on unless it's for you know
let's say a client where I can only work on their computers because I have had sensitive clients like that.
You know I'll come rushing over to my computer and just
start banging away at it and try hammering out code
you know in the middle of the night at like 3:00 in the morning to try to solve the problem that now I think I
have a solution to.
And I mean I had dreams probably the first four or five years when I was doing software development where I dream
I'm standing at a whiteboard. You know
whiteboarding certain aspects let's say of the software architecture or something like that.
So you know work can become at least for me really all-consuming
and I think you know just the nature of corporate America
this isn't a true of course of all jobs, but it has been for me. You know it seems like
The company always wants more out of you
which I understand you know people who run a business they want their employees to grow, but at the same time
you know I've had a really hard time sometimes. Just setting good boundaries for myself, and I think that sometimes leads to
coming home from work and
not being able to really just let go of work and and treat it like you know what it's gonna be there tomorrow
I'll have plenty of time to solve it tomorrow
and
I shared in some of my my software development journey videos where I just sort of talked about the last 20 years and everything I've
went through how I
tried a couple startups me and a co-founder of mine and when we were doing those startups, you know I got completely
consumed with work because I had a day job, but I also then had the startup that I was trying to do at night and
It was horrible. I mean when I look back on it. This was a couple years ago. You know I had no social life
I had no real way to just kind of relax and unwind because it was really almost like
every moment of the day, I was thinking about either things I was on the hook for at work or
my startup that I was trying to startup
and you know this is just my situation not everybody has done something is maybe stupid as I look at it
you know I mean I learned a lot of things from that experience, but at the same time I
really blew it
having three kids. There were many there were a couple years there about two and a half years where I was trying to do those
startups where you know I really sacrifice some time that I should have probably spent more with them.
But you know such as life right. So I just wonder. Maybe what are some experiences
you've had. Have you had situations where you come home from work,
and it's just really hard to unplug and short of you know
drinking and other stuff that just completely like uses a chemical to get you out of it -
What are some like healthier things that maybe you've done to help you
Let go of work, and just have a nice boundary for yourself
So you can go "you know what I've done everything I needed to do. I'm not gonna think about it"
"I'm gonna enjoy my life outside of work because it's gonna be there for me in the morning."
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Stitcher, iTunes, or SoundCloud you can search for "Healthy Software Developer" and you'll find me. So until next time,
Thanks.