What Does Personal Growth Mean for Every IT Savvy?
On this site, I already write quite often about personal growth for representatives of the IT community, and this article is no exception. Today I would like to share with readers my thoughts on how to properly manage your time and how to clearly separate the boundaries of work and personal life so that there is enough time for everything and nothing has to be sacrificed.
All my reasoning today is based on personal experience - all the examples that I give are from my life and experience, all the problems that I have encountered are personally my problems. So it's probably safe to say that this is a rather personal article.
Divide and Rule
Lately everyone is talking about just that - about personal growth. Due to the fact that everyone around is only talking about it, people's general perception breaks down and the general understanding of what it is collapses. Everyone talks about getting new skills, constant learning, developing their business and as a result of their independence, and so on, but they all start from the wrong place.
Working Remotely - The Simpsons Meme
You need to start thinking about your personal growth firstly with setting boundaries and clearly distinguishing where your work is and where your personal life is. I have never worked from an office and have been outsourcing or freelancing from home all my life. I have a small one laptop, which is enough for me for coding. However, the thing is, on this little HP laptop, not only do I have my work accounts and profiles on Slack and other corporate tools, I also have all my personal, home accounts and accounts there.
When I try to find something on Stack Overflow, my old searches for shows and movies that I watch in the evenings or when I search for some documentations, the Twitch bookmark appears in the browser history in my Firefox, under the search bar. When I take a screenshot for colleagues and edit it in a graphical editor, I accidentally send a photo of my dog when I send it. If you find yourself in my words, then this is not normal.
You must clearly separate work and personal life. Yes, it sounds trite, but I'm sure that 90% of those who work remotely on their computer or laptop have the same problems as me. It is not normal. Funny, but not normal. This prevents you from both working and relaxing in the evenings, because while you are watching Netflix, suddenly a notification from Slack appears in the corner of the screen.
The solution to this problem is very simple - just create a second account for work or personal use. It will take 2 minutes, but the productivity will double. For example, I created two accounts - one Windows and one Linux, so that there would be no temptation to change the account during working hours. Changing the account in my case will require a restart of the computer, and most of all in life I do not like to restart the computer.
Don't Shit Where You Eat
I understand all the benefits of working from home - work anywhere, anytime, even on the toilet, even at the dinner table. That is the problem. You can't shit where you eat and vice versa. The first week of remote work, you will work at the table, then you will climb onto the sofa, then at the dining table, and then work out of bed for the first half of the day. When one day I woke up exactly at the minute of the beginning of the working day and worked the first half of the day out of bed, I realized that it was time to change this.
Productivity and the result of work in this case will not wake up before noon just like you. Working from home is great, I've worked this way all my life, but here, just like with the separation of work and personal life, it is necessary to divide the space. You can't watch Twitch and read Slack chats from the same account, just as you can't work where you sleep or eat lunch.
If you recognize yourself in this, then try to start with co-working spaces. Previously, I myself thought this was nonsense - who even goes there if the Internet and a computer are at home? How wrong I was. A co-working space has a more work atmosphere, much more work than the one you create lying on your bed. People like you go to coworking, who want personal growth for themselves, and not eat cereal at the computer.
Vibrates Pocket
Another division of the workspace concerns the smartphone. Have you ever had the feeling that you hear a notification sound on your phone or feel that your phone vibrates from a call or a notification in your pocket, although in fact you don’t have any phone in your pocket, and it’s on the nightstand in the bedroom and charging? It happened to me all the time and I realized that it was an addiction.
I have nothing against the regular and constant use of the phone, now without a phone I won’t even get to the elevator at home, but I need to get rid of any addiction. This is also a kind of competent division of your personal time. I perfectly understand how hard it is to be without a phone for 10 minutes, especially for IT savvy, but overcoming any addiction is hard work.
Phone Vibration - The Simpons Meme
Start at the beginning - don't take your phone when you shower or relieve yourself (I hope I'm not the only one), then avoid using your phone when you wake up, then put your phone on the other side of the room before going to bed, and to keep your hands busy, you can read or play with your hair, or a beard (it sounds funny and strange, but it helped me - there is little benefit for hair, but get rid of the habit). Then remove your phone from use during meals.
I used a smartphone in all of these cases, so it seemed to me that someone was writing or calling me when the phone was not even nearby. And when my phone died at the airport during an hour-long transfer, I thought that I would have to buy a new one a little more, because I could not cope with my desire to poke at the screen.
Night Shifts
There are not so many night shift workers in the IT sector - most often they are either technical support specialists or cybersecurity specialists who are on duty and monitoring even at night. By the way, I myself was like that, so I wanted to talk about it briefly. It is difficult to give any advice on personal growth and the proper distribution of personal time to those who work at night, so if you are such a person, do not take my advice to heart.
Night Shift - South Park Meme
Change your timezone. Yes, it sounds a little crazy and complicated, and it deserves a separate article, however, it helped me to manage my time properly and work during normal working hours for a person. So, for example, I left Europe for Latin America. So the European night shifts, I worked during the day in Argentina and Peru.
I perfectly understand how it sounds - this solution is far from being for everyone, and a maximum of 10% of specialists from the number who have the opportunity will go for it. But here I offer solutions for the proper distribution of my personal and working time, and this helped me to separate work and personal life (and also study at a master's program, by the way).
NDA with Households
This is my personal story and again, not for everyone. I clearly separate work and personal life in such a way that I do not talk at home about work at all, not a word. I live with a girl, she is an artist, and it will take more than one week to explain to her what I do, simply because we are people of different mindsets.
Keeping her up to date with all the news at work, all the code updates that I write, all the meetings and online calls is just a waste of time, because these conversations will not affect anything. I won't get valuable advice and I won't get understanding. I like this policy in relationships - at home we talk about everything in the world and I don't think about work. This has a positive effect on me. But, again, I will say that everyone chooses a policy in relations on their own.
Conclusion
In this post, I basically told a little about myself and how I separate work and personal life, how I clearly set aside time for productive work and for walking the dog. I'm not saying that this technique is personal growth and that's the only way I see it, but I think it's a great way to start getting better. I am not a psychologist, but a nerd developer and shared only my experience. What works for me doesn't necessarily work for you and vice versa. I want to say one thing - try and do not be afraid.