Tag: career

As I get older, I realize more and more the value of time. I also realize this is a very limited quantity for me, it is getting more precious each day, and it is one of the more valuable assets I have. Time with my wife, time with my kids and my extended family is precious. Time for hobbies, work, and more is difficult to come by. Well, not work. I have to work, but it gets in the way of things at times.

I’ve been learning to take time off from a busy life and enjoy the lack of trying to use that time. I find myself looking at email or checking some work item less and less on weekends and holidays. At least, I avoid working if I’ve had a productive week. Quite a bit of my work is independent and can be asynchronous with others. I might spend time during the week on something personal and then make-up that time on weekends. Often that’s the case when I am called to be the emergency ranch worker if someone else isn’t available.

In trying to efficiently use time, I find myself often trying to think ahead and work on things well in advance of deadlines. I can procrastinate as much as others, but I tend to look forward a week or two all the time. This helps me avoid last-minute crunches, though sometimes I find myself stressed about multiple things that are due next week and the week after. I still have time management issues and stress, it’s just not for something due today or tomorrow.

Usually.

Like everyone else, I’m human. Despite my best intentions, I don’t always use time wisely. I find my moods vary throughout the month. My energy can peak or wane. My focus can be strong or weak. I’m fallible, and that in and of itself can bother me and affect my efforts. I know time is valuable, so when I haven’t had a productive day or gotten enough done, that can carry over into the next day. It might even carry over into my evening and distract me from personal things.

As I try to be better at managing time, I am learning a few techniques. First, if I am productive, I usually lean into this. I can be very productive in a short time, so when I am in the zone and focused, I work hard. Even if this impacts something else. I might skip the gym one day, not cook dinner, and work late because when I am efficient with my time. When this happens, I’ve also learned to forgive myself for not following my plan. Sometimes my plans fall apart, even when I am the one that is often in control of the creation and execution of the daily plan.

I’ve also learned to move away from difficult creative tasks. Whether that’s writing or assembling some code, when I don’t feel like doing that work, I move on to something else. Often administrative things, catching up on meeting recordings, or other somewhat low-focus tasks keep me using time wisely, even if less efficiently. At least I’m getting something done.

Finally, I am lucky in that I can abandon work some days. Not any day, but sometimes things fall apart, and I accept that. I’ll handle something in my personal life, or go do something fun. I know this means I will need to make up the work, and let my wife know that my schedule has shifted, but it’s a way of remembering that time is valuable everywhere.

Both for work and in my personal life. If I need to work on a Saturday, then I need to be sure I can recapture that time away from work somewhere else.

Steve Jones

Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher, Spotify, or iTunes.

I ran across an interview with Big Boi, a music musician and producer. It’s an interesting look at someone that has had a lot of success and continues to work, mostly because he enjoys it. I’m sure the compensation matters somewhat, but that doesn’t appear to be his driving force. Whether you like his music, it’s an interesting look at someone who lives by his creativity.

As I read through the interview, a lot of the themes and quotes could be attributed to software developers. We constantly need to learn more and evolve how we write code if we want to be more successful. We have ideas, and often the code we write today isn’t the way we’d write code to accomplish the same task last year. At least, I hope that we would learn, grow, and write new code.

Certainly, many of us are compensated for what we know now, and often we can write the same code over and over to handle similar situations. This might be more true for people that work in Operations and manage systems more so than developers, but perhaps not. Even if we write similar code as in the past, we often do it more efficiently or incorporate small enhancements that help us. Perhaps better error handling, perhaps anticipating places where our code might fail or falter. These might be changes we hadn’t considered in the last version of this type of code.

Not everyone wants to be a star or famous, whether a musician or software developer. Lots of us are happy to do a good job, leaning more heavily on past experience than evolving to tackle new challenges and produce a better end result. There is nothing wrong with having a career that accomplishes what is asked of us and nothing more.

However, the world presents lots of opportunities if you look. Often those come from exploration, experimentation, and making an effort to grow in some way. Having hobby software projects might be akin to writing music and creating new “beats.” Learning from what others have done, studying their techniques and patterns can help us improve our own learning. The more I try to be creative, the more I understand that copying others is an important way to learn. From there I can start to adjust and alter the final product to be my own.

Study your craft, improve what you know and learn more. Practice and improve, and you might be surprised where your career can go. Plus, it’s more interesting when you’re engaged. Of course, as noted at the end, learn to take breaks, relax, and enjoy life outside of your work. Finding a balance there is important to ensure you work to live, not the other way around.

Steve Jones

Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher, Spotify, or iTunes.

There was a short but interesting post on the value of seniority. It’s written from the perspective of someone that gets a new co-worker, but the co-worker is from the future. In fact, it’s the future you. The post is actually titled senior engineers are living in the future.

We (hopefully) are more capable and impressive over time. I would hope most of us are learning more each day and our work reflects that. The code you write today should be better than what you wrote last month or last year. The choices you make, the bugs you solve, the experience you bring to work often does reflect your seniority. Not always, but often.

Sometimes the extra experience you bring is valuable because of the knowledge you gain over time. Most of us have probably known people that seem to be the go-to resources for answers to questions or to solve problems because of the things they’ve learned over time about the environment. This can be frustrating to newer employees, and I’ve certainly seen my son experience that, but it’s one reason why staff who have worked there for more time are valuable.

There’s a point in the post that notes you shouldn’t compare yourself to more senior people. They can seem like they’re from the future because they just know more. Junior people will get there, if they work at learning more.

That’s a big point of focus that I try to emphasize to people that I work with, speak to, or read my editorials. Put effort into your career, learn more, both specific to technology and about the way your company works. Growing your skills, tech, soft, whatever, is a way that you can enhance your career and prove yourself to be more valuable.

It’s a way to make people think you are from the future.

Steve Jones

Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher, Spotify, or iTunes.

A big part of SQL Server Central has been members of the community answering questions for others. We have an amazing community and over the years, it’s been helpful to so many people. I often get the thanks, but really the people at the top of the all-time list have been those that have helped many people. There are too many to list, but gilamonster, Jeff Moden, lynn-pettis, lowell, and more have been tremendous assets to our community.

Part of the inspiration for StackOverflow years ago was SQL Server Central and the popularity of people helping others. The main thing their founders didn’t like from us (and other sites) was the need to register. Hence, the ability to be anonymous on Stack if you choose. No matter what format or style of Q&A you like, Stack and many other sites have found that there is a lot of desire to ask and answer questions online.

Brent Ozar answers questions regularly during his office hours. I enjoy watching the recordings, especially from the beach. I miss the beach, but I love the mountains, so I’m only a bit jealous. However, recently he had a number of questions come through that he declined to answer and instead put out a post, inviting the community to answer. There are some interesting answers in there, and some are worth reading. Maybe you even want to add your own thoughts to some of the questions.

A big part of my career, and in life outside of my career, is helping others improve their lives. Answering questions for others got me started on this path of SQL Server Central and speaking at conferences. Coaching my kids led me to coach others. Thinking about both those things got me to volunteer at other organizations.

I’ve had success, so I’m paying it forward in different ways. I’d encourage you to do the same. Whether online or in your local community, whether now or at some point in the future, paying it forward is good for your soul.

Steve Jones

Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher, Spotify, or iTunes.