Voice of the DBA

Tag: life

  • The Intrusion of Life

    erI really try to be professional in my career. I try to meet my deadlines. I take pride in my work. I try to ensure that the commitments I’ve made, I keep. If that means I need to work late or on weekends, I do so. That doesn’t mean that my life revolves around work, or that I allow myself to be abused by an employer, but if I’m behind, or I haven’t given 100% of my effort during a project, I make an extra effort to catch up.

    Recently as I was stressed and preparing for SQL in the City, life intruded into work in a very visible way. A family injury, resulting in some doctor visits and additional work around the house for me, severely cut into some of my work time. Fortunately my flexible schedule allowed me to work early in the mornings or at night to try and make up for the errands and appointments, but I still fell behind.

    To add to the stress and pressure, there were business continuity issues. If I couldn’t attend SQL in the City, someone needed to be able to deliver the talks in my place. Not only was it important I finish the content, but I also needed to practice myself, as I had still planned to make the trip if at all possible. In the end everything worked out well, but it was a very busy couple of weeks for me to finish this “project” for my job, continue to manage the daily work, and tackle the extra load at home.

    That’s not much different than the challenges and pressures that many of you face in your jobs as data professionals. You have regular responsibilities, you have special projects with hard deadlines, and you sometimes struggle to fit the rest of your life into the remaining time you have. However, you shouldn’t fit your life into work most of the time. There are always situations where you must, but for the most part we work to have a life outside of work. We want to spend time with family, friends, and on hobbies. I would hope that all of you would ultimately see your family and life outside of work as more important than work.

    I’m lucky. My boss was very supportive and understood I might cancel the trip if my family needed me. Red Gate was willing to work with me to rearrange things, have remote meetings, and support my by tackling a few of my daily tasks. Not all companies or bosses are like that, and I’ve struggled with those that were difficult in the past.

    I hope that you really think about the priorities that you set in life, and limit the compromises you make when the demands of work conflict with those in the rest of your life.

    Steve Jones

    PS: Everyone at the ranch is fine.

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  • Donating for a little kid

    One of my authors sent me this note:

    “

    I know you only know me as a writer for SQLServerCentral, but I have a friend whose son is really bad. He is at the hospital and the cannot pay it. It is very expensive. The family is desesperate. They live in Bolivia.

    I am collecting some money for the Family. The sickness is: multiple sclerosis or disseminated sclerosis.

    If you would like to donate: http://cuentitosdeltio.blogspot.com/2013/04/donacion-alejandro.html

    I created a form in one of my blogs to receive donations. 10 $us or whatever donation is welcome.

    Thanks for reading this email
    “

    I doubled the author’s payment out of my account and donated. If you feel like doing so, please feel free to participate. If not, please think about others in your life that might benefit from some charity and give back to the world when you can.

  • Exercise in the Margins

    This article about exercising when you can is really interesting. It contains a number of hints about exercising and fitting it in, but fitting it into your life, as you live it. I especially like the note about the fact that you will lose time in your life every month for reasons beyond your control. That’s certainly true.

    I run every day. As of Thur, that was 1353 days in a row that I’ve run at least a mile. I started the mile a day streak thinking that a mile, even jogging slowly, takes no more than about 15 minutes. Maybe 20 if you’re older. I can always find 15 minutes in my day.

    I know that’s not easy for everyone, but I’d think most people could find 15 minutes to walk every day, whether it’s 5am or 11pm. Time is not a great excuse when you set a low bar. Or maybe it’s not an excuse at all if you do things like taking the stairs, or walking out of your way on a flat surface, parking further from the door at the grocers, or any number of other ideas.

    In technology, it seems to be harder for many people to get into shape. We sit at desks, staring at screens, and often get lost in our work. I try to move fairly often, but I’ve certainly been lost writing code or words and found myself sitting at a desk for hours at a time.

    I think taking care of yourself is important, and it’s an investment worth making. My PSA for today is to get out and do a little more movement. You don’t have to run or play basketball or ski. Just go walk. You’d be surprised how beneficial that it.

    And have a short memory for sure. If you miss a few days for some reason, forget about it. Pick up some small exercise tomorrow and don’t try to “make up” for what you missed.

  • Lifehacking – Not such a good idea?

    I read the confessions of a recovering Lifehacker and thought it was an interesting read. It seems that the author has started to realize that while you can make some differences in the small stuff in your life, it’s just small stuff. It’s also important not to let the organization, or hack, or change, overwhelm the benefit you get from it.

    I try to make some small changes here and there, and I do want to be more efficient, but not if the efficiency cost takes away too much of the rest of my life. It’s a balance, and one that can be hard to find.

    There’s also an interesting discussion on Hacker News about the post.