2 ways for a better work life balance

When we think about work-life balance, we think about the amount of time we spend outside of work.

If you live in bangalore, you are commuting close to an hour a day. 9 hrs @ office. And you barely get to spend a couple of hours with family on a weekday. And for someone like me, I just couldnt finish off all my work @ office. I usually carry some work home for the night, like a client call, or a sales proposal. This kept me thinking about work, even when I was spending time with family. This didnt go well. Its not very effective.

I tried time logging. Tried being very disciplined, finish up all my work @ office. Wasnt able to pull it off for long. This got a little depressing. Work started eating into my weekends and I wasnt able to spend quality time with family.

Finally I just gave up, and I said I am going to code for the week. I am not going to do any interviews/sales etc for that one week.

Programming added more life to my to-do list. I was energetic and this started to show off in other things as well. I started getting more disciplined, finished more work @ office and even @ home I was able to spend quality time.

So Two important things that add to work life balance.

Do things that excite you, atleast spend 2 hours a day doing things that really really excite you. This shows off on the remainder of the day as well. Measure time qualitatively. Spending 30 quality minutes at home is greater than a 2 hours @ home thinking about work.