‘Work-life balance’ is touted in job postings everywhere - but what does it really mean? If you’re a passionate developer that’s excited about the technology you work with every day, you probably spend a fair bit of time outside of the office doing something that looks a lot like what you do at work. Even if you’re excited about your work, it’s important to find ways to rest, recharge and disconnect periodically. After spending 6 years building a team of passionate developers, I’ve learned that everyone approaches work-life balance differently, with vastly different results.

1. Work/Life Balance For
Passionate Developers
Presented by Joshua Warren

2. OR:

3. Put That Laptop Down
And Get Some Sleep!

5. About Me

6. PHP Developer
Working with PHP on the web
since 1999

7. Founder & CEO
Founded Creatuity in 2008
PHP Development Firm
Focus on the Magento platform
I was inspired, in large part, by never wanting to
work in a traditional office thanks to the movie
‘Office Space’.

8. Frequent Conference Presenter
Occasional Open Source Contributor
Over-Tweeter

9. Hardware Hacker
Avid Sci-Fi Reader
Aspiring Author

10. What Work/Life Balance
Looks Like To Me

13. Work/Life Balance Looks
Different to Everyone

14. Work Looks Different
Life Looks Different

15. Apply These Principles to Your
Unique Work/Life Situation

16. JoshuaWarren.com
@JoshuaSWarren

17. IMPORTANT!
lanyrd.com/sdhttz
Download slides
Stay in touch - give me feedback

18. What’s That?
Work/Life Balance

19. –Wikipedia
A concept including proper prioritizing
between "work" and "lifestyle"

20. –Wikipedia
“Lifestyle” includes health, pleasure,
leisure, family & spiritual development/
meditation

21. Work/Life Balance
Used to be simple
Work 8 hours making widgets, then go home
The widgets didn’t follow you home

23. Work/Life Balance Today
Work 8+ hours
Spend an hour driving home
Check your work email on your smartphone
Finish up “one last bit” of work after dinner

25. Think of when you were packing to attend Full Stack
Toronto

29. We have a limited amount of room and have to
choose carefully what we pack.

30. If we aren’t mindful of what we pack - others will
make those decisions for us.

31. Most of us are trying to pack entirely too much - we’re
spending too much of our life focused on work.

32. –Every Overworked Developer
That’s OK, though, because I love what I do!

33. Work/Life Integration
“If people enjoy what they do, there’s no need to draw
strict lines.” —Fortune Magazine
Not a bad concept, but…

34. Work/Life Integration
Work/Life Integration, especially when abused by
employers, destroys personal boundaries
Healthy personal boundaries are critical to self-
worth, happiness & fulfillment

35. The best attempts at work/life integration use
technology to allow employees to alter their work to
better accommodate their personal life.

36. The worst attempts at work/life integration use
technology and peer pressure to take advantage of
passionate, driven employees.

37. Cui Bono
Evaluate a company’s work/life initiatives by
asking a simple question - cui bono - “to whose
benefit?”

38. Or: It’s about to get real…
The Personal Case For
Work/Life Balance

39. 2,000 Saturdays

40. #fstoconf15
The average American in their mid-30’s has
2,000 Saturdays left in their life. Don’t
waste them.

41. 2,000 sounds like a lot - but think about how
fast each weekend disappears.

42. Also, that assumes you reach the average.

43. Every year, our community loses friends
and colleagues well before their time

44. Work is important, but life is precious,
and it’s entirely too short.

45. Inspired by Merlin Mann’s post How
Many Saturdays Do You Get and the
followup discussion on his podcast,
Back to Work

46. Merlin’s calculation was that he had
only about 300 Saturdays left that his
young daughter would want to spend
with him.

48. Importance of Personal Time
Develop and maintain healthy relationships
Personal growth & development
Happiness & fulfillment

49. Importance of Personal Time
Improve your health
Lower stress levels

51. Or: A slightly less depressing, more business-y segment
The Business Case for
Work/Life Balance

52. #fstoconf15
Tech executives - you’re not running a factory.
Stop treating your employees like factory
workers.

53. Studies have linked personal downtime to increases
in creativity, memory, learning and problem solving.

54. Hiring millennials? 40% of them will leave if
you don’t have a good work/life balance
policy. — Washington Post

55. In other words - do you want high performing
employees who are creative, solve problems and
help your business grow?
Give your employees downtime!

56. Or: Stop Working Your Employees To Death
Implement Work/Life Balance at
Work

57. #fstoconf15
Work/life balance is not a perk.
It’s an attitude of respect for each
employee’s life and need for rest.

58. Healthy work/life balance requires a culture where
employees feel safe disconnecting from work.

59. Create clear boundaries and expectations between
working and non-working times.

60. Flexible hours and working from home are great,
but create a clear boundary that signals to manager
and employee when the employee is working.

61. Flexible hours and remote work are not an excuse
or justification for overworking employees.

62. As an employee - ask for these boundaries if you’re
not receiving them.

64. As a manager - make sure to respect your
employee’s boundaries - and your own. Lead by
example.

65. Popular Options
Telecommuting
20+ PTO days
Compressed workweek
Flexible schedules

66. These options are great, but implemented on their
own without a cultural change, they are often
underutilized.

67. For example - instead of “flexible schedules”,
set “core hours”.

68. Corporate employees of Darden Restaurants have
core hours from 9:00AM - 3:30PM

69. Old culture: all employees must be in the same
office at the same time, or they aren’t getting work
done

71. New culture: it’s important for employees to be
able to collaborate, but their productivity won’t
suffer if they don’t have the exact same hours.

72. Or: Rediscover Those People and/or Pets Living In Your
Home
Implement Work/Life Balance at
Home

73. Set boundaries.
Determine what you and your family are
comfortable with, and stick to it.

74. For some people, that means work stays at work.

75. For others, it means getting that last hour of work in
after the kids have gone to bed.

76. Experiment with small changes.
I banned laptops from my bedroom and discovered
that one change greatly improved my sleep.

77. I tried Flux - https://justgetflux.com/
I even wore these $6 glasses:

78. For me - it wasn’t just the impact of staring at a
bright screen. Using a laptop in bed prevented me
from relaxing my mind.

79. #fstoconf15
Know yourself. Take time to set
priorities to help you guide your
own personal balance between
work and life.

80. Track all of your time for a week - including time
spent at home.

81. Try Using the Print-At-Home Emergent Task Timer

83. Does your time spent at home match up with your
priorities? If not, rearrange until it does.

84. Treat your personal time the same way you treat
your work time.

85. Would you walk out of a meeting at work for a minor
issue at home?
Then don’t give up your personal time for a minor
issue at work!

86. Focus on your health

87. Get better sleep - FitBit
Improve your nutrition - MyFitnessPal
Get some sort of exercise - FitBit + MyFitnessPal

88. Even minor improvements to your health will have a
noticeable impact on your work/life balance and
your enjoyment of life

89. Or: gl hf
Work/Life Balance For Remote
Workers

90. Remote workers tend to have the very best or very
worst work/life balance.

92. Again - it all comes down to boundaries.

93. Set clear boundaries with everyone involved - both
your family and your coworkers.

94. Ensure your family respects your work time -
establish a clear signal when you are ‘at work’.

95. Ensure your work respects your family time -
establish clear rules and expectations of when you
will and won’t be reachable.

96. Find a support group - A coffee shop, a coworking
space, a makerspace.

97. You need an in-person outlet for work-related
stress other than your family.

99. Or: gl hf dd
Work/Life Balance For
Passionate Developers

100. Example: You’re a full-time PHP developer who
spends all day working with a custom app in Laravel

101. Coming home and working on a personal project in
Laravel - is it work?

102. Personal projects closely related to what you do at
work aren’t necessarily bad.

103. The key is balance.

104. Don’t spend all of your personal time on a project
that closely mirrors what you do at work.

105. Split your personal time between projects similar to
your work and completely unrelated projects.

106. Start small - if you usually work with Symfony at
work, learn Laravel at home.

107. Then, find hobbies in unrelated areas.

108. Spending your downtime learning a new hobby or
skill will boost your creativity.

109. If you’re a software developer, buy an Arduino and
start tinkering with circuits.

110. Combine your interests and your work with new
hobbies as well.

111. For example - I enjoy speaking with developers and
trying new beers.
I use every trip I take - for work or pleasure - to
connect with local user groups and get their
recommendation for a good local beer.

112. Work/life balance is hard. Especially for those of us
passionate about our work.

113. It’s an important topic, and important to get it right
- those 2,000 Saturdays will pass by in a blink.

114. Set aside time for yourself, for your family and for
downtime.

115. Stop and think about how you’re spending your
time, and what boundaries you have in place.

116. #fstoconf15
Define one boundary between your work
and your life and starting Monday,
respect that boundary.

117. After a week, try the Emergent Task Timer and see if
your reality matches up with your priorities and
boundaries.

118. Keep In Touch!
lanyrd.com/sdhttz
@JoshuaSWarren
JoshuaWarren.com