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

2. OR:

3. Put That Laptop Down And
Come To Bed!

5. About Me

6. PHP Developer
Working with PHP 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. JoshuaWarren.com
@JoshuaSWarren

11. IMPORTANT!
joind.in/13952
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12. What’s That?
Work/Life Balance

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

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

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

17. 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

26. 2,000 Saturdays

27. #OpenWest
The average male in his mid-30’s
has 2,000 Saturdays left in his life.
Don’t waste them.

28. 2,000 sounds like a lot - but think about how fast
each weekend disappears.

29. Also, that assumes you reach the average.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

55. 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

65. 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!

66. Focus on your health

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

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

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

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

72. Again - it all comes down to boundaries.

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

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

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

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

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

79. Or: gl hf dd
Work/Life Balance For
Passionate Geeks

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

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

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

83. The key is balance.

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

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

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

87. Then, find hobbies in unrelated areas

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

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

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

91. 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.

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

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

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

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

96. #OpenWest
Define one boundary between your
work and your life and starting
Monday, respect that boundary.

97. Keep In Touch!
joind.in/13952
@JoshuaSWarren
JoshuaWarren.com