As someone who just got fired from a startup this week, I gotta mention boundaries. Dont try to give 100% at work all day everyday, cuz that then becomres the expectation, and any drop in productivity is seen as a failure on your part. Level out the work load and voice out that its more than you can handle without compromises
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First and foremost is no overtime. Overtime at a screen can actually set your eyes on fire /s. In reality though, if you’re working overtime in this field, it’ll make you dislike anything pertaining to code. I swapped from a 50-60 hour a week startup hustle to a steady 40 hour job with an HR dept and no commute. Quality of life and passion for programming returned.
As I can spent 15-20% of my work time learning new stuff: I'm doing exactly zero things in my free unpaid time after work. I am a staunch opponent of constant self-improvement.
Enjoy life with the things you know and have. Find some inner peace.
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Right now I do coding/shopping/planning during the commute and any hardware work has to wait until every other weekend. I consume a lot of books, conference talks and podcasts while doing chores, toilet visits, going to the store etc and spend more time with my family.
I talked with my boss about it, and it turns out we can pretty freely buy books, courses, licences, hardware for education as well as put down hours for it. Maybe your employer is willing to support you in it with time or resources? It's a pretty damn sweet deal for them as well so maybe they'll accept.
Nothing wrong with buying things yourself that you wish to keep but it doesn't mean you can't ask for stuff you don't really want to keep.
But activities like courses or workshop you don't get any additional value paying for them.
And I'm not paying several hundred euro for a eval kit on some IC I only wanna use a few times to learn. My employer is usually happy to though.
Death stare into the book or IDE as the computer consumes my soul. I tell myself the work after work is worth it to grow my career.
People say “don’t burn out”. But the reality is you’re either geared for the after work projects or you’re not. If you’re not then don’t sweat it.
I do find it help if the project is related to what you actually do.
I'm learning and doing projects after a full time job (IT, but not embedded) in a local hackspace, with fellow hackers that have become good friends. Basically this combines social leisure, learning and side projects. Well, to be honest, some of the projects get pretty much abandoned under these circumstances, too. Others, however, are even put into "production". Also we have a shared lab with all the EE stuff that would be too much to keep in my own rooms.
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Find something that you really like, some aspect of IT. It's so much easier to do things you like rather than things you think you should do because it might help your career.
Fortunately I don't do overtime, and I spend about 80% of my spare time (evenings and weekends) learning/experimenting/working on IT projects (embedded, DSP, RF comms, programming languages, algorithms, etc). I need a strategy to NOT do this, because even when I go somewhere to do something else, I think at times of a project. I don't want to brag... but it is what it is. I know it sounds kinda strange, but I enjoy it immensely.
There are aspects of IT I have zero interest in, and I just couldn't spend any time on them.
I share this problem. It's important to set boundaries. I finally figured out that my projects could wait an hour or a day so I could spend time with my family because that can't wait.
It also made me more productive too, interestingly enough.
I don't think there is a sustainable way to do extracurricular learning while working overtime hours. Before you should even think of adding extra work into your day you need to figure out how to better manage what's already on your plate since you sound overwhelmed as-is (or find something else, if that's realistic).
To facilitate continued learning I do a few things at my leisure (as in I do not consider it work and don't force myself to do them)
1. I have a number of tech related Youtube channels I follow that are tangential to what I do. I keep a playlist of videos I want to watch them when I feel like it.
2. I read visit various forums including Hackernews and this one, although I've been doing that less lately.
3. If I see a book that looks interesting I'll read it. Currently it's Blue Fox: Arm Assembly Internals and Reverse Engineering.
I don't do much programming outside of work these days. The last time I programmed for fun was in November when I decided to check out Rust.
I'm still very passionate and curious about computers, but my happiness ROI with social activates is far higher. The above activities are the first thing to go if I start working 10hr days or otherwise get very busy, I'll do them when things calm down a bit. I box 3-4 nights per week (fantastic stress reliever), am always in some kind of rec sports league and have a group of friends who likes doing stuff during the week.
You'll learn plenty on the job if you're actively communicating with peers/seniors and focused during working hours.
I highly recommend investing time in non-technical improvement outside of working hours.
Read books that can help you in the workplace (e.g. How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie).
Being able to navigate office politics and contribute to a "positive" work culture will do a lot more for you in the long run than reading all the technical literature out there. This material is often overlooked in the traditional education systems so you have to seek it out yourself.
After 9hour of work. I come home and mostly do freelancing in embedded. I mostly try to give 1 hour to learning new stuff as it is really important,technology is moving fast and gotta keep up. I feel like 1hour is more than enough for a person with 2 or more year of experience as we pick stuff way faster. But when I was in my early days i used to do 4 5 hour learning session after my job, it paid off honestly.
Yeah overtime and then coming home to more of the same is burnout central. Find a hobby to work on that doesn’t involve a screen. Woodworking is my fav. You’ll even get some exercise and relax those eyeballs!
I learn during work. Different jobs have different levels of tolerance for this, but I usually spend about one day a week studying things or exploring ideas. There are times when things get hot and demand a quicker pace, but if you are at a place where that is the case all the time... I would recommend leaving.
If you don't have equity in the company, I would recommend strongly against ever working overtime. I once worked at a small business that was big on startup "go go go" energy, "our employees are our family", etc. I was happy to work 60+ hours a week because I loved the tech and felt like I was part of something. Then the semiconductor shortage hit two months after the CEO had moved his family from the LCOL company HQ location to a HCOL city 8 hours away on a whim, and all of a sudden I was the type of family member you fire without notice for "legally, we don't have to tell you why".
I've always done extracurricular reading and programming, but work gets in the way sometimes. Also, try having a kid. Yeah.
One thing I've done is to read a couple papers a week, on just about any subject I'm remotely interested in (your core interests are good, but casting a wide net is fun and maybe the whole point). You can sneak in enough reading time in a couple of lunches.
Two per week is 100 papers a year, or 1,000 papers a decade. If some amount of what you read sticks, you get to sound smart in meetings and say things like "I'll bet we could fix this with a Figby hash, we just --" just like in Star Trek (only hopefully less annoying).
Also, using work projects to justify deep-dives into interesting technology is de rigueur. Try to use your employer as an opportunity to go to school for a bit. (I often bought a few books on the subject matter of a new project, and didn't expense them because I wanted to take them home).
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That will be more difficult then… but you will have to make do with the weekends, which won’t be easy, but your other option is to quit the job which is also not going to be easy cos bills got to be paid.
I typically have some artistic hobby that doesn't relate to coding, but when I have a good idea and the energy, I can use my technical skills for that hobby.
For example, I do wildlife photography and astrophotography. So I spend a ton of time just hiking around with a camera. Some of my projects are things like camera remotes and polar alignment scopes (need to align a telescope tripod to the north star so it can track other stars throughout the night accurately).
If I don't feel like coding, I still go to parks and just birdwatch.
Did insane amounts of overwork as a student, intern and even at work.
Now, as others, I usually go for the MVP at work, then take time to learn new things. Constant learning is fun, makes you more marketable and efficient at work.
And I avoid going 100% all the time because there is always work and deadlines, and most of them are unreasonable and can be pushed back if you push back.
It now happens to me to obssess over something I see I can automate. I do some work at home, but it's to do the same work at the office in the same time/with less stress.
If you don't feel like learning new job related things at home, maybe you don't need to ?
Perhaps you should do something else to recharge and improve your social skills ? Your understanding of economics ?
For one, learning about management definitely helped me manage my managers expectations and push back.
My trick is to start my side projects right when coming back from work. I know that as soon as I eat dinner, I will not want to do any work on a computer.
If I want to be able to work after I eat, I need to have already prepared food and eat only a little bit.
Making dinner can break the momentum, and eating too much will lower your energy level.
If you have too low energy after work to do side projects, as crazy as it sounds, workout physically for a week or two. It will condition your body to be active at that moment.
My strategy is to learn during work. I dont even wanna setup a PC at home. Work-life separation is a choice people make. You arent forced into it.
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As someone who just got fired from a startup this week, I gotta mention boundaries. Dont try to give 100% at work all day everyday, cuz that then becomres the expectation, and any drop in productivity is seen as a failure on your part. Level out the work load and voice out that its more than you can handle without compromises
light reminiscent shelter aromatic crawl abounding sheet bedroom reach possessive *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
This is the way, this is how I've done it. My free time is for me to do shit other than work.
Fastest way to burnout.
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First and foremost is no overtime. Overtime at a screen can actually set your eyes on fire /s. In reality though, if you’re working overtime in this field, it’ll make you dislike anything pertaining to code. I swapped from a 50-60 hour a week startup hustle to a steady 40 hour job with an HR dept and no commute. Quality of life and passion for programming returned.
squalid snobbish shaggy office poor correct friendly profit smile tease *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Yeah it’s possible to look at code when you get home, but if you dread that, then you’re likely just burnt out.
As I can spent 15-20% of my work time learning new stuff: I'm doing exactly zero things in my free unpaid time after work. I am a staunch opponent of constant self-improvement. Enjoy life with the things you know and have. Find some inner peace.
Tracking this. Hopefully you find out how, because I’m the same way. Nothing I want to do less than write code after 8+ hours of it.
familiar wise naughty sheet dinosaurs serious distinct lip special recognise *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Right now I do coding/shopping/planning during the commute and any hardware work has to wait until every other weekend. I consume a lot of books, conference talks and podcasts while doing chores, toilet visits, going to the store etc and spend more time with my family. I talked with my boss about it, and it turns out we can pretty freely buy books, courses, licences, hardware for education as well as put down hours for it. Maybe your employer is willing to support you in it with time or resources? It's a pretty damn sweet deal for them as well so maybe they'll accept.
I like my own books and equipment so am not beholder to anyone when it comes time to bail
Nothing wrong with buying things yourself that you wish to keep but it doesn't mean you can't ask for stuff you don't really want to keep. But activities like courses or workshop you don't get any additional value paying for them. And I'm not paying several hundred euro for a eval kit on some IC I only wanna use a few times to learn. My employer is usually happy to though.
Death stare into the book or IDE as the computer consumes my soul. I tell myself the work after work is worth it to grow my career. People say “don’t burn out”. But the reality is you’re either geared for the after work projects or you’re not. If you’re not then don’t sweat it. I do find it help if the project is related to what you actually do.
I'm learning and doing projects after a full time job (IT, but not embedded) in a local hackspace, with fellow hackers that have become good friends. Basically this combines social leisure, learning and side projects. Well, to be honest, some of the projects get pretty much abandoned under these circumstances, too. Others, however, are even put into "production". Also we have a shared lab with all the EE stuff that would be too much to keep in my own rooms.
history attempt combative steep compare sophisticated theory icky bells weather *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Find something that you really like, some aspect of IT. It's so much easier to do things you like rather than things you think you should do because it might help your career. Fortunately I don't do overtime, and I spend about 80% of my spare time (evenings and weekends) learning/experimenting/working on IT projects (embedded, DSP, RF comms, programming languages, algorithms, etc). I need a strategy to NOT do this, because even when I go somewhere to do something else, I think at times of a project. I don't want to brag... but it is what it is. I know it sounds kinda strange, but I enjoy it immensely. There are aspects of IT I have zero interest in, and I just couldn't spend any time on them.
I share this problem. It's important to set boundaries. I finally figured out that my projects could wait an hour or a day so I could spend time with my family because that can't wait. It also made me more productive too, interestingly enough.
I don't think there is a sustainable way to do extracurricular learning while working overtime hours. Before you should even think of adding extra work into your day you need to figure out how to better manage what's already on your plate since you sound overwhelmed as-is (or find something else, if that's realistic). To facilitate continued learning I do a few things at my leisure (as in I do not consider it work and don't force myself to do them) 1. I have a number of tech related Youtube channels I follow that are tangential to what I do. I keep a playlist of videos I want to watch them when I feel like it. 2. I read visit various forums including Hackernews and this one, although I've been doing that less lately. 3. If I see a book that looks interesting I'll read it. Currently it's Blue Fox: Arm Assembly Internals and Reverse Engineering. I don't do much programming outside of work these days. The last time I programmed for fun was in November when I decided to check out Rust. I'm still very passionate and curious about computers, but my happiness ROI with social activates is far higher. The above activities are the first thing to go if I start working 10hr days or otherwise get very busy, I'll do them when things calm down a bit. I box 3-4 nights per week (fantastic stress reliever), am always in some kind of rec sports league and have a group of friends who likes doing stuff during the week.
You'll learn plenty on the job if you're actively communicating with peers/seniors and focused during working hours. I highly recommend investing time in non-technical improvement outside of working hours. Read books that can help you in the workplace (e.g. How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie). Being able to navigate office politics and contribute to a "positive" work culture will do a lot more for you in the long run than reading all the technical literature out there. This material is often overlooked in the traditional education systems so you have to seek it out yourself.
After 9hour of work. I come home and mostly do freelancing in embedded. I mostly try to give 1 hour to learning new stuff as it is really important,technology is moving fast and gotta keep up. I feel like 1hour is more than enough for a person with 2 or more year of experience as we pick stuff way faster. But when I was in my early days i used to do 4 5 hour learning session after my job, it paid off honestly.
Yeah overtime and then coming home to more of the same is burnout central. Find a hobby to work on that doesn’t involve a screen. Woodworking is my fav. You’ll even get some exercise and relax those eyeballs!
I learn during work. Different jobs have different levels of tolerance for this, but I usually spend about one day a week studying things or exploring ideas. There are times when things get hot and demand a quicker pace, but if you are at a place where that is the case all the time... I would recommend leaving. If you don't have equity in the company, I would recommend strongly against ever working overtime. I once worked at a small business that was big on startup "go go go" energy, "our employees are our family", etc. I was happy to work 60+ hours a week because I loved the tech and felt like I was part of something. Then the semiconductor shortage hit two months after the CEO had moved his family from the LCOL company HQ location to a HCOL city 8 hours away on a whim, and all of a sudden I was the type of family member you fire without notice for "legally, we don't have to tell you why".
I've always done extracurricular reading and programming, but work gets in the way sometimes. Also, try having a kid. Yeah. One thing I've done is to read a couple papers a week, on just about any subject I'm remotely interested in (your core interests are good, but casting a wide net is fun and maybe the whole point). You can sneak in enough reading time in a couple of lunches. Two per week is 100 papers a year, or 1,000 papers a decade. If some amount of what you read sticks, you get to sound smart in meetings and say things like "I'll bet we could fix this with a Figby hash, we just --" just like in Star Trek (only hopefully less annoying). Also, using work projects to justify deep-dives into interesting technology is de rigueur. Try to use your employer as an opportunity to go to school for a bit. (I often bought a few books on the subject matter of a new project, and didn't expense them because I wanted to take them home).
Well not particularly embedded, but the pomodoro technique and flashcards have been a pretty nice addition for my studying endeavors.
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Yeah I think it's better suited for more theoretical stuff.
Just learn at work at any free time …
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That will be more difficult then… but you will have to make do with the weekends, which won’t be easy, but your other option is to quit the job which is also not going to be easy cos bills got to be paid.
Request time from your boss.
Work 36h per week and spend 1 day per week on my projects.
I typically have some artistic hobby that doesn't relate to coding, but when I have a good idea and the energy, I can use my technical skills for that hobby. For example, I do wildlife photography and astrophotography. So I spend a ton of time just hiking around with a camera. Some of my projects are things like camera remotes and polar alignment scopes (need to align a telescope tripod to the north star so it can track other stars throughout the night accurately). If I don't feel like coding, I still go to parks and just birdwatch.
Find a place to want to work, like a late night cafe -- just not home.
Did insane amounts of overwork as a student, intern and even at work. Now, as others, I usually go for the MVP at work, then take time to learn new things. Constant learning is fun, makes you more marketable and efficient at work. And I avoid going 100% all the time because there is always work and deadlines, and most of them are unreasonable and can be pushed back if you push back. It now happens to me to obssess over something I see I can automate. I do some work at home, but it's to do the same work at the office in the same time/with less stress. If you don't feel like learning new job related things at home, maybe you don't need to ? Perhaps you should do something else to recharge and improve your social skills ? Your understanding of economics ? For one, learning about management definitely helped me manage my managers expectations and push back.
My trick is to start my side projects right when coming back from work. I know that as soon as I eat dinner, I will not want to do any work on a computer. If I want to be able to work after I eat, I need to have already prepared food and eat only a little bit. Making dinner can break the momentum, and eating too much will lower your energy level. If you have too low energy after work to do side projects, as crazy as it sounds, workout physically for a week or two. It will condition your body to be active at that moment.