@sachac Is the way you’re recording your time too analytic-deductive? A symptom of being reductive could be a requirement to code an activity to only one category. Double-counting could be okay.
In business sense, there’s operating capital (i.e. everyday pocket change) and investment capital (i.e. something that takes a longer time to develop and show a benefits). Some of the thinking about sustainability in the longer term could be related to regenerative design (in the way John Lyle thought about it).
I found myself slipping from the feeling of an abundance of time to the feeling of a scarcity of it, to be carefully portioned out among too many demands. [....]
So now I’ve got a couple of ways to rethink how this fits into my life.
I can promote these extracurriculars from the category “Work – Other” to “Discretionary – Other” or something similar, and budget myself four or five hours a week. It’s not work, it’s learning.
Alternatively, I can keep it under “Work – Other” and add an effective 10% overhead to my billable work. Many people have told me that I’m a fast developer, anyway, so scaling my output down to that of a somewhat above average developer will still mean that we do good stuff. The cognitive surplus goes into process improvement, self-development, and happiness, which is definitely worthwhile. I get stressed when I feel like I’m letting my other priorities slip, so spending time on them is important too.
These extracurricular interests can create a lot of value. I should adjust my measurements accordingly so that my measurements don’t lead to conflicting feelings.
Comment on Work, extracurriculars, and measuring time: an epiphany | sacha chua :: living an awesome life.
