Time Management and Work / Life Balance

[BrendonKoz]

With all of the advancements in AI, and other technologies not slowing down, it's getting even harder to feel like I'm staying relevant. Add to that the pressure to exercise and stay fit, work outside or around the home, and to be sure to retain some amount of leisure... How do you all do it?

I see my gaming buddy logging hours of a video game. He works in defensive cybersecurity, so he makes quite a bit and is on-call. Thankfully for him, he works remote (I do not). But he has a family with tweeny triplets (!). He's just this past week mentioned ripping up carpet, last week he ran a trench to run electrical for a man-made pond he's installed with boulders that he moved by hand. Meanwhile I want to learn about n8n, take some AI courses (someone mentioned faster.dev here in the forums), work on personal (dev) projects, but also get things done around the house, and make sure to spend time with the girlfriend and make sure she's happy.

I have not figured out a good time management scenario to balance these all out:

1. House/property work.
2. Friends and family time.
3. Leisure time.
4. Exerciise
5. Paid work (job / income).
6. Professional improvement and advancement.

What are your tricks, or boundaries, to set time aside for each of these? Are you struggling like I am to properly afford time to each thing and not allow them to thoroughly overtake another's time commitment?

Looking for revelations that some of you may have had during your careers or lifetimes to help you sort these things out! 🙃

[maximus]

This resonates. 20 years in development, still figuring it out honestly.

Current reality: Day job 6 days/week, building PW modules in spare time. Not balanced, but intentional - grinding now to create options later.

What actually helps:
- Seasons, not balance - some months are 80% work, others need to be 80% recovery
- Combine categories - coding for fun = leisure + professional growth
- One rule: protect sleep and one full day off. Everything else is negotiable
- Physical maintenance - injuries taught me this the hard way

The AI/tech pressure to "stay relevant" is real, but burnout is worse. Better to have 3 solid productive hours than 8 exhausted ones.

What's working for you so far?