"Planning our work around our lives" (as opposed to the other way around)

We are all caught in the hustle and, most times, it is not a conscious decision.

Feb 02, 2024

(And the essence of that tweet prompted me to write this article)

“What if we reversed that, and started planning our work around our lives?”

If — we are able to do this, & When — we are able to do this, I think we’ll all be a whole lot happier and the world will be a much better place. And yes, the companies will get what they want as well. And a whole lot more.

The beauty is there is no right or wrong answer to what our desired lifestyle is. To each, our own. For instance, I rejected a project in NYC years ago because I didn’t see myself sit on a train every morning for 50 minutes each way, every day. I didn’t want to take up the project and realize (what I already knew) that it wasn’t for me a week later, and move on. It wouldn’t have helped anyone. Not me. And most certainly, not my client.

My Expectations

These happen to be some of my lifestyle expectations —

No public transportation to work.
No commute to work that that is longer than 20–30 minutes, tops.
No rigid work hours.
No outdated technologies.
No mundane work.
No bureaucracy.
No expectations of obsequious behavior.

My Promises

And here’s what my clients have gotten, do get and will continue to get in return:

My undivided attention and commitment to what I promise (both as an independent consultant, and as a Managed Services provider).
Utmost attention to detail.
Highest quality of deliverables.
Credibility, Integrity and everything else that goes with it.

I share these (real world and non-fictional) examples because it’s never easy to take a stand. I’ve been told plenty of times that I should make the “right” decision — to drive the extra 20 miles, extra 45 minutes to DC (and beyond) because the project is one of its kind, the client is willing to pay much higher than the market rate, my expectations are unreasonable, there are plenty of other developers out there, and yada, yada, yada. While I didn’t disagree with any of that, I politely told them that it just wasn’t my cup of tea.

You might hear some of what I’ve been told over the years. Be resilient and trust your skills.

“You realize there are a lot of other developers out there?”
“Your expectations are unreasonable”
“1-hour each way is not that much commute, really”

Ultimately, if you don’t enjoy every aspect of your work, you should seriously consider looking. If that next one doesn’t satiate your needs and curiosities that much either, keep looking.

There’s plenty of exciting work out there (until AI ends up doing it all, that is!), and thankfully, there’s no dearth of clients and folks who actually appreciate high quality work & credibility, and also realize the importance of both flexibility and unique employee needs.

It is absolutely silly to try and paint human needs with a broad brush. We are all unique and we all needed to be treated that way. We deserve to be treated that way. No amount of money is ever worth sacrificing even an iota of self respect, or doing what you don’t absolutely love doing.

Make a decision today to do what your heart beats for. Don’t compromise on what you want from life. Don’t compromise on what you will provide your family. Don’t compromise on what you will deliver to your clients. Don’t compromise on your hopes. Don’t compromise on your passion. Don’t compromise.

You were certainly not born to go to School, then College, then maybe some more College (if you were like me!), then work, then more work, then some more work, then a lot more work, and then, one day, die. There’s more to life than that.

And while you do what you love doing, don’t forget to be grateful. We all have long ways to go but we’ve got to rejoice on the distance traveled. Every road is unique. Even the ones that seem to have been traveled a lot are actually unique in their own ways. So, to look for answers from previous travelers may actually be a detour. A detour that we may be better off avoiding in our pursuit of success. Did I say success? I actually meant, in our pursuit of happiness.

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