I have a similar problem - in 2017, I had very little opportunity to code! Instead, I've been drowning in admin and devops work. Eep.
This year, I've started fighting for my coding time. I've begun prioritizing coding tasks above many non-coding tasks. Many non-urgent managerial tasks can wait an extra day or two. A lot of devops stuff can wait a day or five. Or ten. Whatever necessary to ensure that I get at least one good day of coding in a week.
This may sound particularly callous and irresponsible coming from a Lead Developer, but I've realized that working in a burned-out state helps nobody.
You know it's bad if you're getting linker errors and ENJOYING IT!
I'll still get my job done, but I have to have coding time to be able to enjoy it.
Off the clock, I have a schedule for study three different things I've been wanting to master for a while: SQL, the second half of Learn C The Hard Way by Zed Shaw, and Linear Algebra.
Even more importantly, I've started work again on my open source music player, Elements, and I've set some pretty strict boundaries there to keep it fun.
My name is Lewis Menelaws. I am a developer and entrepreneur located in Sarnia, Ontario focusing on creating great things for the web. Currently I am Lead Developer and Co-Founder of TMRRWinc.
I have a similar problem - in 2017, I had very little opportunity to code! Instead, I've been drowning in admin and devops work. Eep.
This year, I've started fighting for my coding time. I've begun prioritizing coding tasks above many non-coding tasks. Many non-urgent managerial tasks can wait an extra day or two. A lot of devops stuff can wait a day or five. Or ten. Whatever necessary to ensure that I get at least one good day of coding in a week.
This may sound particularly callous and irresponsible coming from a Lead Developer, but I've realized that working in a burned-out state helps nobody.
You know it's bad if you're getting linker errors and ENJOYING IT!
I'll still get my job done, but I have to have coding time to be able to enjoy it.
Off the clock, I have a schedule for study three different things I've been wanting to master for a while: SQL, the second half of Learn C The Hard Way by Zed Shaw, and Linear Algebra.
Even more importantly, I've started work again on my open source music player, Elements, and I've set some pretty strict boundaries there to keep it fun.
That's awesome! Devops work is some of the most tedious things I have done. Glad you are getting time for learning and some side projects :)