Work/life balance
In the past six months I’ve slowly escaped my pupal student stage, and been metamorphosing into a nine-to-five workin’ stiff. It’s come with a raft of benefits: income, interesting work, as well as relative security and predictability. Sadly, there are also costs.
Gone are the days when I’m my own manager. I can’t decide that a topic or idea interests me, and then take a day and a half to get a handle on it. I suddenly have deadlines imposed by others, that I have to deal with. I also have to handle the needs of co-workers (“hey erigami, my flux capacitor just stopped working. is that your fault?”).
But the part that’s hardest to handle is my free time. I suddenly work 40 hours a week, and finish the work day feeling pretty tired. I find that I don’t know what to do with myself when I get home. I would like to spend time with friends, doing something active, or learning more about the world.
All that, while keeping it real…
Few people consider the cognitive load that keeping it real imposes. As well as determining what ‘it’ is, one has to determine what reality is and maintain synchronization between the two. No simple task. Consider keeping things only partially real, or restrict the activity to weekends and evenings.