Towards the end of last year I gained a job as a junior developer and while the job and the environment itself is wonderful, by the end of the day I'm usually feeling so exhausted that I seem to struggle to do more then lie down as mindless zombie. How do you manage the balance between work and home, and how do you develop your skills effectively outside of office hours?
Ask HN: How do you improve in your free time?
1–10 of 18 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you improve in your free time?
#2If you want to learn new skills, you need to do it in the morning before work. You should use your freshest mind for yourself, not your employer. I've never had success learning after work, except for the odd day when I am really sharp. Choose a project that interfaces with alot of open source, and really stretches what you think you can do with a computer.
Re: Ask HN: How do you improve in your free time?
#3[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: How do you improve in your free time?
#4You should read some good book about how we learn.
And take maximum from your work time, and get a good rest afterwards.
Good rest is as important for learning as concentration times.
Re: Ask HN: How do you improve in your free time?
#5Learn new skills early in the morning before work. For instance, right now I spend 1h before work each morning dedicated to learning Flutter.
Re: Ask HN: How do you improve in your free time?
#6Learn new skills early in the morning before work. For instance, right now I spend 1h before work each morning dedicated to learning Flutter.
Second this. I'm currently trying to force myself through some new concepts and I'm doing after work and boy does it all become one and the same only after 30min reading. Mornings are much better for this.
Re: Ask HN: How do you improve in your free time?
#7unpopular opinion: do leetcode
Re: Ask HN: How do you improve in your free time?
#8> by the end of the day I'm usually feeling so exhausted that I seem to struggle to do more then lie down as mindless zombie
Fix that part instead. Then your problem is reduced to: "I come from work everyday slightly tired, but overall in a vibrant mood, how can I learn, oh, wait, nevermind."
In your state looking for more tasks is decidedly putting out fire with gasoline.
I would primarily get any FOMO out of my life until you find balance. Identify any inputs in my life (colleagues, motivational videos, messaging channels) that make me feel inferior and force me to work harder and learn more. Reduce these inputs mercilessly. (I can always choose to re-introduce them later.)
This will hopefully give some breathing space, so you could take care about the main problem: can you change any aspect of your current work to stop turning a "mindless zombie" day by day.
Re: Ask HN: How do you improve in your free time?
#9I tend to have a time management application that monitors my schedule. Do this. It helps.
I develop my skill outside of office hours by joining a group with similar interests as me.
This way, learning can become fun, and you're interacting with different perspectives simultaneously.
Re: Ask HN: How do you improve in your free time?
#10Keeping work at work.
Getting regular sleep.
Regular exercise. Mostly 15-45 minute walks these days.
Those are all pre-loading to make the skill learning possible.
I get my skills doing long term projects. In terms of 4 years or more. This time I'm writing novels. Writing good long form fiction is hard. Very hard.