It’s Okay to Code on Nights and Weekends

I’ve been struggling with this for a long time (my whole life): I love coding and building software. a lot of. I Since I was 8 years old. My nervous system was developed around computers.

i hear a lot “Maintain work-life balance” and “Touch the Grass” Although this is actually sounds like, Coding is not for me: It brings me so much joy, meaning, and purpose that few other things come close, and really only one thing far exceeds it.

I code on weekends and evenings because I have so much fun doing it. It’s my biggest hobby and I’m honored that it’s a big part of who I am I work. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, and I definitely don’t want anyone else to feel the same, but it’s not a “wrong” to me. This is just a stone-cold guy who loves his craft.

For years, I tried to avoid my beloved hobby on the weekends because of the self-doubt amplified by others: “Weekends are for relaxing!! And family!— but aren’t hobbies a wonderful, creative, relaxing escape? I don’t know how others do it, but my closest family and friends spend their weekends enjoying their hobbies (baking, rock climbing, etc.) – sometimes with others and sometimes recovering alone. Why should a hobby that happens to be part of my job be any different?

When I’m trying to follow other people’s rules and avoid coding on the weekends, I often find myself doing similar things: playing puzzle games, diving deeply into other logic-oriented tasks that also have a creative element… it’s all the same Neural circuits act as encoders but not Actually encoding. I’m really just coding (in a sense), but fooling myself and others that this particular logic game that grabs all my attention is somehow different.

My brain works the way it does, loving what it loves. I can’t escape some of the fundamental things I’ve done since I was a kid.

In the end, the best conclusion I can draw today is: Doing things you love and giving them purpose has never been a problem. In fact, it’s a gift! There are a lot of people out there looking for that thing but haven’t found it yet, and I sincerely feel for them. I hope they can feel the joy I feel in this wonderful hobby as often as I do.

So… when will things go wrong?

There’s something wrong with becoming a god

I think it’s a matter of worship. In highly intellectual and logical secular STEM we rarely talk about this, but if I look around it is clear to me that there is a lot of adoration around: we devote ourselves to an idea, thing, person or ourselves; when something Things and our devotion to them eclipse other things, including rest, relaxation, recovery, and relationships with family and friends.

This is a line that should not be crossed: if I worship my hobby and offer myself up like a living sacrifice, then everything and everyone around me will crumble. I put a weight on it (and myself) that neither of us could bear. In plain language, “When a good thing becomes a miracle, too much of it becomes a bad thing”.

This is verified in this article Nature October 2024 Research Articles Research has found that middle school students’ physical activity shows a bell-shaped curve, with their cognitive abilities peaking after about an hour of exercise a day, but their cognitive abilities decline sharply after two hours. We may not all be students who play sports, but law of conservation of energy What this represents is this: if we devote most/all of our energy to topic A (in this case, sports), then other topics will suffer. There are no two ways about it. We cannot (yet?) negotiate with the laws of thermodynamics.

So how do we prevent things from becoming gods? science Tell us that the best approach is to maintain multiple sources of meaning and engagement rather than focusing on any single area for long periods of time. This involves:

• Evaluate regularly for signs of imbalance, such as neglect of relationships or decreased life satisfaction
• Maintain personal pursuits and social connections

The key is to cultivate what researchers say “Psychological richness”: Possess a diversity of experiences and perspectives rather than focusing on any single pursuit too long: All our efforts have an expiration date, or if you’re talking about engineering, a TTL. If the children are doing sports, it will take about 2 hours. For us, we might spend all day, night, and weekend coding, but at some point we Will hit a wall. I know I know.

Instead of getting frustrated with myself or my device when I hit a wall, I learn to recognize that this is a time for mental enrichment: I’ll message my friends and family to see how they’re doing, which What usually results is eating meals together and enjoying them. After an interaction like this, I realized that I had completely forgotten what annoys me when I hit a wall. I would then go back within 15 minutes and resolve any issues I had without much effort. I’d be willing to bet that the experience I’m sharing is not unique to me, as I hear it all the time from other software engineers. Let me know if this is relevant to 𝕏.

It becomes a problem when we expect others to do the same

What works for us may not work for everyone. I realize not everyone started coding at age 8 and may have other interests. Good for them! Some developers are content being completely disconnected from coding outside of working hours, while others may prefer to fit their passion into their overall schedule. Neither approach is inherently superior. They simply reflect different personalities and life circumstances.

Imposing our own work models on colleagues can create a toxic environment where people feel pressured to meet unrealistic expectations. This is particularly problematic for:

• Junior developers are still finding their way
• Parents and caregivers have multiple responsibilities
• Those who need clear boundaries between work and personal time
• People who find meaning and joy in other pursuits

That’s exactly why it’s done Work It’s not ideal outside of work: you’ll inadvertently (hopefully) make the rest of your team look bad, while also feeling annoyed that others are not doing as well as you. You may also feel dizzy “Wow, I’m awesome! Look what I’ve accomplished!” And become a real nuisance to most people around you. I’ve fallen into this pattern at work before G2i The results were not positive: most of the engineering organizations resigned, citing their inability to work with me during exit interviews.

Rather than going this route, if we do enjoy coding technology, then we recognize that the technology has other applications outside of the work world, such as that side project you started but never finished. Maybe actually do something with all the domain names you’ve been paying for.

One of the main reasons we hate everything in the world is People impose their modus operandi on others. Maybe we would all be better off if that wasn’t the case majesticwe insist proposal ideas, let our colleagues do whatever works for them and figure it out along the way. This is also backed by science, especially this Research paper examines more than 50 years of research on team effectiveness and provide insights on how to improve team effectiveness. Not surprisingly, one of the key findings is that teams achieve greater effectiveness and a stronger collective climate when team members collectively develop and agree on a framework rather than having it imposed individually.

What does all this actually mean to us? Just let people be. This is great if you like to code in the evenings and weekends. Just do it. If others don’t and this works for them, that’s great. Good for them. There is no need for everyone to follow a specific approach that works for a specific group of people who share some common attributes. In fact, there is beauty in diversity.

Problems arise when others have such expectations of us

I have encountered such a situation When you repeatedly exceed expectations, expectations rise to the point where what was once considered exceeding expectations is now right on target. When this happens, any average level of output suddenly falls below average for whatever reason (fatigue, other priorities, new hobbies), and this reflects poorly on your performance review, even though you’re at worst Still performing at average. as my coach Carter explain, “The prize for winning the cake-eating contest is more cake.”. Expectation management is extremely important here.

If something goes wrong, the consequences can be serious, leading to:

• The hidden stress of working nights and weekends
• Use passionate developers as a benchmark for team productivity
• Treat unhealthy work patterns as a badge of honor
• Confusing personal coding projects with work obligations

To prevent this from happening, we must proactively manage expectations through clear communication and realistic goal setting. This alone is special because Expectations are rarely proactively addressedeven most leaders fail to do so, which threatens organizational performance. Good leaders proactively manage expectations and make them clear. Not so with the poor.

This idea was further strengthened and verified Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) 2024 research titled “The role of expectation management in value creation” This demonstrates that inconsistent expectations can seriously harm job performance, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction. The paper itself discusses how municipal managers are adapting to strong economic pressures, forcing them to rethink value creation while delivering housing services with far less than ideal levels of funding. They found that the key to creating value (i.e. providing housing services) largely depends on:

1. Effectively manage expectations
2. Build long-term relationships with “customers”
3. Balance planned and urgent matters

While I would bet that most of us here are not city managers helping residents with housing issues, the work we do every day most likely is value creation work Nonetheless, these principles still apply. When we are able to clearly maintain appropriate expectations, the coding we do on evenings, weekends, and after hours is Love work and complete just because we like it We can stop when we want, start when we want, and follow the whims and ways of our desires, then we may be in a healthier space where we can reserve our time to be who we are Things to wish for and not to do.

way forward

Having said that, here’s a protocol that works very well for me:

1. Admit that I just deeply love my job, this job Found out I was still a childand a job I might love.

2. Realize that this doesn’t affect “work/life balance” because it is an ingrained part of my life with or without a “job” (a job).

3. Putting my heart and mind on the right priorities: Human beings, friends, family, and relationships are all filled with something inherently beautiful and sacred that sets them/us apart from any hobbies that may exist. I intend to never lose sight of this.

4. Stay aware of seasons and cycles. Sometimes coding feels energizing and sometimes it requires space. I try to listen to these rhythms rather than forcing myself to code or not code according to external rules. Most external rules are made and don’t matter anyway.

5. Pay close attention to the warning signs: decreased ability to mentally detach from work, decreased sleep quality, increased stress levels, decreased social connections, and make adjustments if needed.

At this moment, I am 31 years old, and everything I have experienced, bear everything i bearwhich seems to me to be the most ideal, optimal, and most fruitful path. What do you think? let me know 𝕏.