When an engineer becomes a lead or a manager, they create a professional satisfaction gap. They've observed this gap long before they became a lead with the question: "What does my boss do all day? I see him running around like something is on fire, but… what does he actually do?" The question gets personal when the now freshly minted manager begins to understand that life as a lead is an endless list of little things that collectively keep you busy, but, in aggregate, don't feel much like progress.
This is a brilliant post on why personal growth and development needs firm commitment and follow through hands-on work out of your personal (out of office) time.
Chasing the zone, I am often distracted enough both at work as well as at home with the immediacy of things that cannot seem to wait another minute in order to find my one hour a day so I could build something. Fortunately, I have a personal list of things I want to build, and I am pretty much sold on its value, and what it does to my learning.
Finding an hour after what looks like a typical burnout day is going to be hard. I am able to find a couple of hours over the weekend — rested and ready to take-on, while the rest of my family is still in bed. But I have come to the conclusion that waiting for doing things over the weekend is just too little or too late.