Detailed Notes
As we approach the end of the year, the Building Better Developers podcast presents a special Thanksgiving edition focused on holiday planning and reflection. Hosts Rob Broadhead and Michael Meloche share insights into their personal and professional journeys this year, offering practical tips on balancing work, rest, and goal-setting during the holiday season. Whether navigating challenges or celebrating wins, this episode inspires listeners to use this reflective time to recharge and prepare for a successful 2025.
*Read More*... https://develpreneur.com/building-better-developers-a-guide-to-holiday-planning-and-reflection
We invite you to join our community and share your coding journey with us. Whether you’re a seasoned developer or just starting, there’s always room to learn and grow together. Contact us at [email protected] with your questions, feedback, or suggestions for future episodes. Together, let’s continue exploring the exciting world of software development.
*Additional Resources*
* Holiday Sales, Budgets, and Side Hustles (https://develpreneur.com/holiday-sales-budgets-and-side-hustles/) * Quiet Periods and Blackouts Over The Holidays (https://develpreneur.com/quiet-periods-and-blackouts-over-the-holidays/) * Making The Most Of Time Off and Holidays (https://develpreneur.com/making-the-most-of-time-off-and-holidays/)
*Follow-us on:*
* https://develpreneur.com/ * https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZOuFN_LhczvGyT2KSItH_g/featured * https://facebook.com/Develpreneur * https://twitter.com/develpreneur * http://linkedin.com/develpreneur
Transcript Text
[Music] howy y'all we are back and we are actually talking about Thanksgiving week already which is pretty crazy in itself so this time around okay I don't want to kick that off and I want to shut off these like a little alert things do not disturb me we'll give it an hour we'll see how that works so do the the annual uh Thanksgiving Christmas or Thanksgiving specials this week Christmas comes next month um usually what I do is I think we'll sort of keep this so usually the day of for the Thanksgiving episode which will be it come out on Thanksgiving we can do one that'll be just basically a do like a hey what things we're thankful for stuff like that do something sort of nice and upbeat uh for this episode which is the beginning of it maybe a little bit of maybe we do cuz because we've been doing focusing on this building better habits building better developer I'm not going to throw a challenge out but maybe this is a good it's one of those where it's it's getting us into that yearend stuff so we can sort of talk about um maybe some good things to do with sort of as you're getting into these last you know this last really month month and a half and straightening things out and like how do you plan for the next year and maybe wrapping up this year stuff like that so sort of the the beginning of the end for this year and talk about some of those pieces and the rest of it we'll do we'll do the basic we'll do the we can do the good and the bad we we probably skip the challenges unless we want to like mention that as part of our good and bad we'll sort of swing back around to that when we get back on the on the challenge thing but I do like doing the good bad and maybe maybe keep it as like a this should probably be a good one for a good bad is do it for like the year so far so you know maybe like a a good thing that's happened this year or a bad thing that's happened this year um and trying to we'll we'll try to keep those short but basically do that does that make sense does that sound good that works all right we'll see how it goes because that's pretty much how we always do these things I'm going to take a little tea all right did not get myself water but we'll see how this goes I'll do a little three two well hello and welcome back you may have noticed that we had a slightly different intro this time with our little annual Thanksgiving special turkey gobble thing which Michael's looking at that going I got to find that little piece of music and make sure that he does that when he edits this podcast yes he does it's in there I think it's called turkey gobble a little bit of inside baseball there we are building developers building better developers we are developing or I am Rob Broadhead one of the founders of developing or also a founder of RB Consulting where we help you make your business better we find the ways that you are using technology great and find ways to do that better we find ways that you're are not using your technology and find ways to either kick it to the curb or leverage that and all of those points in between the focus being simplification automation integration ways to take that technology sprawl and put it into a nice little bucket or a little box with a bow on it because hey it's holiday season good and bad we're going to in this special episode we're going to talk a little bit about we're going to open it up talk about good and bad for this year so bad for this year is it was a from a business point of view this is one of the most challenging years I've had in a long time in years and years I can't remember when I last had this much of a challenge and it was basically just a lot of stuff that just you know a lot of timing issues and stuff like that so it's just like a lot of projects that started to look really well and then you know people ran out of funding or they they freaked out a little bit about like the market or the world around them things like that so not a great year business-wise good thing is that even in this bad year and it sort of goes to that thankful kind of idea of this week even with all those challenges there's a lot of there was growth there was uh skill growth I mean I a I'm actually I can say I'm a better developer than I was when I started this year and uh there's just a lot of opportunities they going forward so even though it's you know it's one of those I guess it's like when you're when you're you know face down on the dirt the only you know it's easy to get up fairly quickly and things like that but uh so there's a definitely better days ahead uh even though there may have been some nasty ones behind better days ahead for all of you guys because now you get to get an introduction from Michael go ahead and share that with us hey everyone my name is Michael MOS one of the co-founders a develop andur also the founder of Envision QA where we help small to midsize businesses kind of analyze their software stack figure out if the software they're using really meets the business uh requirements and if they don't we help them build custom Solutions or find that right solution for their particular uh situations good and bad for the year uh good start out with the fact that I relaunched my company I went from launch Consulting rebranded rited and got off to a good start this year started off with a good customer and things are moving forward and things are looking bright bad side kind of all the things going on in the world unfortunately um have had some family health issues and we're still dealing with that even towards the end of the year it's just one of those things where sometimes they just can't figure it out and you're stuck with questions yeah well we'll get through it so he mentioned end of year and that's what we want to talk about this time as we're getting into this this holiday week which for some people it's always sort of interesting is is some people this is actually we're getting into a busier time if you're in the world of uh you know certain areas particularly if you're if you're in these places that have these blacks Friday sales and they're this is the time of year where they're like ramping everything up whether they're and it it may be that it's you know some sort of you know selling some sort of product or maybe you're in like the food industry or something like that where maybe there's more people out they're doing they're eating more meals travel where people are moving around or events where it's doing like maybe Thanksgiving events and Christmas events and New Year's events and you know dwali events and all these things it just it could be very busy for you but for some of us it's not so much and so I really want to talk about the I guess I we'll take both of them but for those of you where things are like settling down a little bit that is that makes it like this is a perfect time to do a little bit of a retrospective we talk talk about this every year is take this time to look back on how did your year go what are some things that you had on your list that you started off maybe your New Year's resolutions that have you faded into the the woodwork somewhere or are there some things that you got accomplished are there some things that in particular right now are there some things that you could still accomplish if you would just like buckle down for the next few weeks and try to knock these things out and if not complete them in a some is are there some things where it would make a lot of sense to kick the accomplishment or completing that into next year but use these next few weeks to set yourself up for Success examples that I've used in the past are things like if you want to write a book next year like that's one of the things that maybe you're going to do it this year or you're going to do it next year then what do you need to do to get started on that where maybe you want to start some of your research or or look into what are the tools for writing a book or publishing a book or reaching out to people to figure out how you're going to go through those processes or if you want to start podcast maybe you want to go through what's involved with that what do you need to do to to get the wheels in motion for that if you want to create a product maybe it is a good time for you to sit down and actually those are one of the things that I find it's really good in these less hectic times to spend a little bit of time put together requirements or maybe some design thoughts but then allow that to just like you know percolate a little bit in there so that as you get into the next year that you've got a better set of requirements and design and things that you have things that you've actually thought through that you may spend a little bit of time on it and allow those to think in and to just work through some of those scenarios it does make that process better if you've now got sort of like it's a second nature for you to think about how that works and what's a product and what is it providing and how do the features and all of those things that make up a product now along all of this time as well you do want to be able to like you know take a few minutes like chill a little bit relax a little bit things like that and and re-energize basically because you've had a year it's like whatever you've done it's been a year it's been at this point 11 months and if you haven't taken a little bit of time to like chill and relax and enjoy life then go do that as well and there's nothing wrong with going out and enjoying life a little bit and you don't have to feel guilty about it because sometimes those are the best times to get those ideas or solve that problem that's been really difficult to solve we've talked about walking away and taking a break and things like that so there are just a few of those things that as I every year as I get into this time these are things that start to like you know bounc around in my head because there's some things like well what have I what do I really want to get done before the end how am I going to do this like last push and then looking forward to next year it's starting to be you should at least now start to put some things on your your radar like what are some of the things I want to do next year now one of the things I want to do right now is throw this over to Michael and see like what are what are some what are your thoughts on this and where are you at in your uh your yearend rituals as we'll call them so it's kind of an interesting dilemma for me from year to year it almost changes it because it kind of flows with the seasons of work because some years like the start of my year is always kind of slow and then it like usually quarter Q2 and Q4 are like my busiest times of the year and then other years it's like q1 and Q3 are like slammed and then Q two and Q4 are just quiet so a lot of the things I really struggle with this time of year is how do I get to a point where I can step away and actually spend time with the family during the holidays because uh for our family Thanksgiving isn't just you know about turkeys and that our daughter was also born on Thanksgiving so it's also a time of celebration for us we you know you have Thanksgiving parties you have birthday parties things of that so it's a lot to juggle just for family requirements and obligations with work it's interesting because as I get into Q4 I start looking at planning out where I need to be for next year um you know you start looking at the books you start making sure things are balanced that you can cover the bills to the end of the year and then do you have what you need to go into next year you know do you have that little Nest Egg so you don't start next year off uh kind of in the red sometimes that happens because just TimeWise with holidays and that checks don't always come when they are supposed to the other thing is for me personally I always start reflecting on what were the goals like you said you know what were we trying to accomplish at the start of the Year where am I at you know you kind of go through those checkpoints of did I accomplish most of what I was trying to do you know we try to stick to that 8020 principle cuz you aren't always going to get 100% done but you don't want to beat yourself up but if you're not even at 80% then you got to kind of question did you set your goals too high or what happened you know did you have a shift um because sometimes especially around the holidays if you aren't meeting your goals if you're not kind of staying on track it can get a little depressing because you're like oh crap you know things aren't going right things aren't it can be a hot mass and usually that's when you need to stop take a step back and just you know like we've talked about in building better habits make those lists kind of reset set those goals and I'm actually doing that this weekend I've actually been going through and getting the books ready to wrap up for the year met with the accountant yesterday uh so I'm starting to get into that year and mindset but already looking at next year as to what I need to do what customers do I need to start bringing in uh and things like that however it's not just work again you know you got to make sure you plan for those holidays and make sure that you have time for your family and time for yourself because this is also one of those times where obligations from work and obligations from family can overlap and you might get a little stressed out because there's too much going on not if you find that happening just make cut your list back a little bit you know what is not Mission critical move that maybe to the first quarter or move that you know to your nonfamily time so that you can spend time with the family and that might help get ease you through the holidays yeah I think it's this is where it's always a a challenge uh for me and also the the message even even that we have during this season is because there's we are as part of like building better developers and stuff like that we are driven there are things that we do that we don't work nto5 we don't you know clock in and clock out and that the work lives with us it is it is yet another family member sometimes it's the most obnoxious family member and sometimes it's a great one and so it's this is always a time where there's that challenge of finding balance between spending some time to recharge spending some time to enjoy your life outside of work but also finding ways to take these lulls essentially and a way to you know use that to be better at your work for example one of the things that uh a lot of companies will do they'll have a quiet period you know maybe it's maybe it starts at Thanksgiving maybe it's you know the week of the last couple weeks of December there's different times like that and you may have one in the middle of the summer sometimes but when you have that quiet period it's from a business point of view it's a great time to catch on technical debt now as an example for where it can help us is maybe there's some things that you are dealing with that are part of that idea of Automation and things like that where maybe there you're spending a lot of time on something and you need some time to to just dig into it and actually automate it or house cleaning for example like I was just looking at stuff the other day because I've got a Dropbox account and had a bunch of stuff out there and it was like wow you got a lot of crap out there and it was like you may want to run out you may run out of space for storing all this stuff I started looking at it and there's a lot of stuff that I don't need out there it's old it's not it's like stuff there's out there mailbox is the same thing may have tons and tons of depending on who you are you may have an inbox that's got thousands of emails if those things have been sitting there in six months just like sweep through and delete them at least now you have hundreds of emails instead of thousands you know things like that you maybe there's a a tool that you've been wanting to work with or a toy that you've wanted to work with and use this time like spend all the time to do it one of my just as a you know something that may help you out as a years ago I think I've talked about this I would take the SE usually like two weeks off the Christmas New Year's time frame take a solid two weeks maybe two and a half weeks it sort of depended on how the holidays fell and what sort of vacation I had this started when I worked for you know had an employer and I found I could take five or six days of vacation time and turn it into like two and a half weeks of vacation time when you factor in the the holidays and stuff like that now during that time it was a always a great idea or a great opportunity for me to because I had so much time and especially if I wasn't traveling or anything and we were just hanging out at home and doing the regular stuff I had lots of time every day that I could also get some work done along with just like sleep in chill watch chist movies whatever it happened to be and I would get into a habit of because it was just you know everybody else sort of sleeping in and stuff like that I get up and maybe at you know 78 or 9 something like that go spend 3 four five hours working get into effectively lunchtime and then just take the rest of the day off and that was part of my deal it was s like I said okay I'm going to limit what I'm going to do yes I'm going to do a little bit of work I'm going to do some extra stuff but I am you know essentially going to time box it or I'm going to limit it and say at this point I'm done for the day and then I would go and then sometimes part of that was like that means that I'm going to turn around it's like okay so now I'm gonna like go play some games for a couple hours or something like that because I have that opportunity you know it's finding that balance among these things and you know if you've been spending all year working 60 70 80 hours a week something like that it is not going to kill you to take a week or two off and to to not work for those couple weeks you know the work trust me work will still be there when you come back to it so don't be afraid to walk away and allow yourself some time to like refresh and get back into it and if you're like me and you enjoy your work when you go away from it for a week or two you're just that much more motivated to jump into it when you get back because probably you've had all these ideas while you were not working it's you're like oh I want to do that I want to do that I want to do that I'm G to change this I'm G to do that you've got all of these things and now you're like all right now I get to go attack these again thoughts on that yeah it's it's a really good point because there's been times where and you r on some of the projects with me on this where it's like we worked through the holidays like we were working up to the deadlines and that helped no one because at the end of the day the people you need to get the work done typically are not going to be around during the holidays and you're going to be stressing trying to get your piece done but they're not there or people aren't there to answer your question so it's better to take a pause take some time off reflect and go play a game go for a walk go do something that you normally don't have time to do but the key is you know it's it's a time for family if you don't have you know if you're not around your family you know maybe go find some friends or go hang out at a park look for a parade or you know if you're have a small town nearby go check it out go walk the storefront sometimes that's you know if you're not a huge Shopper sometimes the decorations on like small towns or like malls are fun to just kind of walk around just browse and watch and it I'm not really a mall person anymore but I used to just enjoy walking around the mall it was safe quiet you don't have to worry about the weather and then you know get a hot cocoa you just chill and then when you're done you go home you relax for those of you in colder climates you know maybe sit down in front of the fireplace you know read a book do something that is kind of outside your normal a little bit or something you just don't have time to do normally do it now you know take a break and you'll be more refreshed at the end of this week going into the next week and getting ready for that last crunch for the end of the year yeah and that's the thing is it's you we've got stuff we all have you know requirements and responsibilities and stuff like that we have to deal with but if you get to the end of all of your days and you're looking looking back and all you've ever done is you've like you can check off the boxes of the projects that you've completed or the work that you've done or the you know the boss's demands that you met or however it is then you've missed out on life there's a lot more to it and while we do want to do the best that we can with you know the time we have we're focusing on our job there's also a whole other life out there and feel free to explore a little bit do something different like I I recommend often when when we get into the new year about like have a resolution that's different try step into something you haven't done we talk about career stuff all the time we talk about things like why don't you try to write a book or you know start a podcast or do a blog or things like that which are all good and they don't necessarily have to be work rated they could be things like you start a blog on gardening or something like that but if you have a hobby particularly if you have a hobby that you have not had time for it in a while take some of this time to actually go back can enjoy that hobby a little bit if you struggle with a hobby take two or three things and say maybe this is something I would like try some things you haven't done you know like go take a painting class or go to like a a a yoga class at one of the local places or you or go for a walk or things like that you know as Michael said like sometimes just walking you know around town if you've got a good walkable downtown and going through storefronts maybe you'll find a a neat little restaurant or uh you know some sort of specialty store that you like or a place to just go like chill and have a coffee or a drink or whatever happens to be or to just listen to music or just to hang out and listen to conversations or people watch there's so much more to life than the work and this is a good time to be like thinking through those things so not only how can you be a better developer it's really like how can you be a better you how can you do the things that you enjoy and that you were meant to do and make the most of those as always one of the best ways you can do that is to send us an email at info developer.com and let us know I would love to hear during this season what is maybe a a holiday ritual or habit or something like that what are some of the things that you do at the end of the year that have just become a part of who you are uh particularly if it has to do with like you know some certain types of recreation time or things you do that really help you when you get into the January and February push of like starting a new year or how you find a way to just like knock off all those items on your list to get done this year that you haven't gotten done yet also you can send us you can do uh comments you can do likes and all that kind of stuff wherever you find podcasts you can go out to the develop ur.com or the YouTube channel develop anur you can check this out you can leave us feedback there you go out to developer.com site and you can go there's a contact us form you can sign up for the newsletters there's all kinds of stuff out there note to self I should probably mention that we have newsletters more often I mean it's not you get the really good stuff but the newsletter helps you get an idea of like where are we going next and things like that it just goes out once a month it's not and it's like anything else it's an electronic newsletter you can always hit delete if you don't like it but you know it's just something to like keep up and and sometimes we do send special stuff out that's just sort of like a hey this is going on or hey here's something we came across so all of that's available on the site that being said enjoy enjy this week enjoy the next couple of days as this coming out you got you know the Thanksgiving holiday coming around and maybe the The Madness of Black Friday depending on what you're doing and then we'll be getting into December as we're starting to get through the end of 2024 which is just again mindboggling but while your mind is boggled go out there and have yourself a great day a great week and we will talk to you next time [Music]
Transcript Segments
[Music]
howy y'all we are back and we
are actually talking about Thanksgiving
week already which is pretty crazy in
itself so this time around okay I don't
want to kick that off and I want to shut
off these like a little alert
things do not disturb me we'll give it
an hour we'll see how that
works so do the the annual uh
Thanksgiving Christmas or Thanksgiving
specials this week Christmas comes next
month
um usually what I do
is I think we'll sort of keep this so
usually the day of for the Thanksgiving
episode which will be it come out on
Thanksgiving we can do one that'll be
just basically a do like a hey what
things we're thankful for stuff like
that do something sort of nice and
upbeat uh for this episode which is the
beginning of it maybe a little bit
of maybe we do cuz because we've been
doing focusing on this building better
habits building better developer I'm not
going to throw a challenge out
but maybe this is a good it's one of
those where it's it's getting us into
that yearend stuff so we can sort of
talk about um maybe some good things to
do with sort of as you're getting into
these last you know this last really
month month and a half and straightening
things out and like how do you plan for
the next year and maybe wrapping up this
year stuff like that so sort of the the
beginning of the end for this year and
talk about some of those pieces and the
rest of it we'll
do we'll do the basic we'll do the we
can do the good and the bad we we
probably skip the challenges unless we
want to like mention that as part of our
good and bad we'll sort of swing back
around to that when we get back on the
on the challenge thing but I do like
doing the good bad and
maybe maybe keep it as like a this
should probably be a good one for a good
bad is do it for like the year so
far so you know maybe like a a good
thing that's happened this year or a bad
thing that's happened this year
um and trying to we'll we'll try to keep
those short but basically do that does
that make sense does that sound good
that works all right we'll see how it
goes because that's pretty much how we
always do these things I'm going to take
a little
tea all right did not get myself water
but we'll see how this goes I'll do a
little three
two well hello and welcome back you may
have noticed that we had a slightly
different intro this time with our
little annual Thanksgiving special
turkey gobble thing which Michael's
looking at that going I got to find that
little piece of music and make sure that
he does that when he edits this podcast
yes he does it's in there I think it's
called turkey gobble a little bit of
inside baseball there we are building
developers building better developers we
are developing or I am Rob Broadhead one
of the founders of developing or also a
founder of RB Consulting where we help
you make your business better we find
the ways that you are using technology
great and find ways to do that better we
find ways that you're are not using your
technology and find ways to either kick
it to the curb or leverage that and all
of those points in between the focus
being simplification automation
integration ways to take that technology
sprawl and put it into a nice little
bucket or a little box with a bow on it
because hey it's holiday season good and
bad we're going to in this special
episode we're going to talk a little bit
about we're going to open it up talk
about good and bad for this
year so bad for this year is it was a
from a business point of view this is
one of the most challenging years I've
had in a long time in years and years I
can't remember when I last had this much
of a challenge and it was
basically just a lot of stuff that just
you know a lot of timing issues and
stuff like that so it's just like a lot
of projects that started to look really
well and then you know people ran out of
funding or they they freaked out a
little bit about like the market or the
world around them things like that so
not a great year
business-wise good thing is that even in
this bad year and it sort of goes to
that thankful kind of idea of this
week even with all those challenges
there's a lot of there was growth there
was uh skill growth I mean I a I'm
actually I can say I'm a better
developer than I was when I started this
year and uh there's just a lot of
opportunities they going forward so even
though it's you know it's one of those I
guess it's like when you're when you're
you know face down on the dirt the only
you know it's easy to get up fairly
quickly and things like that but uh so
there's a definitely better days ahead
uh even though there may have been some
nasty ones behind better days ahead for
all of you guys because now you get to
get an introduction from Michael go
ahead and share that with us hey
everyone my name is Michael MOS one of
the co-founders a develop andur also the
founder of Envision QA where we help
small to midsize businesses kind of
analyze their software stack figure out
if the software they're using really
meets the business uh requirements and
if they don't we help them build custom
Solutions or find that right solution
for their particular uh situations good
and bad for the year uh good start out
with the fact that I relaunched my
company I went from launch Consulting
rebranded rited and got off to a good
start this
year started off with a good customer
and things are moving forward and things
are looking bright bad side kind of all
the things going on in the world
unfortunately um have had some family
health issues and we're still dealing
with that even towards the end of the
year it's just one of those things where
sometimes they just can't figure it out
and you're stuck with
questions yeah well we'll get through
it so he mentioned end of year and
that's what we want to talk about this
time as we're getting into this this
holiday week which for some people it's
always sort of interesting is is some
people this is actually we're getting
into a busier time if you're in the
world of uh you know certain areas
particularly if you're if you're in
these places that have these blacks
Friday sales and they're this is the
time of year where they're like ramping
everything up whether they're and it it
may be that it's you know some sort of
you know selling some sort of product or
maybe you're in like the food industry
or something like that where maybe
there's more people out they're doing
they're eating more meals travel where
people are moving around or events where
it's doing like maybe Thanksgiving
events and Christmas events and New
Year's events and you know dwali events
and all these things it just it could be
very busy for you but for some of us
it's not so much and so I really want to
talk about the I guess I we'll take both
of them but for those of you where
things are like settling down a little
bit that is that makes it like this is a
perfect time to do a little bit of a
retrospective we talk talk about this
every year is take this time to look
back on how did your year go what are
some things that you had on your list
that you started off maybe your New
Year's resolutions that have you faded
into the the woodwork somewhere or are
there some things that you got
accomplished are there some things that
in particular right now are there some
things that you could still accomplish
if you would just like buckle down for
the next few weeks and try to knock
these things out and if not complete
them in a some is are there some things
where it would make a lot of sense to
kick the accomplishment or completing
that into next year but use these next
few weeks to set yourself up for
Success examples that I've used in the
past are things like if you want to
write a book next year like that's one
of the things that maybe you're going to
do it this year or you're going to do it
next year then what do you need to do to
get started on that where maybe you want
to start some of your research or or
look into what are the tools for writing
a book or publishing a book or reaching
out to people to figure out how you're
going to go through those processes or
if you want to start podcast maybe you
want to go through what's involved with
that what do you need to do to to get
the wheels in motion for that if you
want to create a product maybe it is a
good time for you to sit down and
actually those are one of the things
that I find it's really good in
these less hectic times to spend a
little bit of time put together
requirements or maybe some design
thoughts but then allow that to just
like you know percolate a little bit in
there so that as you get into the next
year that you've got a better set of
requirements and design and things that
you have things that you've actually
thought through that you may spend a
little bit of time on it and allow those
to think in and to just work through
some of those scenarios it does make
that process better if you've now got
sort of like it's a second nature for
you to think about how that works and
what's a product and what is it
providing and how do the features and
all of those things that make up a
product now along all of this time as
well you do want to be able to like you
know take a few minutes like chill a
little bit relax a little bit things
like
that and and re-energize basically
because you've had a year it's like
whatever you've done it's been a year
it's been at this point 11 months and if
you haven't taken a little bit of time
to like chill and relax and enjoy life
then go do that as well and there's
nothing wrong with going out and
enjoying life a little bit and you don't
have to feel guilty about it because
sometimes those are the best times to
get those ideas or solve that problem
that's been really difficult to solve
we've talked about walking away and
taking a break and things like that so
there are just a few of those things
that as I every year as I get into this
time these are things that start to like
you know bounc around in my head because
there's some things like well what have
I what do I really want to get done
before the end how am I going to do this
like last push and then looking forward
to next year it's starting to be you
should at least now start to put some
things on your your radar like what are
some of the things I want to do next
year now one of the things I want to do
right now is throw this over to Michael
and see like what are what are some what
are your thoughts on this and where are
you at in your uh your yearend rituals
as we'll call
them so it's kind of an
interesting dilemma for me from year to
year it almost changes it because it
kind of flows with the seasons of work
because some
years like the start of my year is
always kind of slow and then it like
usually quarter Q2 and Q4 are like my
busiest times of the year and then other
years it's like q1 and Q3 are like
slammed and then Q two and Q4 are just
quiet so a lot of the things I really
struggle with this time of year is how
do I get to a point where I can step
away and actually spend time with the
family during the holidays because uh
for our family Thanksgiving isn't just
you know about turkeys and that our
daughter was also born on Thanksgiving
so it's also a time of celebration for
us we you know you have Thanksgiving
parties you have birthday parties things
of that so it's a lot to juggle just for
family requirements and obligations with
work it's interesting
because as I get into Q4 I start looking
at planning out where I need to be for
next year um you know you start looking
at the books you start making sure
things are balanced that you can cover
the bills to the end of the year and
then do you have what you need to go
into next year you know do you have that
little Nest Egg so you don't start next
year off uh kind of in the red sometimes
that happens because just TimeWise with
holidays and that checks don't always
come when they are supposed to the other
thing is for me personally I always
start reflecting on what were the goals
like you said you know what were we
trying to accomplish at the start of the
Year where am I at you know you kind of
go through those checkpoints of did I
accomplish most of what I was trying to
do you know we try to stick to that 8020
principle cuz you aren't always going to
get 100% done but you don't want to beat
yourself up but if you're not even at
80% then you got to kind of question did
you set your goals too high or what
happened you know did you have a shift
um because sometimes especially around
the
holidays if you aren't meeting your
goals if you're not kind of staying on
track it can get a little depressing
because you're like oh crap you know
things aren't going right things aren't
it can be a hot mass and usually that's
when you need to stop take a step back
and just you know like we've talked
about in building better habits make
those lists kind of reset set those
goals and I'm actually doing that this
weekend I've actually been going through
and getting the books ready to wrap up
for the year met with the accountant
yesterday uh so I'm starting to get into
that year and mindset but already
looking at next year as to what I need
to do what customers do I need to start
bringing in uh and things like that
however it's not just work again you
know you got to make sure you plan for
those holidays and make sure that you
have time for your family and time for
yourself because this is also one of
those times where obligations from work
and obligations from family can overlap
and you might get a little stressed out
because there's too much going on not if
you find that happening just make cut
your list back a little bit you know
what is not Mission critical move that
maybe to the first quarter or move that
you know to your nonfamily time so that
you can spend time with the family and
that might help get ease you through the
holidays yeah I think it's this is where
it's always a a challenge uh for me and
also the the message even even that we
have during this season is because
there's
we are as part of like building better
developers and stuff like that we are
driven there are things that we do that
we don't work nto5 we don't you know
clock in and clock out and that the work
lives with us it is it is yet another
family member sometimes it's the most
obnoxious family member and sometimes
it's a great one and so it's this is
always a time where there's that
challenge of finding balance
between spending some time to recharge
spending some time to enjoy your life
outside of work but
also finding ways to take these lulls
essentially and a way to you know use
that to be better at your work for
example one of the things that uh a lot
of companies will do they'll have a
quiet period you know maybe it's maybe
it starts at Thanksgiving maybe it's you
know the week of the last couple weeks
of December there's different times like
that and you may have one in the middle
of the summer sometimes but when you
have that quiet period it's from a
business point of view it's a great time
to catch on technical debt now as an
example for where it can help us is
maybe there's some things that you are
dealing with that are part of that idea
of Automation and things like that where
maybe there you're spending a lot of
time on something and you need some time
to to just dig into it and actually
automate it or house cleaning for
example like I was just looking at stuff
the other day because I've got a Dropbox
account and had a bunch of stuff out
there and it was like wow you got a lot
of crap out there and it was like you
may want to run out you may run out of
space for storing all this stuff I
started looking at it and there's a lot
of stuff that I don't need out there
it's old it's not it's like stuff
there's out there mailbox is the same
thing may have tons and tons of
depending on who you are you may have an
inbox that's got thousands of emails if
those things have been sitting there in
six months just like sweep through and
delete them at least now you have
hundreds of emails instead of thousands
you know things like that you maybe
there's a a tool that you've been
wanting to work with or a toy that
you've wanted to work with and use this
time like spend all the time to do it
one of my just as a you know something
that may help you out as a years ago I
think I've talked about this I would
take the SE usually like two weeks off
the Christmas New Year's time frame take
a solid two weeks maybe two and a half
weeks it sort of depended on how the
holidays fell and what sort of vacation
I had this started when I worked for you
know had an employer
and I found I could take five or six
days of vacation time and turn it into
like two and a half weeks of vacation
time when you factor in the the holidays
and stuff like that now during that time
it was a always a great idea or a great
opportunity for me to because I had so
much time and especially if I wasn't
traveling or anything and we were just
hanging out at home and doing the
regular stuff I had lots of time every
day that I could also get some work done
along with just like sleep in chill
watch chist movies whatever it happened
to be and I would get into a habit of
because it was just you know everybody
else sort of sleeping in and stuff like
that I get up and maybe at you know 78
or 9 something like that go spend 3 four
five hours
working get into effectively lunchtime
and then just take the rest of the day
off and that was part of my deal it was
s like I said okay I'm going to limit
what I'm going to do yes I'm going to do
a little bit of work I'm going to do
some extra stuff but I am you know
essentially going to time box it or I'm
going to limit it and say at this point
I'm done for the day and then I would go
and then sometimes part of that was like
that means that I'm going to turn around
it's like okay so now I'm gonna like go
play some games for a couple hours or
something like that because I have that
opportunity you know it's finding that
balance among these things and you know
if you've been spending all year working
60 70 80 hours a week something like
that it is not going to kill you to take
a week or two off and to to not work for
those couple weeks you know the work
trust me work will still be there when
you come back to it so don't be afraid
to walk away and allow yourself some
time to like refresh and get back into
it and if you're like me and you enjoy
your work when you go away from it for a
week or two you're just that much more
motivated to jump into it when you get
back because probably you've had all
these ideas while you were not working
it's you're like oh I want to do that I
want to do that I want to do that I'm G
to change this I'm G to do that you've
got all of these things and now you're
like all right now I get to go attack
these again thoughts on
that yeah it's it's a really good point
because there's been times where and you
r on some of the projects with me on
this where it's like we worked through
the holidays like we were working up to
the deadlines and that helped no one
because at the end of the day the people
you need to get the work done typically
are not going to be around during the
holidays and you're going to be
stressing trying to get your piece done
but they're not there or people aren't
there to answer your question so it's
better to take a pause take some time
off
reflect and go play a game go for a walk
go do something that you normally don't
have time to do but the key
is you know it's it's a time for family
if you don't have you know if you're not
around your family you know maybe go
find some friends or go hang out at a
park look for a parade or you know if
you're have a small town nearby go check
it out go walk the storefront sometimes
that's you know if you're not a huge
Shopper sometimes the
decorations on like small towns or like
malls are fun to just kind of walk
around just browse and watch and it I'm
not really a mall person anymore but I
used to just enjoy walking around the
mall it was safe quiet you don't have to
worry about the weather and then you
know get a hot cocoa you just chill and
then when you're done you go home you
relax for those of you in colder
climates you know maybe sit down in
front of the fireplace you know read a
book do something that is kind of
outside your normal a little bit or
something you just don't have time to do
normally do it now you know take a break
and you'll be more refreshed at the end
of this week going into the next week
and getting ready for that last crunch
for the end of the year yeah and that's
the thing is it's you we've got stuff we
all have you know requirements and
responsibilities and stuff like that we
have to deal with
but if you get to the end of all of your
days and you're looking looking back and
all you've ever done is you've like you
can check off the boxes of the projects
that you've completed or the work that
you've done or the you know the boss's
demands that you met or however it is
then you've missed out on life there's a
lot more to it and while we do want to
do the best that we can with you know
the time we have we're focusing on our
job there's also a whole other life out
there and feel free to explore a little
bit do something different like I I
recommend often when when we get into
the new year about like have a
resolution that's different try step
into something you haven't done we talk
about career stuff all the time we talk
about things like why don't you try to
write a book or you know start a podcast
or do a blog or things like that which
are all good and they don't necessarily
have to be work rated they could be
things like you start a blog on
gardening or something like that but if
you have a hobby particularly if you
have a hobby that you have not had time
for it in a while take some of this time
to actually go back can enjoy that hobby
a little bit if you struggle with a
hobby take two or three things and say
maybe this is something I would like try
some things you haven't done you know
like go take a painting class or go to
like a a a yoga class at one of the
local places or you or go for a walk or
things like that you know as Michael
said like sometimes just walking you
know around town if you've got a good
walkable downtown and going through
storefronts maybe you'll find a a neat
little restaurant or uh you know some
sort of specialty store that you like or
a place to just go like chill and have a
coffee or a drink or whatever happens to
be or to just listen to music or just to
hang out and listen to conversations or
people watch there's so much more to
life than the work and this is a good
time to be like thinking through those
things so not only how can you be a
better developer it's really like how
can you be a better you how can you do
the things that you enjoy and that you
were meant to do and make the most of
those as always one of the best ways you
can do that is to send us an email at
info developer.com and let us know I
would love to hear during this season
what is maybe a a holiday ritual or
habit or something like that what are
some of the things that you do at the
end of the year that have just become a
part of who you are uh particularly if
it has to do with like you know some
certain types of recreation time or
things you do that really help you when
you get into the January and February
push of like starting a new year or how
you find a way to just like knock off
all those items on your list to get done
this year that you haven't gotten done
yet also you can send us you can do uh
comments you can do likes and all that
kind of stuff wherever you find podcasts
you can go out to the develop ur.com or
the YouTube channel develop anur you can
check this out you can leave us feedback
there you go out to developer.com site
and you can go there's a contact us form
you can sign up for the newsletters
there's all kinds of stuff out there
note to self I should probably mention
that we have newsletters more often I
mean it's not you get the really good
stuff but the newsletter helps you get
an idea of like where are we going next
and things like that it just goes out
once a month it's not and it's like
anything else it's an electronic
newsletter you can always hit delete if
you don't like it but you know it's just
something to like keep up and and
sometimes we do send special stuff out
that's just sort of like a hey this is
going on or hey here's something we came
across so all of that's available on the
site that being said enjoy enjy this
week enjoy the next couple of days as
this coming out you got you know the
Thanksgiving holiday coming around and
maybe the The Madness of Black Friday
depending on what you're doing and then
we'll be getting into December as we're
starting to get through the end of
2024 which is just again
mindboggling but while your mind is
boggled go out there and have yourself a
great day a great week and we will talk
to you next time
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