Although this could probably take this post into a pretty light-hearted spin, it’s actually a very serious issue I’ve been dealing with lately, and especially when it comes up in a “serious” conversation with my bride.
The challenge that I’ve had consistently in life is the balance or delineation rather of where my occupation bleeds into my recreation. In fact, they are so interwoven that it’s near-impossible to spot the difference.
A lot of my hobbies, interests, and personal passions swirl around the internet and online-related media. My occupation has always been there as well.
I’ll be browsing the web doing research (which is also very pleasurable) for work but which I also do for a hobby. I’ll be developing applications for business but also be spinning in regression testing on personal dev machines in parallel that might be, in fact, the same application base. I’ll be waiting to upload something to a server for work and while that’s spinning I’ll draft something quickly for a blog post.
It’s almost scary how natural this is for me.
My wife has noticed this as well, as I’ll switch from “business” to “personal” almost seamlessly and then back again without difficulty, without hesitation.
I think a challenge all of us face, especially those who’s lives are constantly becoming more “in tune” with the internet is to explicitly lay those boundaries out and, if needed, get help and “accountability” (whatever that means for you).
You guys feel me?
[Define Pieces]