Having a schedule leads to a balanced day. It all starts with bedtime.

For more on this, watch the video at the bottom of the page.

You’ll have enough rest to do focused work the entire day. A few years ago I did some onsite IT work with a client. My job was to help image and set up workstations for a huge team of new hires.

The job was simple. Set up the desks with monitors, docking stations, keyboards, and mice. After this, apply the images to each new machine and confirm all the settings from the new computer setup documents. Pretty straightforward.

The night before our last day, I stayed up late with my friends. The only thing left at the job site was to apply images. I figured I’d be in and out that Friday so I could just sleep when I got home. Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned.

I came into work the next day and it turns out we didn’t yet have the image needed for setup. In fact, there were missing details in the job description. No one told us WE had to create the image ourselves. We had to perform a clean windows install and set up one computer first. THEN we could take that image and apply it to each machine.

Looks like I wasn’t going home anytime soon.

Later that day, I’m sitting at my station, applying three images at once, trying to speed through the work as soon as possible so I could get home and rest. I remember watching the loading bars for the imaging process. The next thing I know, one of our clients is nudging me awake, asking for one of my coworkers.

I was fast asleep! Drool, head tilted back, the works.

It was so embarrassing. But I regained my composure and got back to work. Now, nothing else came of it. But imagine if I were knocked out like that at a regular job? I would’ve been fired for sure! And on a Friday of all days!

Sticking to a decent bedtime would’ve saved me the trouble that day. However, this isn’t just about balancing work and fun. It’s about balancing life and rest. 

Some jobs allow you to take your computer home and continue working. And during these times, remote work is more common than ever. But even then you have to set boundaries. If you stay up all night working, you could end up drooling in the middle of standup the next morning.

So what’s the ultimate balance? That depends on you. Take note of how much sleep you need to feel “well rested” and add it to your daily routine. Give yourself enough time to get your target amount of sleep each night.

Sometimes “one more episode” or fixing a bug just isn’t worth it. If your work isn’t done, leave it for tomorrow. At least you know you can come back to it refreshed and well rested the next day. Or call out and sleep in. Your choice.

For more on this, check out the video below.

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Coding Fanatic