I think 37 Signals runs a great company. I saw Jason Fried speak last year at the Business of Software conference, and a few other places, and I think he's building the type of company I'd like to own or work for. Recently I ran across a blog post from one of their founders that talked about building a business that allows you to have a life. The title of this blog post might offend a few people, so I apologize for that, but ignore the language and read the message.
Most people I know that run their own business, whether in software, construction, or anything else, work a lot of hours. It's almost assumed that if you own a business that you have to work insane hours. I also think there are lots of people in the Information Technology business that have the same expectation, even when they don't own the business. They think they have to work a lot of hours to succeed.
Whether or not you own a business, I think that you have to maintain some balance in your life. However it's more than just a good idea. As we spend more and more time with technology, and build larger solutions, I've seen more people come to the conclusion that getting away from your daily grind can pay dividends.
Walking away from a problem and coming back is refreshing. Sometimes that takes ten minutes, sometimes it's overnight, but you have to learn more about yourself to decide when you need a break. To do that, you need to practice it. Take a break now and then, cut your long day short, try something else and see if it helps you.
Learn more about your craft. Not just a particular skill, like Programming T-SQL , but perhaps something more general like The Productive Programmer (if you're a developer). Regular make an effort to learn more, and then to try and incorporate those skills into your work. Discuss them with the rest of your team or with a local user group.
In the short term it might seem like you are in fact spending more time, but really what you should do is divert some of that time to taking care of yourself (with hobbies, exercise, family), and your career (learn to be better). Hopefully you'll be one of those people that learns to be ten times more productive in your field.
With a little effort.
Steve Jones
The Voice of the DBA Podcasts
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