I’m struggling to disconnect from work. I’ve been working on an interesting problem for the last couple of weeks (compacting change data capture events from sharded MySQL servers into BigQuery). It’s an interesting technical problem. There are lots of optimization opportunities and novel patterns I can introduce.
I’m on vacation for the next two weeks but since starting my trip my mind keeps returning to the problem. I’ve even solved a few issues and come up with new patterns to try while daydreaming as we travel. Obviously I haven’t implemented any changes, I deliberately didn’t bring my work laptop with me. I emailed those solutions to my work email address so they get out of my head but that hasn’t helped. I just visualized more optimizations while hiking today.
There is no expectations from my leadership to work while on vacation.
How do others disconnect from work when I enjoy the problem solving aspects of my work?
I make my own projects that challenge me in the same way, and I feel less urgency with them than work, but of course this doesn’t help in a pinch. It’s a long term thing. Maybe leave the phone on the charger when you go out! Treat it like a detox. The rest is really important and if you don’t stop you will burn out eventually.
+1 to eventual burnout, even if you feel it fulfills you. Find a competing interest in your life, that’s just for you.