Keeping a Sane Work/Life Balance in Tech

09/22/22 • 12 min

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Balancing work life and personal life has always been a challenge up until and continuing into the pandemic. There are actionable and adaptable ways to achieve this balance. In this episode, Lauren Ward talks to Nyasha Green about her six main tips for work life balance, including one bonus seventh tip.

Episode Transcript

Nyasha Green: Hey Lauren, how are you doing today?

Lauren Ward: I’m doing great Ny. How are you?

Nyasha Green: I’m doing well, doing well. I’m really excited to speak with you today. We’re going to talk about an article that you did for MasterWP. The title was Boundaries, Zoom Calls, and Potty-talk:Keeping a sane work/life balance in tech. And I just wanted to ask you a couple of questions about your article and just talk about a few things that I thought were really interesting that you wrote. And I just want to start off by asking you what inspired you to write this article?

Lauren Ward: Wow. So my kids and my personal journey were definitely a big inspiration for me, but also knowing that there are others out there in tech looking for a better work, life balance, whether it’s newbies, who might just be starting off in WordPress and wondering how in the world are going to juggle all the things and still enjoy life. Or if it’s the seasoned WordPress developer, who’s realizing that there are just some things in life they want to switch up for a better balance. That’s kind of where my inspiration came from. And honestly, I’m just hoping that my ideas help others in some way.

Nyasha Green: Nice. Nice. And you start off the article by talking about just the routine that you have for not only your family, but yourself. Do you think it’s easier now to do all the things that you are able to do now because you have a routine set?

Lauren Ward: Oh, absolutely. Having a routine in place and setting expectations, not only for my family, but also within myself has proven to help me achieve both day to day work goals, like getting a project completed as well as long term personal goals, like taking a trip or vacation every now and then. And as a side note, I’ve found that having a trip to look forward to even a small one helps so much with being consistent in routines, kind of like a little reward.

Nyasha Green: Yeah, definitely. And with your routine, were you the main one to set this routine up or was it you and your partner? How did you guys go about it?

Lauren Ward: My husband and I definitely worked together to set up our routines and create structure for a productive week. We rely, heavily rely on good communication between us and our shared Google Calendar really helps us along. But setting our routine has not only allowed us to accomplish work goals, but also having more quality time as a family, as well as being intentional and parenting our kids together. And that’s not to say that every day is a win, but having our routines in place has really helped us along.

Nyasha Green: That is so awesome. And it’s funny you say that. I’ve tried to share my Google Calendar with my husband, like a million times. And he finally told me he was like, there’s no way I’m looking at that. I don’t know what you have going on, but the technology you can use to support these routines are definitely, really awesome.

Lauren Ward: Absolutely.

Nyasha Green: How long did it take you all to get into a good routine? I know we’ve talked in the past about how been pretty organized and you are organized. You’re like my role model when it comes to organization. I need help. But how long did it take for you all to get on a good routine together?

Lauren Ward: Well, it’s definitely been a work in progress. Starting off, we tested different strategies and found things that worked for us as well as things that didn’t, and when something didn’t work, we just simply adjusted our strategy and moved forward from there. I think it’s all about testing to see what works and what doesn’t and just having a positive attitude in general about it, but also staying flexible. And when it comes to working while having kids at home, things come up and you sometimes just have to roll with it.

Nyasha Green: Yeah. And speaking of, so you do have two boys. You do have children. I just know you have to have a good story. Do you have any good or funny stories about having them at home while you’re working?

Lauren Ward: Yes. Oh my goodness. Yes. One in particular, I was on a business call with about 15 other professionals and it was my turn to talk. And my little one came in, running into the room, wrapped his arms around me while I was on vide...

Episode Transcript

Nyasha Green: Hey Lauren, how are you doing today?

Lauren Ward: I’m doing great Ny. How are you?

Nyasha Green: Yeah, definitely. And with your routine, were you the main one to set this routine up or was it you and your partner? How did you guys go about it?

Lauren Ward: Absolutely.

Previous Episode

How Other Open Source Projects Raise Money

Here at Press The Issue we live for examining the most complicated questions and problems that face the WordPress community, and that includes how money flows or sometimes does not flow through it. In this episode, Brian and Rob go deep into discussing funding the future of open source.

Episode Transcript

Rob Howard: Hey Brian, how’s it going?

Brian Coords: Good, how are you doing today?

Rob Howard: Very good. So we’ve been talking a lot about funding, the future of WordPress, there’s a ton of different ideas that are swirling around that central concept. But today we really want to focus on actually just looking at some examples of how open source projects are funded outside of WordPress. There’s a ton of well known interesting ones, and we’ve picked out a few and we’re going to basically just dive into different funding models, how they contrast with WordPress, how they could be used by WordPress and hopefully just spur some ideas and brainstorm a bit about different and additional ways to fund our favorite open source projects.

Brian Coords: And you’ve brought forward a few really good examples of some projects, they’re pretty much household names, they all have ways in which they’re similar to WordPress, ways in which they’re different, so we’re just going to go through a few of those. And the first example, which I think is probably the biggest name, is Wikipedia, and Wikipedia is very similar in that there’s a nonprofit, there’s some for-profit stuff in there, and there’s a very passionate contributor base to Wikipedia, which is very similar to WordPress. So for you, can you give us an overview? How does Wikipedia generate money and then how do they use that money to push the project forward?

Rob Howard: Yeah, so Wikipedia, as we know it, is a nonprofit, it’s run by the Wikimedia Foundation, and that is just a simple charitable 501(c)(3) nonprofit, which essentially any charity you donate to has that nonprofit status. In addition to the Wikimedia Foundation, the owner of Wikipedia also owns Fandom, which actually used to be called Wikia. So anytime you Google a deep cut about a movie or a video game or something, you often will end up on a Fandom site, and that’s actually a paid for profit thing, they run ads, there may be a premium option at some point for the users. So they’re making money off of Fandom, it is a parallel idea to Wikipedia, so that’s one source of revenue that basically keeps the lights on at the very least. And then Wikipedia also runs pledge drives and basically says, “Hey, we’re a nonprofit, please donate to us”.

Rob Howard: This is very analogous to PBS running telethons or pledge drives to say, “Hey, we’re public, we’re funded by you, we need your support, you’re going to get a tote bag if you support us”, whatever that is. So the parallels, as you mentioned, are number one, they have a big contributor base that essentially is producing open source information. The way Wikipedia is licensed, it’s all basically free for the world to use and redistribute under very basic terms. You maybe have to reference that you found it on Wikipedia or something, but effectively it’s open source knowledge. So where we do open source code or open source publishing in WordPress, they do open source information and obviously they’ve rapidly overshadowed every other encyclopedia or information source in the world, because they do a nice job with it. So in parallel to WordPress, they are directly asking for help, and we see that with Fight For the Future.

Rob Howard: And I think the contrast is they accept money, so that is a thing that WordPress really doesn’t do very well right now, that I think would be a pretty low hanging fruit for them to do better or for us as a community to help WordPress do better. So Wikipedia is basically asking for donations, and then they’re taking those donations, they’re using it to fund their servers, they’re using it to fund their employees. They have a lot of contributors, the contributor environment is quite passionate and there can be drama in it but I also think that there seems to be much more coherent mission among the Wikipedia contributors. And I don’t think people are saying, “I’m going to go fork Wikipedia, because I’m mad about it”, but we are seeing that a little bit in the WordPress world.

Rob Howard: So Wikipedia probably is the most straightforward example of an open source project that is getting funded by money from donors, and then they also, similar to wordpress.com, have a for profit twist on the same idea where they’re making money directly, effectively as a software, as a service or ad sales ty...

Next Episode

A Look Back at WordCamp US 2022

WCUS 2022 has just flown past and by now our team has had ample time to reflect on the highs and lows of the first in person WordCamp US since 2019.

Top Takeaways

We experienced frustration with things like not having access to the recordings of talks, accessibility at the event, and clear signage for newcomers.
We loved the approachability and community at the event, the availability of the live stream, the sponsors swag, and so much more.

Press These Links

5 Days Without a Shower by Michelle Frechette
Some Things I Want to See at WCUS by Nyasha Green

Episode Transcript

Monet Davenport: Welcome to Press the Issue, a podcast from Master WP, your source for industry insights for WordPress professionals. Get show notes, transcripts, and more information about the show at masterwp.com/presstheissue.

Allie Nimmons: WordCamp US 2022 was just a few short weeks ago. A good portion of the Master WP team attended, some for the first time and we have all had time to think over the event. There was so much we loved about the conference and so much that we as active community members hoped to see improved upon in the future. Here are some WordCamp US thoughts from Brian Coords, Devin Egger, Amber Fritz, Topher DeRosia, Monet Davenport, and myself Allie Nimmons.

Brian Coords: I’m Brian Coords and WordCamp US 2022 was my third WordCamp, but my first WordCamp US. I’ll start with my least favorite thing, which was that I had to miss contributor day to get back to my family. I’ve seen some other ideas thrown around, but I would love to see a WordCamp that mixes the more passive sessions and the more active contributor time together in some way, maybe contributor mornings as a fun way to start each day than sessions in the afternoon or some other idea to break each of those up and bring that collaborative spirit through the entire conference. My favorite part about the conference is how approachable everybody is. I’ve had the benefit of, quote meeting many of the attendees online through Slack and Twitter, so I felt more comfortable approaching people, but in the past I’ve been to WordCamps when I was brand new and didn’t know anything and I was still given that same warm welcome. WordCamps feel like a community gathering more than just a trade show. So I really enjoyed that.

Devin Egger: Hey everyone, this is Devin Egger and this was actually my very first WordCamp ever. And so I was really excited to go to this and the opportunity to meet so many people in person in the WordPress space was just so exciting and so awesome to me. So many people that I’ve either worked with online or met online or watched their videos or taken their classes, it was just an awesome opportunity to meet these people in person and getting the chance to see everyone face to face really sets in the idea that it’s a community and that we’re all part of this WordPress community. And a good reminder that we’re really all in this together and we’re all here because we dig WordPress and we’re all about the same thing.

Devin Egger: So my least favorite thing coming back from WordCamp US actually came after the fact when I got home and I realized that all the workshops in the surf room weren’t actually recorded and available for future playback and I just didn’t have enough time to go see all the things that I wanted to see and get to attend all the events and the sections that I wanted to go to. And so I was really hoping when I got back home that I’d be able to catch the workshops that I missed and just a little bit bummed that I didn’t get to do that. But that being said, the ones that I did get to go to and participate in were very educational and I learned a lot more than I expected going into it. So I’m happy that I did get to go see the ones I got to see and I’m really excited to go to my next WordCamp.

Amber Fritz: Hi everyone, my name’s Amber Fritz. And WordCamp US 2022 was my first big WordCamp. The first one I went to was WordCamp San Diego in 2016, and that experience kind of turned me off of WordCamps to be honest. I think it was the location. The sessions that I wanted to go to were separated by the sponsor area by kind of fabric screens. So unfortunately I wasn’t able to hear what the speakers were saying because there was so much going on in the sponsor area, so much talking and I had a really hard time focusing. So unfortunately I didn’t go to another WordCamp until this year, but thankfully in the hotel it was a large space. Everything was really well separated, but I think being an introvert, large crowds are taxing on me, so I don’t think that I really went to as many sessions as I would’ve liked.

Amber Fritz: One of the pros about that is that some well sessions in two of the rooms wer...