Struggling to balance work and life as an IT professional?

If you struggling to maintain balance between your work / studies / personal life, you could use -> Prioritization -> Delegation -> Time Mgmt by using Calendar (block time for important tasks / studies etc) and follow it diligently. -> Seek Support (human / automation)

While I do not disagree in principle, we must recognize that each task “matters” to someone. This will create angst with those whose asks are prioritized as less than #1. The key here is to have the support of management to help shield those who are doing the work on a day to day basis.

What tasks have the greatest impact when completed or left undone? Start there! The to-lists will continue to grow, so will your inboxes and the group chats. Knock out the things that are going to be most detrimental or most impactful when complete first. Give yourself a mental break. Move on to the secondary level tasks and go from there.

Separate Work and Personal Time: Define clear work hours and follow them, and make time for yourself and family. Prioritize: Set reasonable deadlines for the most urgent tasks. Take Breaks: Breaks can stop burnout. Even short breaks can help you refresh and focus better. Exercise and eat healthy: This can make you healthier and more energetic, making stress easier to cope with. Use Technology Wisely: Use technology to be more productive but also disconnect to avoid being always available. Ask for Help: Reach out when you need help, whether it's sharing work or getting support at home. Employee Assistance Programs: Some organizations have programs to help employees with personal and work issues. Use them

As an IT Operations Manager your focus is always being called away for whatever is the current priority. Currently my best defense against this is protecting your calendar. This where your time gets eaten up is all the meetings that you are in taking away your focus from completing the tasks you need to. You can't be expected to work 9-5 day if you spend that whole day in meetings. That turns into you spending your personal time trying to work on everything else.

The boundaries that I set are if it's after hours those are for actual emergencies and only that. I also tell the team the same thing. If I send an email to you after hours it does not have to be handled till the next day. You do not abide by my schedule. Making sure that the people you work with understand that off time is your off time should help you keep the separation.

I have exercised many of these principles. I am nearer the end of my career than I am the beginning, but this is vital in my experience. Many will respond that “if I set boundaries then I fear being labeled as uncooperative or a poor teammate”. My response to this is if your organization fails you in this regard then perhaps you need to find another employer. While this is uncomfortable, one must prioritize self-care. Failure to do so leads to burnout and even illness, not to mention the potential for poor results.

Setting boundaries is crucial. First, establish clear start and end times for work, and stick to them rigorously. Avoid answering calls and emails outside of working hours. Delegate tasks whenever possible and learn to say no to excessive demands. Prioritize your well-being by reserving time for exercise, hobbies, and family moments. Take regular breaks throughout the day to prevent burnout. Remember, a healthy balance between work and personal life not only improves your quality of life but also enhances your productivity and professional satisfaction.

Delegation isn’t just about offloading work—it’s about empowering others. Encourage growth by giving team members ownership of specific areas.

Automation is great, can be a real time-saver and deliver great efficiencies across a business, however it’s not necessarily suitable for all tasks. Whilst we spend a lot of time helping businesses to automate their more time-consuming and mundane back-office tasks (and have deployed a lot of internal solutions to help our business run as smoothly as possible) there are certain tasks that I believe don’t lend themselves to automation, especially around upgrading software / patch management. If the recent CrowdStrike incident taught us anything it should be that automating patch deployment without suitable testing strategies (manual “eyes-on” in certain scenarios) is very high risk with potentially devastating results.

As IT folk we are inherent to looking for easier ways of doing things. Yes automate what you can be without that fix taking longer then actually doing the work. Not everything can be or should be automated. Choose the things that take away from important work but make sure that you have balances in place to check those automations are doing what they are programmed to do. Automated backups are great until you find out they broke a month ago and didn't know because you didn't check.

While I don’t disagree in principle, it is vital to understand (for leaders in particular) that automation does NOT fix everything. Automation WILL FAIL at times for a variety of reasons.

The ability to manage stress is going to be the saving grace in your life. Work/life balance is going to be key but finding ways to understand how you feel stress personally will help you find ways to shed that stress. I myself find because I sit in front of a computer all day long I need to do something the complete opposite which is woodworking. Building something with my hands with immediate results helps pull that stress out.

Stress is going to happen - there is no way around it either by denial or ignoring it. Knowing the causes and triggers of that stress allow you to better manage it, even using it as an advantage when managed well by taking the potential energy created and driving you and your team forward to a solution. Particularly relating to, but not at all limited to, Information Technology when a customer or client comes to you with a problem they are already stressed whether they say so overtly or no. By learning how to manage your reactions to stress and project assurance that you can find a solution you buy yourself immense confidence from your customer base that they made the right decision choosing you to be their partner

Use project management tools to organise & prioritise tasks efficiently. I implemented tools like Trello and Asana to keep track of ongoing projects and deadlines. For example, during a critical system migration, I created detailed task boards to assign specific responsibilities and timelines to team members. Set realistic goals and manage expectations to avoid overcommitment. I carefully assessed my workload & set achievable targets for both short-term and long-term projects. For example, I broke down a large infrastructure upgrade into manageable phases, setting milestones that were realistic given my time constraints.