[wedding]ton dc

growing up in the conservative mid-west, it's easy to believe washington dc is a horrible place to live, let alone visit.

thankfully, my second trip to the city, found me touring new areas, monuments and museums and reaffirmed to me how great the city truly is.

this trip found me atop of the washington monument, visiting the mlk, fdr and jefferson memorials, exploring the national building museum, the newseum, taking the metro, the nationals ballpark and fords theatre as well as eating in some amazing restaurants and bars.  as an added bonus, i also attended a beautiful wedding and made some wonderful new friends.  all of which helped skyrocket washington dc into my unofficial list of favorite place.

enjoy the pics.

midnight in the garden of [life] and [work]

is my work/life balance keeping me sane, ruining my career, or both?

in honor of labor day, this months #architalks subject is work/life.  to preface my situation; i am a licensed architect of two years, have a job i love with a wonderful firm.  i'm not married and don't have any children. i do have a long distance girlfriend, which is about the only factor i have in my own personal work and life equation.  i live two blocks from my office which makes for a wonderful and short walk everyday and also allows me to quickly stop by the office when i need to put in some extra time in on a project.

in general i'm very happy with the balance i've been able to achieve.  i work from 8 to 6 everyday.  when i'm at work i focus on the projects at hand, and when i'm at home i try not to have anything from the office interrupt my personal time.  when work takes priority, i'll stay later or get in earlier.  if a project requires me to work on a weekend, i'll make time for it.  that being said, if my personal life takes priority i'll let it.  thankfully my office let's us take 'flex' time for those situations and will even let you work from home if need be.  during working hours i'll take breaks to socialize with coworkers over a cup of coffee and sometimes when i'm out with friends i'll be thinking of a project, however for the most part i have my work life from 8 to 6 and my personal life filling anything after.

one change i made a few years back at a previous firm was not having my work e-mail sent to my phone.  i was getting e-mails from clients and bosses from all hours of the night, which would immediately send me into a panic reading it.  i decided to keep all 'work' communication on my 'work' computer, during 'work' hours.  we're not doctors, we're architects.  in the years i've been working, very few times has a situation happened which could be fixed in the middle of the night.  this has relieved a lot of stress in my life and has kept my morning commute peaceful.

that is my work/life balance.

discussing this months topic with co-workers i explained my balance.  oddly enough one said,

"you'll never advance in this career with a balance like that."

is that true?  do i have to be willing to work at any hour, in any situation, in order to advance in my career?  do i need to answer e-mails at midnight to succeed? is handling all my business during an 9 hour day not enough?  do i need to be constantly thinking about work in order to be good at work?

can one have a good work/life balance and still be successful?

more than any other previous topic i'm looking forward to the stories, experience and advice from the other bloggers in the #architalks network.

take some time and read other blogs from architects talking about their work/life balance, and if you have any advice for me, please leave a comment.  is my work/life balance keeping me sane or ruining my career?


other blogs in this months #architalks


Bob Borson - Life of An Architect (@bobborson)
Work | Life - Different Letters, Same Word

Matthew Stanfield - FiELD9: architecture (@FiELD9arch)
Work / Life : Life / Work

Marica McKeel - Studio MM (@ArchitectMM)
Work/Life...What an Architect Does

Jeff Echols - Architect Of The Internet (@Jeff_Echols)
The One Secret to Work - Life Balance

Lee Calisti, AIA - Think Architect (@LeeCalisti)
work | life :: dance

Mark R. LePage - Entrepreneur Architect (@EntreArchitect)
Living an Integrated Life as a Small Firm Architect

Lora Teagarden - L² Design, LLC (@L2DesignLLC)
#ArchiTalks: Work/life...attempts

Collier Ward - Thousand Story Studio (@collier1960)
Work/Life

Jeremiah Russell, AIA - ROGUE Architecture (@rogue_architect)
what makes you giggle? #architalks

Jes Stafford - Modus Operandi Design (@modarchitect)
Tuning It Off

Eric T. Faulkner - Rock Talk (@wishingrockhome)
Work/Life -- A Merger

Michele Grace Hottel - Michele Grace Hottel, Architect (@mghottel)
Work Life

Meghana Joshi - IRA Consultants, LLC (@MeghanaIRA)
Architalks: Imbalanced and uninterrupted

Amy Kalar - ArchiMom (@AmyKalar)
ArchiTalks #12: Balance is a Verb.

Michael Riscica - Young Architect (@YoungArchitxPDX)
I Just Can’t Do This Anymore

Stephen Ramos - BUILDINGS ARE COOL (@sramos_BAC)
An Architect's House

brady ernst - Soapbox Architect (@bradyernstAIA)
Brady Ernst - Family Man Since 08/01/2015

Brian Paletz - The Emerging Architect (@bpaletz)
Father, Husband, Architect - typically in that order

Sharon George - Architecture By George (@sharonraigeorge)
Work = 1/3 Life

Daniel Beck - The Architect's Checklist (@archchecklist)
Work Life Balance: Architecture and Babies - 5 Hints for Expecting Parents

Jarod Hall - di'velept (@divelept)
Work is Life

Anthony Richardson - That Architecture Student (@thatarchstudent)
studio / life

Lindsey Rhoden - SPARC Design (@sparcdesignpc)
Work Life Balance: A Photo Essay