Work Comes Second Posted on November 30, 2007 Vishwajit Nimgaonkar (bio) advises paying close attention to your personal life.

I think it’s a challenge, and there’s never enough time. So that’s always the problem. But I think one has to remember that there are very important domains in one’s lives that one has to pay attention to, and I tell my colleagues all the time that their personal life is terribly important.

So if they find that their work is impacting on their personal life, then something is wrong. Something has to be done about it. So I think one’s personal life should be the first thing in one’s existence. And the work should come second. I’ve been very lucky, because I have a very supportive family, and they understand how important this work is for me. And so they are always willing to make trade-offs or sacrifices, and it works out. We muddle along somehow.

When I was single, when I was not married, it was very easy, because I could roll off the bed and go to the lab. And I used to work extremely hard. After marriage and after having children, things change. And one has to realize that. The other problem is that one gets older, so one has less energy.

But again, I think it ends up that one has to really change one’s goals or modulate one’s goals and make sure that one can achieve what one wants to do within those kinds of limitations. We have to remember also that if you are happy, we are much more likely to be productive. So if our personal life is good, then that’s going to be good for our work too.

« Back to Article