If you're a lumberjack and your job is cutting down trees, when do you allocate time to sharpen the axe (or for that matter try out a newfangled chainsaw). Ear

If you're a lumberjack and your job is cutting down trees, when do you allocate time to sharpen the axe (or for that matter try out a newfangled chainsaw). Early in my career, I too worried about "unrelated" personal research or development. I'm at the point now that I'm fully comfortable with the fact that you have to go off and do unrelated / indirect work to maintain a high overall productivity - this is a fundamental part of the expertise for which you are being paid. Some employers are better about formally supporting and/or directing that development. But even if they don't formally do anything, allocating a judicious portion of your time to self-improvement falls in line with your self-interest as well as your employers interest. This includes time at work.