The Life of a Data Scientist
Working as a data scientist can be tough, challenging, draining, yet incredibly thrilling
Working as a data scientist can be tough. We face ups and downs in our workflow. With the project guidelines, clarity, deadlines, and sometimes with our peers, the communication can be challenging. Our personal life commitments and work-life balance can impact the positive energy and happiness we normally need to make a day successful.
When we don’t eat well, we eat heavy food saturated in carbs, carbohydrate meals like pasta and pesto before bedtime. The challenge of not having a repairing sleep results in fatigue at work, slowing down our efficiency and learning, and making everything harder.
Our personal life takes a big hit, our mental load increases gradually, and our ability to focus decreases progressively. This is indeed a vicious circle, and the cause and effect are due to poor eating habits, lack of hygiene, and lack of a strong work-life balance.
Not prioritising health and happy moments results in weaker commitment at work, mental clutter, inability to focus, higher mental distractions, etc.
As a data scientist, knowing what we do, focusing, and analysing what makes us happy can make a huge difference.
Step by step, by controlling our lives again, by (re)adopting good and consistent habits to keep ourselves energised, by avoiding heavy meals in the evening, by exercising our bodies often (e.g., jogging, walking, lifting weights).
On my personal experience, fasting between 18 to 20 hours increases my productivity. I wouldn’t do it daily, though. But something like two to three times a week gives great results.
And by increasing my productivity, I can achieve more in less time and feel more fulfilled in my life and professional growth.
Eating is a beautiful thing, but eating well, with lighter food like salads, makes a big difference. Eating ultra-processed or carbohydrate-heavy food can be enjoyable in the moment, but the consequences after eating are not worth it. The use of a meal snap app like this one could also help you be more aware.
We then feel less focused, more tired, more likely to be frustrated, more irritable, and find it more difficult to focus. That leads to more regrets, meaning more painful thoughts and more struggles during your work.
It is time to reflect on your habits, especially the negative ones: your posture, your attention, your language. Be careful with using a lot of sighs, reacting negatively, or complaining. Identify the patterns that hold you back. By noticing and fixing them, you can live a more balanced and happier life.
You will be stronger and better as a software engineer or data scientist.
Life is short. Applying good habits today really helps accelerate your progress as a software engineer and turn your career into a long-term, driven journey where your contribution and outcome of your work as a data scientist has a meaningful impact on your peers at work and on the company’s users.
Bringing more satisfying and helpful feelings of greatness.
When you can take access to Employee Stock Options (ESOP), your impact and skill will just be greater.
And I also suggest looking for rising companies offering stock options, rewarding your hard work, and making your passion truly your career.
Making your position or role more important than ever. Start today building and contributing to something big, while taking care of your health and habits, lifestyle and life balance.
Our health is essential for maintaining a clear and focused mind, which is necessary to analyse data effectively and accomplish meaningful results over time.
Clarity is what allows us to see the long-term vision behind our work.
What we achieve ultimately depends on our mental clarity. It acts as the runway that lets us turn vague or complex project requirements into stable, well-executed outcomes.
This clarity is the foundation for building reliable systems, clean models, and trustworthy insights. Without it, we risk moving back and forth due to a lack of clear understanding, poor context switching, or mental overload. These issues lead to “brain pollution”, reducing both learning efficiency and analytical performance.
Check out my GitHub for the open-source projects I’ve built over the years. Plenty of inspiration there. And there’s so much more coming on my LinkedIn! 🔥