Transitioning to Senior Dev: How to balance coding time with technical leadership?

I was recently promoted to a Senior Developer role, and I’m finding it hard to manage my schedule. My day is now packed with architectural reviews, mentoring juniors, and stakeholder meetings, leaving me with almost no time for actual deep work or coding. How do you guys manage to stay technically sharp without burning out from the constant context-switching and meetings?

The transition from individual contributor to lead is always a bit of a shock to the system. The trick is to block out no-meeting zones in your calendar specifically for coding or high-level architecture. As someone who spends most of my day navigating complex Jira boards and reviewing merge requests, I’ve found that mental fatigue is a real productivity killer. After a particularly heavy sprint planning session, I often take a short break on https://bet.bubblesbetuk.uk/ to clear my head and reset my focus before diving back into the codebase. It’s a nice way to decompress so I don't carry the stress of the boardroom into my technical work. Remember, your value now is in your decision-making and mentorship, not just your lines of code—but staying hands-on for at least 20% of your time is key to keeping your skills relevant!