Lately, I’ve been in need of some guidance. Lucky for me, I have a mentor…for a little while. She’s really nice and helpful, and has given me some solid advice and direction.
One of the things I’m struggling with–that I haven’t brought up with her yet–is the balance between work and the rest of life. Writing from home is working from home, and thus boundaries are blurred. Do I clock in from nine to five? Can I work hours here and there? How do I resist the temptation to always be writing or editing or submitting or promoting or networking? I don’t know. I simply don’t know.
I want to put the first things first, but how much time am I supposed to give them? It’s making me feel like a clown juggling a dozen bowling pins. And the clown is bad at juggling, so they only stay up in the air for a split second, and are now scattered across the ground.
So I’m asking you, dear self-employed friends: how do you set boundaries and what should they look like?
Here are the things in my life, in no particular order:
- Work – which includes writing, editing, submitting, research, networking (blogging, tweeting, FB-ing, etc.), etc.
- Housework
- Family life (I’ll be helping my sister with my niece for a little while after Little Guy is born)
- Spiritual life
- Social life/friends
- Volunteer life (planning writing meetings, and then “teaching” them every-other week)
- Personal life (fun and reading)
How does one juggle? One pin at a time for so long (each day) I’d imagine. I guess I could set time for different things. I think I will.
Sorry. Thinking out loud.
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How do YOU deal with the distractions of life and juggling the necessities?
Keep your pen on the page,
Beth
Beth Overmyer 
Beth — Still working on that! I have a day job, with a fairly standard workday — so that defines itself. Chores have to get done, usually on a schedule. I have to define scheduled times for other things, too — I can manage time better if I’ve committed to it in advance. The somewhat eccentric result is that I end up doing a lot of writing and critiquing while I’m eating lunch or dinner. (What the Gilbreths used to call “unavoidable delay.”)
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Glad to know I’m not alone with the figuring it out thing! We’ll get there. Thanks for stopping by, Rick!
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I tend to organise on a weekly basis – how many hours per week will this thing take me? Then once I know that, I can better keep track if something is taking up too much of my time.
I also tend to write lists of tasks in order of priority, and give myself a certain number per day, so that if I get overwhelmed, I can always say, “It’s OK, I only need to do these things today”, but if I get more done, then awesome!
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Wow! You’ve got it down to a science, it sounds like. Wish I had as much discipline as you 🙂 I like the priority list bit–that’s what I’ve done, per a mentor’s suggestion.
Thanks for stopping by!
Beth
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I like to pretend I have it down to a science at least … the difference between theory and practice is that in theory, the plan will work in practice 😛
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