Balance Revisited
Posted on 02 May 2008 by Sharon
Many of us try to balance our home lives with our freelance writing careers and most of the time we succeed. We manage to get breakfast for children and get them off to school, talk to clients, meet deadlines, collect children, supervise homework and tuck them up in bed. All without breaking a sweat (most of the time, anyway). Then there are the other times.
Those are the times where nothing goes according to plan. All of a sudden you are racing against the clock, trying to cram in all those essential tasks you thought you had left enough time for. As I’ve discovered, it doesn’t take much to derail the working day. An unexpected phone call can lose you half an hour or more. A public holiday in the middle of the week can wreak havoc on your schedule. And if someone drops by for coffee, you have to tear your mind away from the mound of work that you know will still be waiting for you at midnight.
So how do you find balance? I’ve written about this before because I face the same challenges. I have a five year old daughter who’s in school but with whom I want to spend time when she’s not. Time with friends and family is equally important. Sometimes you just have to look at the big picture, which is what I did after a frantic year where I was glued to the computer from morning till night.
I decided that I had to control the work rather than letting it control me. I decided that there had to be some sacred family time with my daughter, husband or mother (or all three at the same time.) I decided that there had to be time for exercise to look after my long term health. And I decided that there had to be time for friends, because the deal is that you support each other.
So how has that affected my freelancing career? The truth is that after the madness of my first year of freelancing (during which I also completed an international move), the succeeding years have been much saner. There are still times when I turn down social gatherings because of work pressure, but there are also times when I reschedule jobs to allow me to meet commitments to the people who are important to me.
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Tags | Features, freelance writing, wahm, work at home
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May 2nd, 2008 at 11:04 am
Sharon,
Are you actually taking less work? Or just not allowing it to dominate your thoughts like it did before? Just curious.
May 2nd, 2008 at 11:07 am
Bit of both, Mary. I used to say yes to everything and have learned to say no so that I can create balance. That also means that I actually have moments when I don’t think about work. It’s easy to get obsessed with the deadllines. I am also being more choosy about the type of work I accept and the pay rate, so that I work smarter rather than harder (a cliche, I know, but still appropriate.)
May 2nd, 2008 at 1:05 pm
After a year and a half of steady freelancing, this is the point i;m at now. Several times I thought I had it figured out, but then something sends my careful balance out of whack. I am determind to find that balance that lasts, so that freelance writing can be the real benefit it should be!
Thanks for the post, Sharon. Misery loves company and all that!
May 2nd, 2008 at 1:10 pm
There’s always something unexpected, isn’t there, Mary W? I guess the trick is to keep tweaking till you get it right.
May 3rd, 2008 at 6:17 am
Sharon,
I think your comment that you have moments when you don’t think about work is key. It’s not really balance if you take time to be with family if you’re worrying about the work you need to be doing instead of focusing on the family.
May 3rd, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Yes, Lillie, sometimes you have to let it all go for a while, but I think that’s one of the hardest lessons to learn when you first start freelancing.
May 5th, 2008 at 10:05 am
“Sacred family time” is a good way of putting it. When you set aside time, it gets done
May 5th, 2008 at 11:06 am
I think this is one of the things that many freelance writers overlook when they are getting into the business. They are so overjoyed by the thought of working from home that they don’t realize it is a constant grind. You have to pay for this privilege.
May 6th, 2008 at 9:12 am
All you have to do is walk away from the computer, Dave, and resist the urge to go back. Sometimes it’s hard, but it is worth it.
May 6th, 2008 at 9:13 am
Every privilege has some responsibility, doesn’t it, Eric?