How to Balance my work life and my blog life

This week I started a new job outside of the home working 8 AM to 4:30 PM.

My one question is, how on earth do I manage to balance my work life and my blog life?

The first thing I know I need to do is make a list of all the items I need to accomplish here at home away from the work-life. Things like ensuring the laundry get done, dishes, vacuuming, you know the usual household chores. Also, managing my crochet business which includes this blog. When will I find time to write to you? When will I be able to crochet for upcoming craft fairs? All of these things need to be addressed in my list of items to accomplish.

The next thing I will need to do is to be a sticky wicket and just stick to the schedule! Without this schedule, I’ll never get anything done, at work or at home. So, how do I decide what is most important, less important or what is even less important? What about bigger projects?

A List like this one:

  • What are my individual crochet/blog tasks?
  • When are bigger projects due?
  • Blog posts and when to schedule them
  • What days will I be writing?
  • What days will I devote to reading?
  • When will I find time to exercise?
  • How will I find time for errands and other chores?

Once I have narrowed this down, I will be able to better utilize the time I will have available to me after my work life from 7 AM to 5 PM- this includes travel time. Travel time is not free time. Regardless of whether you listen to your book or not, vigilance while driving is more important than that.

What is the method I will use to balance work and blog life? Here is one method that I think will work well.

The Pomodoro Technique

This technique works well for people with ADD, or those interrupted by small distractions…oooh, Look! A Squirrel! Yup, that’s me!

Source

Break larger projects into chunks

Breaking down larger projects into smaller ones is a great help too. Procrastination is a danger to many when faced with a larger project. When we procrastinate, we are just putting off negative feelings, the larger the project, the harder it is to avoid uncertainty and feeling overwhelmed. Like the feeling you may not know how to even get started; breaking that large project into smaller chunks will be a life saver, and time saver, for the procrastinator, like me!

For more information on this method, please visit The Pomodoro Method.

Going Forward

Learning to accomplish all of the important tasks I have is going to take some doing for sure! But, with my patience and understanding, working in little chunks instead of eating the elephant in one bite, I know I will be able to accomplish all of my goals!

Knowing that a good many things are out of my control is another area I will need to accept. I can’t be in control of everything at all times. There are just going to be things that will derail me, even if it is just a momentary derailment. Acceptance will be key.

So, if you do not hear from me for a few days, just know that I am doing all I can to make sure that I maintain a healthy work to blog-life balance.

Until Next Time.

Love Nana Dawn

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