So, there's this thing where I go in circles. I want to be active in the blogging world. I want to be active on Twitter. I want to have a clean house. I want to play with my kids. I want to finish my rewrite. I want to. . . . . . . and the list goes on. Balancing everything gets really touch and go some days. Like when baby girl is teething and doesn't want to be put down at all. Or when oldest boy is at preschool for 2 hours and I can only choose one or two things for my relatively free time. Or . . . . You all know how it goes.
So, my question for you, friends, is what do you do to balance? To prioritize? What's your secret to success?
8 comments:
I know exactly how you feel! For me, the only way to do the things I really want to do is to pretty much devote my days to my home and my kids, then my evenings to all that other stuff (crafting, blogging, writing, couponing, etc.). I assign one hobby to each day, then I am able to not fret during the rest of the week, because I know that I'll get to it on its day.
I know life can be pretty unpredictable, so sometimes scheduling is hard, but it's worked pretty well for me. :-)
Something always has to give. When I was trying to finish my WIP, I only blogged sporadically, and tweeted when I wasn't working on it (since I can tweet on my phone). Last summer, when I wasn't working on the WIP, just writing short stories, I was able to blog a lot more and visit other people's blogs as well. Nowadays, I'm lucky to have an hour to read blogs and leave comments.
I guess the thing for me is, NEVER feel guilty. At first, I worried that people would not like my sporadic presence, but I realized that they're just as busy as I am, and so they would understand.
Good luck!
For me there is no balance. I guess that sounds bad, but I'm okay without balance.
I've learned that over and over I put myself in situations where I can't possibly get done what I've set out to do, and instead of calling it a personality flaw, I've just realized that this is how I work best.
I just do what I can, when I can, and pray that nothing gets to "crisis" point.
SO, that's my chaotic non-balance, balance.
Probably not all that helpful.
Man, I don't have a secret to success. I'm like Jolene. I'm in survival mode most of the time, unfortunately. My writing goes in waves -- when I can't handle it, I drop it for awhile (like for a few days or a week). Laundry often piles up. Some weeks I make a lot of wonderful, from-scratch meals. Other times I do the quickest meals I can think of. It's a very tidal sort of balance. :) Maybe that's okay. So far it's been working, though my house is certainly never spotless! But I'm okay with that, and thankfully my husband is, too. I decided a long time ago there was more to life than housework. :)
Amy
Hello fellow ninja writer! I'm in the same boat. I suppose you have to have your priorities sorted out to keep from going insane. Me, I write/blog whenever I'm not day-jobbing, and as for housework? Bottom of the priorities list. I'll just nag the hubster to do it. :)
J.C.
Join me in the Trick or Treat Spooktacular! Could you help make the Grand Prize a brand new Kindle Touch?
It's always crazy! I try not to let things get me down though. If I don't get to a blog one week, I try to get to it next week. I try to prioritize the writing and the Real Life/living life thing the most.
So I was just on Ali Cross' site and then I see your picture and I thought, Wait! I know her!
So cool to find you. Look forward to following you on your journey. Are you going to be at the library on Saturday?
I do things in waves, taking the summer off from writing and focusing on the kids and field trips and whatnot. I hardly blogged or tweeted or anything. the house stayed fairly clean. Now I'm in a write-every-spare-mode, study writing (often on other's blogs mode.) I think I run on a 3-4 month cycle, if that makes sense.
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