The problem with having a bunch of Writing Mothers blogging here is that we're all in the same boat as far as work/life balance is concerned. :) The question I always seem to have is which part is life and which part is work? The waters get murky in this respect.
I mean, is laundry work? Yeah, but it's sort of life, too. And NaNo? Which side of the scale does it belong on when you are a writer? What about visits to the school to volunteer in the classroom? Well, I guess that one is life, but it usually happens during work hours.
Blogging?
Networking? (Either via Internet or coffee with writing friends)
Planning and scheduling?
Housework and shopping?
Backing up the hard drive (and/or otherwise fiddling with the computers)?
Reading magazines, newspapers, blogs?
Participating in your country's election process?
Volunteering for a church or other charitable organization?
Are any of those things firmly in one category or the other? I can't tell.
If the measure of "work" is defined by income produced, then I guess I can say I have a little bit of work and a whole lotta life.
That's not a bad deal. :)
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Work/Life Balance
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3 comments:
Let me know if you find a balance. LOL I would be interested in learning.
I've been trying to think about my feelings on this. I am not really a believer in "work/life balance". I think that you can't really separate the two. I'm me when I'm at my work, I'm me when I'm writing, I'm me when I'm a mom. I'm all things at once and there's really no difference. It's like saying "where does the writing occur: in my head as I'm doing dishes or when I put it on the computer screen?"
I'm with Heather in many ways - it's not as if there's a clear cut line. And that sounds so...argumentative ;) Sorry.
What I mean is I sat down this morning to work out how to do several things:
Backup and duplicate backup my photos (cause err, old backup drive SO dead that taking it out of the caddy and connecting it to another puter caused other puter to throw a tantrum that took me three hours to fix).
Write about two weeks of blog posts (cause there was the week I was cleaning(tm) and the week of my third decade celebrations (I wish I was kidding too).
Catch up on about a squillion email (again, wish I was kidding).
It's all WORK. It's all also 'life'.
As writers, part of our lives are automatically transplanted to being with our readers - most of us have readers online - ergo...
I think though, there's a difference between productivity and living. And in that field, I need help. Not the time management part, just the prioritisation part ;)
And Heather, the doozy for you is 'if the writing occurs in both areas, does this mean that I'm earning money whilst doing the dishes ;)'.
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