Apologies for the very late updates. For those of you following me on Instagram, you’ll know that I am currently in rehearsals for a production of Sweeney Todd. I am also going into our largest event at work. Needless to say, I’m being pulled in a multiple directions right now.
Needless to say, I’m busy.
Rehearsals are about an hour away and last 3 hours, 4 times a week. No writing or research on those nights.
And the nights I do have “off,” I usually have something else happening. That can be work-related things, weekend trips, or working the State Fair when a friend conned me into it.
Or, sometimes, like tonight, I get the chance to be at home and do nothing but wait for my laundry to come out of the dryer. So I have a little time to dash off a short post (since I was way overestimating the amount of time I’d have to keep up on blogging once rehearsals started). Or, sometimes I just crawl in bed and read.
But that brings up the question: How to balance multiple worlds you live in?
The past few weeks have been all about me balancing work, family, friends, performances, writing, and downtime. It’s hard. Very few of us writers actually can live without a day job. Plus, many writers I know also have a variety of other hobbies and habits. So how in the world do you keep this all up?
It’s simple. I don’t.
Right now, because I’m rehearsing for Sweeney Todd, my other singing and my writing has slowed down. Which is frustrating at times, but also necessary.
Instead of forcing myself to do it all, I’m stepping back. I’m taking a break to focus my energy where it needs to be at this moment.
And you know what?
There’s nothing wrong with that.
There’s nothing wrong with slowing down on my writing. On not finding those 10 minutes to write (let’s be honest, it takes more than 10 minutes for my laptop to boot up). There’s nothing wrong with shuffling around my workload to make sure I’m not overtaxing myself.
So what do I do when this happens?
Here are three tips for you to survive these times.
- Take a deep breath. Figure out why you have so much happening in your life and if you like it. Do you like being this busy? Is it temporary? Or do you have the ability to change things?
- Why don’t I have time? Is it because I’m legitimately busy? Or is it because I don’t want to do anything besides watch Netflix? Because if I just want to watch Netflix, that’s not a good enough reason and I need to buck-up-buttercup.
- Is it people who are pulling you away? Are they people who support you? Do they not know they’re pulling you away? Or do they not care? Because if the people love you, they’ll help you. You need to have time away from your writing and with your loved ones.
So remember, always keep focused and keep loving your life. You’ve got this.