Balancing Life and Writing – Self Check-in

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My life has been more than a little bit hectic lately. I have been pushing myself mentally and physically to do my job at work. Last week, in 36 hours, I worked 24. I did 4 events in that time. Between Day 1 and Day 2, my brain reeled from one event to the possibilities of the next day’s success, or failure.

While the overtime gives some nice benefits, and some of the events I do can be nice to take in, I was running myself into the ground. I wasn’t sleeping well–my brain refused to turn off–and my body ached to the point I could only marginally move without pain. Worst of all, there was no room in my brain for writing, no physical stamina to even do some writing.

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So I took a step back.

I took a day off to center myself. I looked ahead at my schedule and looked to see what specifically I could cut in order to make room for my mental recovery and to not mess up my body to the point I needed to book emergency massages and lay still while pain medication took effect. So I’ve relaxed on some optional work commitments and let people know that I’m unavailable for some meetings this month.

Mostly, I looked ahead to see where I could make room for what I wanted to be doing: writing. Full time work with overtime is not a pleasant challenge to face when you want to be writing. But it means taking a step back from time to time in order to assess and judge whether or not you are really doing the best thing for yourself and your goals.

I set some goals at the beginning of the year, making sure to take my life and possible changes into account. And I won’t achieve those if I don’t make sure to set aside the time–and make sure that I am functional during those times. That’s what balancing life and writing is about.

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