Courtney Perkins
asked
Sean Gibson:
How do you balance your life with family, work and the work you do on good reads? I am having a hard time balancing my time.
Sean Gibson
Primarily by using copious quantities of cocaine to forego sleep.
Kidding! Thanks for the question, Courtney—I understand where you’re coming from. There is never enough time to do everything you want, and it’s frustrating to realize all of the things you’re not doing that you can or want to be, or to realize that you’re doing a less-than-stellar job on some of the things you are doing because you don’t have time to give them the care and attention they deserve.
I wish I could say that I’ve solved the problem through some ingenious solution—I tried cloning, but the FDA indicated that the process was not yet approved for use on humans, and NATO suggested that if there were two of me running around, the U.S. would likely face a coalition of nations trying to remedy that situation. I also tried a time-turner, but apparently I’ve got too much muggle in me (I blame my parents).
Ultimately, it’s a constant balancing act of prioritization—decide what is most important, devote the necessary time to that, and then let the rest fall in line behind it. My family is the most important thing in my life, so they get top priority, and then work comes second because, well, they pay me and I have to do it. That means that writing time is exceedingly minimal, so I have to jam it in however I can—currently, that means two small chunks of time during my commute each day (as I detail in the preface of The Chronicle of Heloise & Grimple). As kiddos get older and other life changes occur, I anticipate having more writing time, but until then, I’ll just keep juggling and racing from one thing to the next.
And using lots of cocaine.
Good luck with your own balancing! I have no doubt that you’ll find the optimal way to get done the things that are most important to you.
Kidding! Thanks for the question, Courtney—I understand where you’re coming from. There is never enough time to do everything you want, and it’s frustrating to realize all of the things you’re not doing that you can or want to be, or to realize that you’re doing a less-than-stellar job on some of the things you are doing because you don’t have time to give them the care and attention they deserve.
I wish I could say that I’ve solved the problem through some ingenious solution—I tried cloning, but the FDA indicated that the process was not yet approved for use on humans, and NATO suggested that if there were two of me running around, the U.S. would likely face a coalition of nations trying to remedy that situation. I also tried a time-turner, but apparently I’ve got too much muggle in me (I blame my parents).
Ultimately, it’s a constant balancing act of prioritization—decide what is most important, devote the necessary time to that, and then let the rest fall in line behind it. My family is the most important thing in my life, so they get top priority, and then work comes second because, well, they pay me and I have to do it. That means that writing time is exceedingly minimal, so I have to jam it in however I can—currently, that means two small chunks of time during my commute each day (as I detail in the preface of The Chronicle of Heloise & Grimple). As kiddos get older and other life changes occur, I anticipate having more writing time, but until then, I’ll just keep juggling and racing from one thing to the next.
And using lots of cocaine.
Good luck with your own balancing! I have no doubt that you’ll find the optimal way to get done the things that are most important to you.
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