The Business of Writing ~ Week Five
Week 5: Work/Life Balance
With everything you’ve read in the previous posts, it can be daunting to figure out how to get that all-important work/life balance. Here are five suggestions:
1. Get organized. You own your time. You decide whether to get online and post for thirty seconds or scroll for two hours. You are in charge of how many words you write in a day and when the best time is to do that. You know your regular work schedule and when your kids have after-school activities. Highly organized people get the job done and allow themselves time to decompress. It’s less about fitting in your writing and more about scheduling in your writing. The same goes for your promotion, website updates, and business affairs. The more organized you are, the more free-time you’ll have at the end of the day.
2. Be sure you’re doing this for the right reasons. In order to put in the massive effort it takes to be successful in this business, you must have passion. Assess: is this what you really want to do? Is it what gets you out of bed in the morning? It’s important to find your own path within this career that lights your fire. If it’s too much, if it’s overwhelming, if you disagree with how it’s done, get your thinking cap on and figure out what you want and then go for it!
3. Ask yourself how much each task is worth in terms of time. At the end of the day, you can’t do social media posts or author signings if you have no book to promote. Writing should be the first and largest chunk of time invested. Spend your minutes writing or reading about writing, honing your craft, editing, and developing marketable concepts (our next series, by the way!). Then, organize the rest around it.
4. Find space. Sometimes, all the hoopla that goes with publishing and an author’s career can create a lot of noise, clouding your mind and making the writing difficult. Other times, you’ll be pressed for time, under deadlines, and trying to do it all. It’s okay to step away and take some solitary time. Take walks, spend time in green space, listen to music, take baths, shut off from everything. It is in these spaces of time where you may find your best ideas, and it will also give you the rest you need to tackle the big projects ahead.
5. Be present. When you have family time, dates, and coffees with friends, it’s important to practice the skill of shutting off your work. You are no longer an author in these moments. You are a mother or father, girlfriend or boyfriend, and a friend. Focus on the people around you. Listen. Chat about things that are not writing/career related. Watch movies, read your favorite stories, and spend time doing things you love. It will energize you and give you stamina when you return to your work.
If you’ve followed all four of our previous lessons in this series, you are considering a lot of information! We’ve got a graphic to help jog your memory and to keep it all straight in your mind to get you on your way to success as an author! Join us next week for week one of our six-week series on how to create marketable stories. Happy writing!
© Jenny Hale